What's Sweet About Savory Fund

If you’re lucky, once in your career you get the opportunity to do something truly special. And if you’re even luckier, you get to do it with some truly special people. That’s why I’m so excited about my next endeavor: The Savory Fund.

Previously, I spent more than 10 years building Four Foods Group and a restaurant portfolio across 10 states, with 170 locations and 5,500 employees. I wouldn’t have been able to achieve that without the amazing team of professionals and industry veterans I had around me. At Four Foods we developed proprietary systems, practices and a playbook for growth that I’m really proud of. The value add team was the most impressive part of this business and I was honored to work alongside them. 

We provided opportunities for dozens of restaurant operators, and experienced year-over-year growth of 40% for over a decade. It's been a fun and wild ride. 

A New Partnership 

I’ve always viewed myself as an operator. However, part of my entrepreneurial ventures have required that I invest into new ideas, growth and even people. I’ve built, bought, partnered and sold businesses in and out of the food and beverage industry my entire career. So, when I met Greg Warnock years ago, managing director of Mercato Partners (who’s spent 30+ years in venture capital), naturally, we hit it off. 

Greg has a proven history of building and growing companies and has launched several businesses in technology, consumer goods and marketing. He’s an absolute legend in every sense of the word. Paired with my past experience in the food and beverage industry, it was clear we had a unique and timely opportunity to work together. From there, Savory was born. 

Creating Savory

Savory is a $90m Mercato Partners fund, and one of the four different practices under the umbrella. We are investing in successful and profitable, yet undiscovered restaurant concepts with 2-9 units already in the ground across America.

I joined Mercato Partners as Managing Partner and Co-Founder of Savory. Together with our team of experienced industry professionals, our value add team creates the winning formula for any brand founder who wants to scale their brand to new levels.  

Thousands of restaurant brands have built winning concepts with a promising mix of culture, incredible people, and of course a little bit of luck. But launching a new restaurant concept from one to three units is much different than scaling a restaurant to dozens of locations in multiple states. To support this kind of growth, capital and expertise are essential to creating lasting value. We have that playbook and the capital to back it.

Savory’s current portfolio includes popular restaurant concepts Mo’Bettahs, R&R BBQ and Swig, with 46 locations in different stages of development. Strong portfolio performance from these three restaurant brands demonstrates Savory’s ability to identify and grow successful concepts, and to do so profitably. This remarkable growth has continued throughout, and in spite of, the economic fallout of the recent pandemic. The Savory value add team thrived during a time when most were just trying to survive.

Who We Are

Savory Fund’s investment engine provides its brands with enough cash to weather economic uncertainty and continue key investments into future growth; which is highly uncommon among emerging restaurant brands. With a well-documented track record and decades of relevant experience, our value-add team delivers pivotal resources critical to the establishment of successful processes for emerging multi-unit concepts. This team offers a proven system for restaurants to reach their full potential, including:

1. Growth-stage expertise
2. Real estate development, design, construction and management
3. Team recruiting and leadership training
4. HR, Payroll, Benefits Administration
5. Vendor management and contract negotiation
6. Marketing and social media messaging
7. Finance, operations and fiscal oversight
8. Technology implementation and support

Timing is Right

Like many industries, the food and beverage industry has been hit hard these past 3 months. Dining behaviors have changed in ways both temporary and permanent as a result of COVID-19. Many community favorite restaurants will not survive, and those losses are heartbreaking to us all. 

We are proud to be putting money back into this industry. From our perspective, there are signs of light at the end of the tunnel. Businesses that struggled to ride out this crisis are starting to reopen. Some day very soon, we’re all going to want to have a date night, family night, or friends outing at a restaurant again. We look forward to helping restaurants fully open their doors and grow again. Innovate again. And yes, thrive once again. 

What’s Next

We’re looking for promising fast casual and polished-casual restaurant concepts that have their sights on something much bigger. We want to share our playbook and our resources with them. I love this industry and what it stands for. I can’t wait to see where we are all headed.

If you touch this industry, I look forward to meeting you. 

Visit us at savoryfund.com