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Dave Magrogan Corners Several Northeast Markets With Fresh Ideas and Tenacious Management
To have one successful business in a lifetime is more than most
could hope for. To have a successful chiropractic business and close it
to make the leap to food and beverage is undoubtedly impressive.
As owner and CEO of The Dave Magrogan Group, Dave Magrogan will have
owned and operatd 10 units in four years before this year finishes. His
move from medicine to Martinis is a blessing for those in the
Northeast.
Magrogan’s concepts are established in places that desire and need a
level of upper-class service without the high-end cost for the
consumer. The idea is elegant and comfortable, reasonable and
memorable.
“I have always loved the restaurant business,” Magrogan says. “I missed
the energy of it all, and once I started to watch the clock everyday, I
knew it was time to make a change.”
That change began with Kildare’s Irish Pubs in Southeast Pa., and grew
to include Doc Magrogan’s Oyster House and his latest establishment
Grady David’s. Each has brought Magrogan’s customers a unique product
and experience and Magrogan a career in which watching the clock is a
thing of the past.
Kildare’s Irish Pub
Magrogan’s first Kildare’s was opened in 2003 after he invested two
years in the study of Irish pub culture. To Magrogan, the niche was
wide open for authentic, but he felt that he would have to offer a
nouveau level of true traditional to really create a brand that would
surpass all of the other pubs out there claiming to possess the charms
of Ireland. To avoid becoming one among the masses, he went to Ireland
for the designers, the food and décor elements.
“Whenever I find a site, I draw out what the pub should look like, then
the designers come from Ireland and draw out what they feel the pub
should look like,” he says.
“I also looked at about five or six companies that had built Irish pubs
here in the United States. I wanted to see how the pubs looked after
four or five years. I wanted to see how they aged, because it is no fun
having to import new fixtures, a new bar or new lights from Ireland.”
Magrogan’s first Kildare’s opened with a $750,000 budget, and he admits
that, like many operators out there, the excitement got the better of
him budget-wise as he continued to grow the concept.
“A lot of people make mistakes in the beginning in getting caught up in
décor and spending way too much on looks,” he says. “Ultimately, the
guest service, alcohol selection and food are what bring people back.
We have learned to open at about $1.4 to $1.8 million now.”
Doc Magrogan’s Oyster House
With Kildare’s growing steadily into a victorious brand concept,
Magrogan began turning down sites that he felt didn’t necessitate or
couldn’t sustain a true Irish vibe.
“As I started turning down sites for Kildare’s,” he says, “I started
looking for what was actually missing in these areas. There wasn’t a
great seafood place out there that was nice but didn’t cost you $40 a
head.”
Magrogan set about again, this time studying oyster houses and coastal
dining, and Doc Magrogan’s Oyster House opened in West Chester, Pa., a
few years later.
“It has a 1920s Boston harbor atmosphere with antique lights, dark wood
walls and dark tables,” Magrogan says. “It feels like you just stepped
off the boat in Boston, and the day the place opened, it felt like it
was 80 years old.”
With a music concept that ranges within the genres of Blues and Funk
and fresh seafood flown in consistently, Doc Magrogan’s incorporated
slightly better décor and service and a higher profit margin from
top-level alcohol.
“At Kildare’s,” he says, “wine is about 0.2 percent of our sales. At Doc’s, it is about 20 percent.”
There was also one set of clientele that the management didn’t expect.
“My Kildare’s consumer, as they grow up, transitions to the oyster
house,” Magrogan says. It is a rare and beautiful thing in the industry
to own two completely different concepts that appeal to your core,
repeat customers as their own tastes and preferences change with time.
Grady David’s
Dave Magrogan’s latest project is as fresh as the produce it utilizes.
Grady David’s is the latest restaurant concept from the group –– named
for Magrogan’s infant son –– and the entire project focuses on local,
seasonal and organic menu items.
The slight shift from genetically engineered foods and prepackaged
drink mixers in many establishments has not gone unnoticed by Magrogan.
His latest concept is a mission for the health and wellness of his
consumers coupled with the high level of décor
and customer service they have come to associate with his ventures.
“The consumer that shops at Whole Foods is our demographic,” Magrogan says. “The cost is slightly higher, but we have found the consumer will pay for it. There is some organic, all sourced locally, and we are not shipping strawberries in the wintertime. In Pennsylvania and New Jersey, we are corn and tomatoes. We will also have tons of
fresh meat from Amish farms. Oh, and it of course still has the great bar atmosphere.”
Rhino Success
Decades in the business have taught Dave Magrogan a variety of life
lessons on everything food and beverage, from tending bar to passing
health code inspections. But one of his key advantages over the
competition comes from his early days as a chiropractor. Magrogan
trains his staff –– from the upper echelons of management to the part
time back-of-the-house crew –– in what he refers to as the Rhino method
for success. The idea was one Magrogan took from a book titled
“Rhinoceros Success” by Scott Alexander, and the philosophies within
are well known and daily implemented by his employees.
“Basically,” says Magrogan, “things go wrong in the food and beverage
business all the time. We all know that. But we are prepared for it.
Ten-percent is the problem. Ninety-percent is how you deal with it.”
The Rhino success principals use the metaphor of rhinos versus cows.
Rhinos are hard charging and focused on obliterating the problems in
their path, whether they are customer complaints, slow ticket times or
a weak beverage program. Cows, on the other hand, merely come in to
work and do the minimum of what is expected. Magrogan’s insistence on
hiring either rhinos or people who he can train to become rhinos has
definitely paid off.
“My COO and I make it a contest when we have a guest complaint,” he
says. “We work to do everything that we can to ensure that an unhappy
guest leaves with a smile on his or her face once again. The trick is
to listen and express sympathy. The guest walked in expecting to have a
good time. You have to realize that that is your obligation. We take
full responsibility if something goes wrong, and we never give an
excuse.”
To tack on to this philosophy, Magrogan also empowers his management
team through cash bonuses and stock options. While the company of The
Dave Magrogan Group has not gone public yet, he has no doubt it is
headed that way. His managers arrive to work each day with the horizon
of owning a piece of the success they work to create.
"That fact has attracted some great management for us,” he says.
It isn’t just management either. Magrogan also employs the 8th fastest oyster shucker in the world at Doc Magrogan’s.
“This guy lives for oysters. They are his whole world,” he says. “He
found us, and it is an example of how we are an attractive company for
people looking to work.” NCB
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