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Concept brings Class Back to Bar
A many college bars in
America would make a health inspector flinch. With floors like flypaper
and crowds herded in and out in anonymity, designating your concept as
a “college” bar sometimes, ultimately, is as unappealing as visiting
one of them.
Across the Midwest, a sibling-owned chain has been
bringing class to those still attending classes, for more than 17
years. Brothers Bar & Grill currently has 12 locations with more on
the way.
Overall, founding siblings Marc and Eric Fortney have 17 venues
spawned from their first Brothers in La Crosse, Wis. What today has
amounted to an empire, employing close to 1,300 company-wide, was once
two college grads with a dream and little else.
“Originally, when we were in college, we never hung out at quintessential
type of college bars,” Co-owner Eric Fortney says.
“We viewed it this way: A lot of college towns view students as
cattle. They think that they don’t care about the facility, that they
don’t mind standing with their feet stuck to the floor. I minded.
“Marc and I hung out at nicer places in Madison … the type of
places with heavy woodwork and buckets of imports. Even though we
didn’t have any money, we still had enough sense to know that we didn’t
want to hang out in the other kind of place. Brothers is modeled after
a place we would like to hang out in.”
While Eric had years under his belt as a bartender, the guys had no
experience in business ownership when they went to look at a failing
bar that would become their first location. Ironically, the accepted
offer was made to the seller on one of his leftover bar napkins.
“We bought it on a land contract, and we actually had to sell our
cars for the down payment,” Co-owner Marc Fortney says. “We were so
naïve at the time, we sold our cars and didn’t realize we were going to
need to have a car to buy supplies.”
To make matters worse, the Fortney brothers were living in Section
8 housing and barely making the monthly, $200 rent payments. But one
thing they had going for them was a clear idea of what type of venue
they wanted to offer the market and a keen sense that there was an open
niche to fill. Once open, the concept’s success was immediate, steady
and thoughtful.
Out of the Woodwork
The second location was opened in 1992 in Winona, Minn., the third
in late 1993 in Madison, Wis., and the trend has since continued at an
average of one venue a year. Each Brothers Bar & Grill is a little
different from its siblings.
Some are located in the center of downtown cities, while others are
in entertainment districts. Purchasing and renting both modern,
cinder-block buildings and renovated, original structures, Marc and
Eric have remained determined to avoid creating a cookie-cutter
concept. One aspect that they feel is crucial to every location is the
time and consideration allotted to beautiful woodwork. All of the
woodwork in every Brothers location has been done by Mike Lamont
Builders since 1994.
“The style, the signage, staff uniforms, the light fixtures, the
furniture, the large tap selection, TVs, menus — all of that pretty
much stays the same,” Marc says.
“The wood is all custom frame and panel. It is not something out of the
box that you go to Home Depot and get. We have our own dies. Normally a
golden oak and heavy wood, it is not so much an Irish bar but just a
classic bar and grill. Really, that is what we consider Brother’s.”
Payment on Arrival
Along with stunning woodwork, the duo has come to value less
tangible aspects of the business as distinctly Brothers as well. Unlike
their physical buildings, over the years, their management style has
become a very cookie-cutter formula for success. Back in the days when
both Fortneys were trudging to and from the La Crosse location on foot,
they instituted a policy to pay each delivery off on the Friday after
it
was received.
“Our goal was to make sure that everything we had delivered that
week in terms of product –– beer, liquor, food, whatever that might be
–– had a check written on Friday afternoon by 5:00 or 6:00,” Marc says.
“Sometimes we were able to do that and sometimes we weren’t. We still
do it today.
“Every store that is opening,” he says, “literally has the dollars
there to take care of obligations. We don’t do 30 days or 15 days. If
something is being delivered, we are writing a check. I think it is a
good business policy. You really have to stay financially keen.”
A Lean Team
Other management qualities that set the Fortneys apart include
promoting from within, visiting each store personally every other week
and insisting on quality in employees much the same way they insist on
quality of product.
“Having a lean team and our style of management has attributed to
promoting from within,” says Marc. “You are only as good as your best
people. We have almost 1,300 people company-wide, and every single
person makes a difference every single day. You would be a fool to
think (success) wasn’t because of those people.”
In addition, Marc and Eric Fortney never have given up or given in
on any of their locations. No Brothers has ever shut its doors once
opened, nor changed its name nor altered its concept. That is something
most large-scale chains in the industry cannot say.
“I would view closing a store, for Eric and I, as a personal
defeat,” Marc says. “That is part of being a good manager, and we are
stronger for it.”
Market Flux
Stocked high on the shelf of priorities, right next to a great
management system and a never-say-die attitude toward business, the
Fortney brothers have a close eye on the fluctuating tendencies of the
drinking demographic.
A few years back, when all spirits soared — save those of the
brewing contingent –– Marc and Eric Fortney took each Brothers location
along for the ride.
“We have noticed, just like the entire industry has noticed, that
as the price of domestic tap beer has risen, the price of spirits has
remained the same,” Eric says. “They have not gone up, but beers have
outpaced inflation three, four, five times. (Patron) consumption is
going down, and to post higher profits, they (brewers) raise prices. It
is a smoke and mirrors game.”
The brothers kept tabs on drinking trends, the prices of a pint and
what the market was producing to such an effect, that it was obvious to
them where things were headed in the future as well as what it would
mean to their business.
“Eventually,” says Eric, “Brewers are realizing, ‘we did something
wrong.’ But, what has happened in last seven years was like two ships
passing in the night. Major brewers didn’t realize it, and they don’t
understand what is going on, on street level, because they are removed
from it. At some point that price of a pint exceeded a vodka tonic,” he
says. “And, at that magic moment, beer sales went south, and spirits
sales soared. When you can stand there and say some sort of a flavored
vodka is $4, and a Miller Lite is $4, something kicks in for consumers
at that point.”
Something kicked in for the team at Brothers at that level too, and
they began asking consumers and staff members about beverage choices,
still stocking a large variety of beer but supporting it with plenty of
spirit selection.
The company offers an average of 33 to 44 beers on tap in each of
its locations, and Eric says he remembers the days 16 years ago, when
he and Marc were pioneers in beer selection and their profits were
heavily due to hops and barley. These days, many of the locations are
fueled by liquor profits, and each location has an average of 15 signature Martinis on the menu.
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