Barnhill's Buffet: Small Southeastern concept looking to compete with bigger chains readies new locations, plans to go public

Nation's Restaurant News, Jan 28, 2002 by Whit Smyth

In the battle of the buffet concepts, Barnhill's Buffet is a small player with big ambitions.

With 40 restaurants in eight states, the Pensacola, Fla.-based chain plans to add eight new units in each of the next five years. And over the long haul president Steve Barnhill wants to grow as large as some of the big boys, like 460-plus-unit Golden Corral and 300-plus-unit Ryan's Family Steak House.

"Yep, that would be a long-term goal," he says.

For the next few years, however, Barnhill will focus on expanding primarily in Florida.

"Our customer base is pretty broad, from laborers to physicians," he notes, "but we tend to do really well with the older demographics. Senior citizens really love us. They come in maybe three, four or five times a week."

Pensacola resident Henry Smith, 73, is one such customer. He and his wife, Loretta, eat out once a month, and it's always at Barnhill's, even though other buffet restaurants are closer.

"I like the variety you get in a buffet," says Smith, who lives on a fixed income. "If you're not hungry at first, you can wait and go back. Plus everything is included. They don't add on extra for dessert." Barnhill launched his buffet concept in 1991 after years of being a Western Sizzlin' franchisee.

"In the 1980s I had as many as 11 Western Sizzlin' stores," he recalls. "But all of us -- Western Sizzlin', Quincy's, Ryan's -- kind of just got eaten up by the competition."

In those tough times Barnhill noticed that sales, especially at Ryan's, were being driven more and more by the buffet. In 1991 he converted a Western Sizzlin' in Pensacola to a buffet, called it Barnhill's Country Buffet and opened for business.

"It really took off from day one and got better week after week," he says. "Today that store does over $3.5 million annually and is still our No. 1 location."

Every Barnhill restaurant is company-owned and serves lunch and dinner. The average check is just under $7, and average annual unit sales range from $2.25 million to $2.3 million. A typical store seats 285 people, although newer models will seat between 300 and 340.

At the heart of the Barnhill's Buffet concept is Southern-style food. Chuck McCants, director of operations, says: "We offer a truly authentic Southern-style buffet. If you grew up in the South, our turnip greens and collard greens taste just like your grandmother used to make. It's the same with our pot roast, fried chicken and any of our vegetables."

But will that Southern style play well in the North if the chain follows its aggressive expansion schedule? Barnhill thinks it will.

"Down here in Florida we have many people from the North, and they love the food," he says. "If they love it here, they'll love it up North."

In addition to expanding, Barnhill also plans to go public in a few years. And even though he is a former franchisee, Barnhill doesn't plan to franchise. "I saw too many bad franchisees; you couldn't control them," he says.

Barnhill's Western Sizzlin' days taught him some valuable lessons that he has applied to his company. First among them was the idea that one should focus on the food.

"We're really big on food quality and spend from 42 percent to 43 percent of sales on food costs, which is a high number," he says, noting that, to the best of his knowledge, Ryan's and Golden Corral both run around 38 percent.

Like everyone else at Baruhill's, McCants talks first about the food. He joined the chain five and a half years ago after stints at Bennigan's, California Pizza Kitchen and Lone Star Steakhouse. He's worked in both the full-service side of foodservice and the buffet side, and buffet is a bigger challenge, he says.

Keeping the food fresh and looking good on the buffet table is crucial, he notes.

"It's been said that guests eat with their eyes, so in a buffet setting the buffet itself becomes the customer's plate," he says. "It's a continuing challenge for us to cook food in smaller batches and keep it turning."

Good service and a smile also are important, adds McCants, but "getting the food to look and taste good is so critical. You can't stress it enough."

Equally daunting is the challenge for the buffet wait staff. According to McCants, in a typical full-service restaurant, servers might have three tables plus someone to help bus. They might hit a table two or three times.

"But in the buffet setting" he explains, "servers may have six tables, which they must constantly keep clean since customers return again and again to the buffet. Servers will stop by your table eight to 12 times and probably still get a lesser tip than those on the full-service side."

The Barnhill's staff was challenged anew in December when its latest store opened to rave reviews in Sebring, Fla. Barry Foster, a reporter for the Sebring News-Sun, said the restaurant was packed, and the parking lot was full during the first week.

"I think this concept will do really well here," he says "But, of course, the test comes in May and June when the part-time residents head back north."

To area supervisor Jack Armstrong from South Carolina, it's inconceivable that anyone could bypass Barnhill's in quenching appetites.