Lazy Dog Expands Amid Tough Casual-Dining Segment

Lazy Dog Restaurant & Bar is expanding its footprint, adding a second restaurant in the Dallas area, planning a third in Texas and moving into Northern California, founder and CEO Chris Simms said last week.

As competition intensifies in the casual-dining segment, Lazy Dog has carved a niche with dog-friendly patios, a distinctive mountain-lodge décor, a vibrant bar that serves to midnight and extended weekend brunch hours.

The Huntington Beach, Calif.-based brand earlier this month debuted a new 9,356-square-foot Lazy Dog in Plano, Texas, bringing the brand’s total to 21 units in California, Nevada and Texas.

Simms said a third Texas unit will open Jan. 9 in Euless, Texas, and the company will open a restaurant in Folsom, Calif., northeast of Sacramento, soon thereafter.

Simms said the newer units are at least 8,000 square feet with patios. The planned Euless restaurant will cover 9,392 square feet with additional patio seating.

“Our concept is definitely a suburban concept, so we have to have enough room to fit everybody in on Thursday, Friday and Saturday,” said Simms during a walk-through of the Plano restaurant.

“The sense of our concept is ‘family-to-table,’ so want to be the family place,” Simms said. “This Plano location has a large number of households with families and a strong sense of community.”

To further appeal to the suburban consumers, Lazy Dog has been expanding its brunch hours on Saturdays and Sundays with earlier openings in many locations.

 

Read the full articles:

Lazy Dog Expands Amid Tough Casual-Dining Segment (Nation’s Restaurant News)

A look at growing casual-dining chain Lazy Dog (Nation’s Restaurant News)