Interface: David Anderson

�Famous Dave� is back, this time creating two new restaurant concepts. For now, they�re part of a waterpark resort complex, but don�t be surprised to see them grow into chains.

By Derek Gale -- Restaurants & Institutions, 7/15/2007

"I don’t consider myself a foodie, I’m just a person who loves food—I think my pant size shows it," says Dave Anderson, founder (in 1994) and chairman emeritus of Minnetonka, Minn.-based Famous Dave’s Legendary Pit Bar-B-Que and among the founders in 1994 of Rainforest Cafe. In 2003, President Bush appointed Anderson—who is a Native American—Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs in the Department of the Interior. He stepped down from the post in 2005 to again pursue entrepreneurial opportunities.

Q. Tell me about Key Lime Cove Water Paradise & Meeting Resort and its two restaurant concepts.

A. The strength of Key Lime Cove (opening in March 2008 in Gurnee, Ill.) is that we are starting out where the amenities, such as the restaurants, are fully thought-out visions in their own right. Every amenity has its own separate business plan. We designed [them in such a way that] if we were not doing the waterpark, we could go out and expand each of these concepts across the country.

Q. I understand you’ve been working on both restaurant concepts—D.W. Anderson’s Eatery & Ice Cream Parlor and the Crazy Toucan Margarita Grille—for quite a while.

A. The Crazy Toucan Margarita Grille I’ve been working on for about five years, but D.W. Anderson’s I’ve been working on for about 10 years. I have traveled everywhere, going to mom-and-pop drive-ins, old-fashioned eateries and ice cream parlors. And I actually built out a full-scale model in a pole barn in northern Wisconsin. One of the things I learned from Famous Dave’s is that it’s very important when opening a concept to try to work out all the bugs up front.

I was excited to see the vision come together, to play with the signage [and] the seating arrangements. It’s one thing to work with architects and interior décor people. This wasn’t like that; this was taking actual furniture and equipment and getting the concept visually down and being able to work on menu items—to sit in an actual booth and taste menu items.

Q. What were your culinary inspirations for Crazy Toucan Margarita Grille?

A. The whole Key Lime Cove concept is really an American coastal concept. It is best described by the Beach Boys song "Kokomo." We’re a cross between the Beach Boys and Tommy Bahama. I don’t want to be confused as some type of Trader Vic’s or Roy’s: We’re not a Polynesian concept. We’re like something you might find in Florida’s Key West.

In working on Crazy Toucan, I’ve been to towns on the American coast and many islands researching tropical dishes and drinks. So we have some fun menu items such as coconut-crusted shrimp, fish tacos and teriyaki chicken wings. Anybody who knows me knows I’m a real stickler for having great sauces and great seasonings. We’ve got some things that will knock your socks off. Anybody who loves full flavors, robust flavors and spiciness will love Crazy Toucan.

We’ve also been spending a lot of time on our frozen drinks. We’ll be positioning those as a paradise vacation in a glass.

Q. What makes D.W. Anderson’s different from other old-fashioned eatery/ice-cream parlors?

A. We’re about creating that hometown feel—that village square—the heartland of America. And when you walk into D.W. Anderson’s, you’re not going to feel like you’re in a chain.

We will be making our own ice cream and sauces for the ice creams—you wouldn’t believe how many different places we went to to taste sauces. We’ve been playing with ice-cream creations day after day, putting a scoop of ice cream on everything conceivable.

D.W. Anderson’s will have fun burgers: olive burgers, blue-cheese burgers, Western burgers.

All the food will be made from scratch. One of my hallmarks has been to develop food using the freshest ingredients possible, so our meats and our seasonings will be freshly ground and our fruits and veggies will be as fresh as we can get.

One of the chains I’ve really admired has been In-N-Out Burger. One thing everyone will tell you they like about In-N-Out is that everything is fresh. Fresh-cooked foods made from scratch using the freshest ingredients—I think that’s really important.

Q. Hamburgers are more popular than ever, and you will offer burgers at both Crazy Toucan and D.W. Anderson’s. Are burgers a necessity?

A. The burgers are going to be different. Crazy Toucan will have pineapple burgers and all the fun burgers like that. But if you look at the concepts, both are really family-oriented, and anytime you have a family, you have to have the three biggest items: burgers, chicken tenders and pizzas. The Crazy Toucan is still a family concept—we’re not trying to have any type of food where there’s a learning curve. It’s everyday American food done with a particular twist. At Crazy Toucan, it’s a tropical island twist.

Q. How do you feel about chain restaurants—you say you admire some, but you want D.W. Anderson’s customers not to feel like they are in a chain?

A. I think Americans are chained out. There are some very successful companies out there that are chains, but you also recognize they are chains. It’s very disappointing for the average American consumer looking for something to eat that all they see are corporate signs on a highway identifier.

The family eatery is almost a dead concept these days. And that’s unfortunate because a lot of the creativity of food and eating by mom and pop, the heart and soul of good old-fashioned eating, that’s gone.

As far as chains are concerned, [they] have brought consistency, quality, and the ability to train to the game—that’s what was missing in mom-and-pop operations—but chains sometimes lack the passion you have with mom and pop. Every chain tries, but it’s difficult to reproduce.

Q. If Americans are "chained out," how do you explain the current success of so many chains, including Famous Dave’s? And does that preclude rolling out your new restaurant concepts on a wider scale?

A. Sometimes it takes capital and expertise to be able to execute a strong concept. Famous Dave’s was different because it wasn’t a corporate concept—it was created out of passion. We worked really hard to develop the hometown feel of an old-fashioned barbecue joint. And I think that’s one of [the reasons] Famous Dave’s has staying power: When you walk in, you don’t feel like you’re in a chain. You feel like you’re in the local barbecue joint.

That experience is the foundation of where we’re going with D.W. Anderson’s. It’s [that] same passion that D.W. Anderson’s and Crazy Toucan are opening with. And when we open more D.W. Anderson’s, you’re not going to feel like you’re in a chain.

Q. You had great success with Famous Dave’s. What does it take to create successful restaurant concepts?

A. I think what makes restaurants successful is the energy. When you see the restaurant and walk in, you get immersed in the vivid energy; you can feel what’s going on. If people walk in your restaurant and it feels real, and they want to tell somebody else about it, if it zaps all the senses, and people say, ‘Hey, you gotta see this new restaurant,’ that’s the ultimate goal.

You just can’t open a restaurant these days, put tables and chairs in and serve food. It is becoming more difficult to come up with a creative concept, and the person who opens a restaurant today has to be a jack-of-all-trades: They have to be nutritionists, food scientists, interior decorators. We’re in a very competitive marketplace, and new restaurants have to stand out from everything else out there. It takes a more skilled professional.

Q. How different do you think the restaurant landscape will look in three to five years?

A. We always are going to have chains. What they bring to the marketplace is that they are very predictable and safe, and the food quality is generally there.

But where I think you’re going to see some improvement and some new, exciting ideas is in ethnic food. Minority entrepreneurs are first-generation business owners. Somewhere in our future you are going to see Mexicans developing concepts that are not a Taco Bell or Taco John’s. You’re going to see them develop the infrastructure, the creative ability, the training ability.

Somewhere you’re going to see a Mexican family break out and do its own thing. Somewhere you are going to see Asians break out and do their own thing and do it on a national basis. And that’s where you’re going to see a fun time with foods being more creative than [those from] someone in a corporate setting who wants to cater to an ethnic population.