At just 35, Alan Bubbus of Little Rock is serving up a thriving chain of restaurants -- an endeavor he'd grown up around but always planned to avoid.
The restaurateur with real estate interests in a second company, David's Real Estate LLC, founded his restaurant business in summer 2010 and began serving burgers, fries and more at his first restaurant on Skyline Drive in Conway that November.
Instead of settling into his eponymous burger shack, he turned around and opened a second one.
In summer 2011 that second location -- at Markham Street and Bowman Road in Little Rock -- was up and running.
In fall 2012, he opened a third location on Landers Road in North Little Rock in a shuttered steakhouse.
In 2013, the restaurant's food truck (these days just used for catering and large events) took to the road. That fall, on Black Friday, Bubbus opened a David's Burgers at the food court inside Park Plaza.
And he hasn't slowed down. He went to law school at night, graduating last May; and meanwhile, he opened two brick-and-mortar restaurants: one in Maumelle and one in southwest Little Rock (adjacent to the Bass Pro Shops). Next month he plans to debut in Cabot, and by the summer open another embedded operation in the River Market's Ottenheimer Market Hall (the former Boulevard Bread Co. space).
"We're working through the design review with the city right now to make sure it fits with the historic nature of the River Market," Bubbus says.
Most of these ventures involve land deals, thus the real estate company. For instance, the Cabot launch next month began with the purchase of 4.4 acres in the city. On it, the company's built a two-tenant facility, and the end opposite the restaurant will be an Express RX drugstore. "And we'll develop another two acres next to it."
A second Conway location at the new Sam's Club off Dave Ward Drive is also in the works.
"This year's been a huge year for us," Bubbus says of the business.
"I think we could go to 12 stores within the next two to three years," he says.
Meanwhile, "we need to be in Saline County," he says.
Is he aiming to become a larger statewide, regional or national restaurant chain?
"The amount of growth depends on our team," he says.
"We can continue to grow as long as we don't lose our purpose and the values that have gotten us where we are now," he says. "Right now, we're just in a few counties and I can go to each one and be hands-on, and they know us by name and we have a personal relationship with these guys and girls."
Bubbus was born in Pine Bluff where his father, also David, was in the restaurant business. In 1983, when Alan was just 3, he left it to raise cattle, turkeys and hogs on 360 acres in Oak Grove (the one in Pope County, near Atkins).
"I don't know of a better place to have grown up -- riding four-wheelers, shooting guns and raising animals."
His father had helped spread Chicken Country franchises in Arkansas and a few in East Texas and Mississippi -- as an owner-entrepreneur of a few but primarily as a professional start-up guy. His own father had died when he was small and by 5, he was working for Johnny Jacobs' Meat Market in Levy in North Little Rock. At 16, he had become a master butcher and at 19 was managing his first restaurant, the JaMar in Pine Bluff. In 1967, he opened his own restaurant, El Matador Mexican restaurant in Pine Bluff.
David's Burgers are dubbed Butcher Boy burgers in honor of David Sr., who, while he isn't an owner of the restaurant, dons the apron and works in the self-appointed title of "coach."
Alan Bubbus grew up first in Oak Grove and later Russellville. He played football, breaking his leg in the process, and was a co-valedictorian in his class.
He graduated from Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., in 2003 with no plans to follow his father into the restaurant business. He'd seen firsthand how hard that career path was. He wanted to major in engineering but later began taking business classes and switched to math and economics.
His junior year, he joined the Vanderbilt football team for about six months -- the time they largely don't play football, February to August.
"I was hoping to play defensive back," Bubbus recalls, but he suffered heat stroke and kidney failure following an exhaustive summer workout, had to be hospitalized, and reluctantly gave up the sport.
Incidentally, the quarterback at the time was Jay Cutler, now the Chicago Bears' starter.
'LIKE A SPORT'
After graduation in 2003, Bubbus joined Maxim Healthcare Services. For about a year he recruited nurses for clinics and health systems. Believe it or not, he attributes some of his burger business philosophy to the competition he saw then.
"They set us up to compete against one another; they made it like a sport," he recalls. "Our staff here is highly competitive, has a greater level of respect and opportunities to lead," and the company promotes from within. (Conversely, "if you're coming in and want to ease on by, it isn't the place for you.")
After that, he switched to banking and became a home mortgage consultant at Wells Fargo in Nashville. About two years later, he joined Bank of the Ozarks as an assistant vice president of commercial lending but lost his job in 2009 when the economy declined. Soon afterward, he found another job at Arvest as an appraisal officer.
Bubbus and his wife, Jessica Gartman, whom he'd met in 2006 after college in Little Rock, were expecting their first child, and he'd been accepted into law school, when Bubbus' cousin Richard Wilson, who owns CJ's Butcher Boy Burgers in Russellville, encouraged him to get into the restaurant business while the family was vacationing in Key West during Christmas 2009.
"He told me I was an idiot for not opening a restaurant," Bubbus says. "He told me my dad had all this experience in that area and he could help."
David Bubbus said if Alan could get a bank loan for this business plan, he'd help him execute it.
It was the younger Bubbus' can-do attitude that gave Chip Blanchard, president of First State Bank in Russellville, the confidence to make that initial loan, and "I've known Alan pretty much my whole life, we grew up down the street from one another."
In high school, Bubbus was a year behind Blanchard and "maybe 5 foot 7 or 8 and maybe 160 pounds -- and played linebacker for the football team," Blanchard recalls. "He was the only one who didn't realize he wasn't this really big guy," and that has carried over into his entrepreneurialism.
"We [at the bank] didn't know how the burger business was, but we did know that he was going to pay us back," Blanchard says.
The senior Bubbus, who lives in North Little Rock, says he taught his son a lot about the restaurant business but that the younger Bubbus brings much more to the table, referring to his son's knowledge of finance, banking, real estate and now the law (he is a 2015 graduate of the W.H. Bowen School of Law at University of Arkansas at Little Rock).
"Everything he's done, he has always done his best," he says. "He's always tried to be a pleaser and do the very best that he can; he always made straight A's in school, never a B, and while he wasn't a star athlete, he always won the 'hustle' award."
He adds that the time he has spent working with his son has only served to strengthen their bond.
"If you really want to know your kids, you need to work side-by-side with them," he says. "I would suggest that for any father or mother. We had a few conflicts along the way early on but we wound up as good friends."
Bubbus opened his first David's Burgers in Conway in late 2010 shortly after the birth of his first son, David, now 5. Today, Bubbus has three more sons -- Evan, 9, and Ethan, 8, whom he and his wife adopted; and Moses, 10 months -- and six restaurants with more than 200 employees.
The father and son believe quality is the key to success.
QUALITY MEAT
"Hamburger meat was used as a way to get rid of the trimmings, and over time that's been really abused," Alan Bubbus says.
For those who tout 100 percent beef burgers, "the standard has never been 100 percent," he says. "All you're saying is, 'This is a cow,' and our standards need to be higher."
At David's, the standard for beef burgers is 100 percent Grade A chuck. "You're not getting scraps or leftovers," he says.
The business model is what's often called "fast-casual." All of the speed, price and convenience of a fast-food restaurant but better food, sometimes with table service. At David's, the french fries are cut fresh from whole potatoes and the food order is delivered to the table for dine-in customers.
"You order immediately and sit down and we do everything else and bring you fresh fries while you're waiting," he says.
Since his restaurants have opened, the wholesale price of beef has gone up 25 percent, but Bubbus says he has raised prices just 5 percent. "We offer a burger, fries and a drink for $7.99." At that price, they're welcoming as many as 5,000 hungry diners a day (perhaps 125,000 a month) at one of their six locations.
"Right now, we're at a million dollars a month in sales."
In two or three years, it'll be $2 million or more, Bubbus says. They aim to reach $25 million annually.
"We don't have any secret sauce," he says. "It just comes down to doing the basic things very well."
MAN ON A MISSION
"If you mess up 10 percent of the time -- for us, that's 500 people a day you failed. And if you only fail 1 percent of the time, that's still 50 people whose burgers you messed up. Is it OK to have that many people have screwed-up hamburgers?"
The way Bubbus views his business, he may sell burgers and even chicken but he's trying to offer a lot more on the side than just those fries. He's also training and mentoring employees -- mostly, but not exclusively, young people. That's an act of worship, he says. It's a spiritual mission.
And there's a multiplier effect. These young people may become lieutenants in the mission.
"If someone snaps at you because you left the pickles off their burger, they are not really mad about that but instead they are mad at life.
"I tell the employees, 'We are going to have broken people coming in -- those with broken hearts, relationships, finances, or loved ones who are sick -- some of our restaurants are near hospitals -- and we can't fix that for them. But [we can] smile at them and make their day a little better."
Bubbus works 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 8 a.m. to 8 or 9 p.m. Friday and Saturday. An average day for him includes spending several hours in the morning dealing with email and administrative work before working in the various restaurants every day during the lunch rush. He also works in the restaurants during dinner on Fridays and Saturdays. All of his restaurants are closed on Sunday.
Bubbus and his family attend Geyer Springs First Baptist Church and he recently traveled to India on a mission trip with the church. His business donates food to churches and nonprofit organizations. He and his wife also support and volunteer with their children's school, Little Rock Christian Academy.
Bubbus says the support of his wife is one of the key ingredients to their business flourishing so swiftly.
"She deserves a lot of the credit for this; taking care of the children and the home and allowing me the time to work here and to go to law school several nights a week. I could not have done it without her."
While Jessica keeps the home fires burning, she also helps with the business in times of need.
"When we lost our accountant, she stepped in and did that for about three to six months," he says of his wife, who previously worked as an accountant. "And she's also great with opening new stores and is an excellent sandwich dresser."
He adds that his mother, Diane, has always been supportive as well.
"She has always instilled a huge amount of confidence in me," he says. "She was always telling me that I was great. She has always been my cheerleader and my wife has continued to do that as well. Whenever things got tough and I'd get discouraged they would tell me, 'You can do it,' and I would keep going."
SELF PORTRAIT
Alan Bubbus
DATE AND PLACE OF BIRTH: Sept. 9, 1980, Pine Bluff
MY FIRST JOB: Dishwasher at my dad’s restaurant, the Italian Garden in Russellville, in the early 1990s
MY WORST JOB: I haven’t had one; I have really enjoyed every one.
MY TRADEMARK EXPRESSION: “Get your mind right.”
ALL-TIME FAVORITE MOVIE: It’s a Wonderful Life
THE LAST BOOK I READ: How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
MY LAST MEAL WOULD BE: Not a burger. A bone-in rib-eye. I’m a steak man.
MY FAVORITE WAY TO DRESS A BURGER: With everything, no pickles and no mustard.
I WANT MY CHILDREN TO REMEMBER the amount of work and sacrifice it takes to become successful. And that no matter what they do and how they do it that I’ve instilled in them that faith in Christ.
THREE PEOPLE I’D INVITE TO A FANTASY DINNER PARTY: My dad’s father, Gus Bubbus, who died when my dad was a child, Abraham Lincoln and Vince Lombardi.
ONE WORD TO SUM ME UP: Persistent
High Profile on 02/21/2016