How to Build a Restaurant That Can Survive: Dan Simons of Founding Farmers

**Josh Kopel** (0:00)
What are you doing this month to make sure your business grows? Do you mind if I make a suggestion? This month's free Restaurant Marketing Master Class is about one thing, using AI to create an unfair advantage. And not by replacing what makes your restaurant special, but by helping you move faster on the work that actually drives growth. I'm taking my proven tactics, tools and strategies, and showing you how to use AI to sharpen your marketing, speed up execution, and turn good ideas into action without getting buried in the details. You'll be working with me personally to build these strategies into your business in real time. And because of that, space is limited. But you can sign up for free today by going to restaurantbusinessschool.com.
Again you can sign up for free today just by going to restaurantbusinessschool.com. I'll see you there. Now here we go.

**Dan Simons** (0:55)
We failed because we were arrogant.
We thought we knew better for the customer. And the second reason we failed, we were not capitalized nearly well enough to play the long game. That was the combo that killed us.

**Josh Kopel** (1:14)
Welcome to FULL COMP, a show offering insight into the hospitality industry. Featuring restaurateurs, thought leaders and innovators. Served up on the house.
Welcome to the 2026 Restaurant Playbook, a special five-part series presented by Square. Opening a restaurant has never been easy, but today's operators are facing a different kind of challenge. It's not enough to have great food, a strong location, or a beautiful brand. The restaurants they win in 2026 will be the ones people remember, people actually want, and that are built to survive, grow profitably, and scale without breaking. Across this series, I'm sitting down with some of the brightest minds in our industry to unpack what it really takes to open your first restaurant or open your next one smarter. And to help you put these lessons into action, we've created a free companion download, the 2026 Restaurant Playbook. You can grab it now at joshkopel.com/square. A big thanks to Square for making this series possible and for continuing to support the operators building the future of hospitality. Now let's get into the episode.
What if sustainability has nothing to do with composting and everything to do with who owns your business? Dan Simons co-founded Founding Farmers in 2008, built on a farmer-owned model that now spans eight restaurants, 1500 employees and overall $100 million in annual revenue around the DC metro area. In today's conversation, we get into why arrogance kills more restaurants than bad food, how ownership structure is the only form of sustainability that actually matters, and why unlocking the people around you is the most powerful lever you have in business. If you're running a restaurant that looks fine on the outside but keeps hemorrhaging people and momentum, this episode is going to resonate.

**Dan Simons** (3:12)
For me, the restaurant industry was different than a lot of other people's paths. Yeah, I worked in independent bars and restaurants when I was in college, but as soon as I graduated, I went to work for a restaurant corporation.
So my roots in the restaurant industry were built around, like yes, hospitality, but that's just table stakes. It was built around inventory and velocity and how quickly product moved through the restaurant and how did you make money and how is a P&L structured and the chart of accounts. So for me, I graduated from college. I went straight into management for TGI Fridays. This was 1992
Fridays was still a really highly regarded restaurant.

**Josh Kopel** (3:52)
For sure.

**Dan Simons** (3:54)
We cooked from scratch when I got there.

**Josh Kopel** (3:56)
Flair bartenders. You were still into like the Tom Cruise cocktail era.

**Dan Simons** (4:02)
Totally, it was actually cool being a Fridays bartender.

**Josh Kopel** (4:05)
Yeah.

**Dan Simons** (4:06)
So I had six total years of Fridays and I really learned. And I went manager, kitchen manager, AGM, GM. And I got to learn how to build the systems and the nuts and the bolts and how to deliver culture and of course, the hospitality component.
And then I went and did early stage company. There were six restaurants when I joined.
It was called the Cheesecake Factory. So people know I've heard of it.

**Josh Kopel** (4:31)
Small menus. Yeah.

**Dan Simons** (4:33)
But at six restaurants, not many people had heard of it. So I moved to LA and I was with cheesecake from restaurant six till about restaurant 20 And I got to see what happens with scale, but built on systems, big menu. But again, really complex cooking and operating systems. But it was all written down and we built the how to.