![]() ![]() Maple Street grew to 28 stores and five franchises. They moved the headquarters last year from co-work space Downtown to Orange Park. They invested at least $50,000 into building-out and equipping the first Maple Street restaurant that opened in November 2012 at 2004 San Marco Blvd., where it continues to operate. Evans was experimenting and substituted maple syrup for sugar and that was that. They set up a meeting at Starbucks and decided Moore’s idea of creating a restaurant focused on comfort food with a modern twist had promise.įriends taste-tested buttermilk biscuit recipes weekly at Moore’s Avondale home. “I said I’d like to know the last half of my life had more impact than the first half,” he said.Įvans, then 33 and married with two young sons, lost his construction job during the recession and was considering a relocation to an opening out of town. Human resources told him there was a smaller role he could post for and keep his compensation, but he turned it down. as it merged with Bi-Lo LLC in March 2012 to form Southeastern Grocers. Moore, then 51 and married with three adult children, left as a vice president of Winn-Dixie Stores Inc. The Maple Street story started from scratch. He estimates it will take six months to plan the next steps toward expansion.Ĭoffee cups line the counter at the San Marco restaurant. ![]() We have just been trying to learn as we go,” he said. Neither Gus or I had restaurant experience. We have been this scrappy startup trying to find our way forward. “We have the autonomy to do what we do, but she is committed to provide the resources to move into more communities,” he said. The news release Friday said the company targeted annual sales of more than $1 million per store. Moore declined to disclose Maple Street’s sales. It forecasts up to $3.2 billion in revenue for the current fiscal year. It reported revenue of almost $3.1 billion for the 2019 fiscal year that ended Aug. Major reasons include that Maple Street remains a standing brand Moore remains as CEO and the leadership and store team continue “leading the charge.”Ĭracker Barrel is far larger. “As a team we talked about it and said this is the right step.” Moore said it took several months of talking with Cracker Barrel “to get to know each other well and realized there was significant alignment.” Until then, “We said no to everybody but we kept finding ourselves saying yes to Cracker Barrel.” “During that process I made contact with Cracker Barrel and there seemed to be some interest on both sides,” Moore said. It hired the Minneapolis-based Piper Jaffray investment banking group about seven months ago to clarify the picture. ![]() Then Maple Street started looking for a partner the past year. ![]() He said the team talked to them, primarily to understand what they proposed, or “what that looks like.” “We had a lot of people over the years reach out to Maple Street to say we want to invest in or buy you,” Moore said. It has a breakfast menu heavy on biscuits and a chain of seven Holler & Dash Biscuit House stores in five states that will be converted into Maple Street.Ĭracker Barrel wasn’t Maple Street’s only suitor - 20-25 entities expressed interest the past few years - but it was the chosen one. Lebanon, Tennessee-based Cracker Barrel is publicly traded and operates 660 restaurants in 45 states. Opened in 2012, it was the first of 33 locations. The Maple Street Biscuit restaurant as it opened Tuesday morning in San Marco Square. ![]()
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