Texas Roadhouse is an American chain restaurant that specializes in steaks around a Western theme and is a subsidiary of Texas Roadhouse Inc, which is headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky. The chain operates about 563 locations in 49 U.S. states and in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, the Philippines, Mexico, Taiwan, and South Korea. It is known for its free buckets of peanuts at each table along with free dinner bread rolls.
History
Texas Roadhouse was founded on February 17, 1993, at the Green Tree Mall in Clarksville, Indiana; across the Ohio River from Louisville. Founder W. Kent Taylor lived in Colorado and worked at nightclubs and restaurants there, having aspirations to attend a culinary school. In 1990, Taylor returned to his hometown of Louisville. He began work as a Kentucky Fried Chicken manager, and had dreams to open a Colorado-themed restaurant. Former Kentucky Governor John Y. Brown, Jr. helped Taylor fulfill his dream by backing him with $80,000. In 1991, Taylor opened Buckhead Hickory Grill, the chain that would eventually become Buckhead Mountain Grill. Taylor was his own executive chef. Brown invested more money and wanted to open a second store in Clarksville, but complications in the partnership caused it to fall apart. Brown had elected to pursue another steak concept without Taylor, leaving Taylor with the decision to either stay committed to Buckhead, or attempt to start a new business. He decided to go with the latter, however, he had trouble finding investors to help him launch the new concept. Taylor was turned down by many potential investors and found himself wondering if his idea for a new concept was a mistake. Finally, Taylor met someone while he was managing at Buckhead through Scott Canfield that seemed interested in investing. Dr. John Rhodes became interested in Taylor's proposition of the new steak restaurant concept that Taylor showed to him through drawings on papers and cocktail napkins. Taylor was able to convince Dr. Rhodes and several of his colleagues to invest $100,000 each in 1992. A year later in 1993, the first Texas Roadhouse in Clarksville, Indiana opened its doors. In 1994, Taylor sold his shares in Buckhead Mountain Grill to focus solely on Texas Roadhouse. In 1993, the second Texas Roadhouse opened in Gainesville, Florida. In 1994, three additional restaurants opened in Cincinnati, Ohio, Clearwater, Florida, and Sarasota, Florida. These three locations would all close due to lack of strong management, poor building locations, and poor food quality. Kent Taylor was forced to decide how to continue the success of the first two restaurants in Clarksville and Gainesville, while dealing with the failures of the three new stores. Taylor decided that better in-store training, building designs, and restaurant decor would help improve Roadhouse's growth. Taylor also hired a promising chef who worked in Louisville, Kentucky, named Jim Broyles. Broyles was hired as the director of food and beverages, and transformed the way Roadhouse prepared and served food. He helped bring the restaurant up to the 'legendary' standards it holds itself to today. The chain expanded rapidly in the late 1990s, and by the end of 1999, 67 restaurants had been opened. In 2004, Roadhouse became a public company. In September 2011, Texas Roadhouse started their international expansion, with the first international location in Dubai, UAE. CEO Kent Taylor has announced he will give up his base salary and bonus for the remainder of the calendar year in order to pay "front-line" employees amid the coronavirus pandemic. The amount donated from Taylor will amount to just under $1 million.
Operations and marketing
Texas Roadhouse's mission statement is "Legendary Food, Legendary Service". Their mascot is an armadillo named Andy. The company's restaurants offer entertainment in the form of line dancing. The waiters, waitresses and hosts perform these dances throughout the night. The employees also participate in intercompany competitions: bartenders compete in "The Real Bar" competition, and meat cutters in the annual "Meat Hero Competition". The Roadhouse Corporation supports the homebuilding programs Habitat for Humanity International and Homes For Our Troops. The company also sponsors a roadcycling team of about 20 cyclists, along with Willie Nelson tours. Originally each restaurant had a table called "Willie's Corner", with pictures and memorabilia of Willie Nelson. In 2002, Nelson signed a deal to become an official partner of Texas Roadhouse. Since then, Nelson has heavily promoted the chain, including a special on Food Network. Willie Nelson is the owner of the Texas Roadhouse in South Austin, TX.
Cuisine
Texas Roadhouse serves American cuisine, including steak, ribs, chicken, and seafood. Their main suppliers are JBS Swift and Smithfield Foods. The chain boasts several cooking championships across the country with their ribs and steaks. Everything on the menu is made from scratch to order, with the exception of certain children's menu items. This includes the salads and dressings, sauces and side dishes. Each store employs its own baker and butcher/meat cutter. Their steaks are hand-cut and are never frozen. Salmon is also cut off-site and vacuum packed. The main seller on the menu is the 11-ounce USDA Choice Sirloin.
Controversy
The manager of a Texas Roadhouse located in Chantilly, VA requested compensation for business losses following a May 2006 shooting at the Sully Police Station of the Fairfax County Police Department in Virginia. After a gunman had opened fire at the station, eventually killing two officers, police cordoned off the area, forcing some local businesses to close for a few hours. Due to large crowds lining the route of the funeral procession for the fallen officers, several businesses were forced to close a second time. The current manager of Texas Roadhouse claimed losses of $9,000 due to these closures and requested that this lost revenue offset the $5,000 of fines the store had accrued due to alarm malfunctions. The claim was denied and prompted the FCPD to contact the firm's corporate headquarters in Louisville. Chain officials apologized weeks later and made a donation to a trust fund for the officers' families. They also said the manager had been disciplined. The story of this controversy has been circulating as a viral email beginning around 2006, and verified by urban legend and fact checking website Snopes.com. Also, a crisis management firm has used this controversy as an example of poor crisis management and public relations.
