Johnny Rockets Returns To Retro Diner Roots As It Joins FAT Brands

Alpha8472
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Johnny Rockets Returns To Retro Diner Roots As It Joins FAT Brands

Post by Alpha8472 »

https://www.wltz.com/2020/08/14/fatburg ... s-for-25m/

The chain was rebranded in 2016 to a more modern look. That was quite a mistake. I remember 2 of my local Johnny Rockets closing down a few years ago. Now that FAT brands (Elevation Burger, Ponderosa and Bonanza Steakhouse) is buying Johnny Rockets, the 50s diner theme is returning. I remember the jukeboxes, soda fountains, and retro 50s style uniforms. That is what customers want. The 2016 remodeling got rid of all of that and turned it into a bland looking restaurant with fake wood and red chairs:

https://brandingforum.org/branding/john ... -overhaul/
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Re: Johnny Rockets Returns To Retro Diner Roots As It Joins FAT Brands

Post by storewanderer »

They used to have pretty good fries, which were somewhere between a normal fast food fry and a steak fry in thickness. They came in frozen but were still quite good. Then they switched to boring fries that are skinny and like any other fast food place.
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Re: Johnny Rockets Returns To Retro Diner Roots As It Joins FAT Brands

Post by veteran+ »

Wow.......perfect example of faulty R&D and typical High Paid executive incompetence (this is why they make so much more money than their front line employees........LOL).

I'm not so opposed to this design though it needs a bit of warming up. The problem is the design does not match the name (brand history) nor the menu.
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Re: Johnny Rockets Returns To Retro Diner Roots As It Joins FAT Brands

Post by buckguy »

I'm not sure there's really that much demand for 50s retro---that was a 70s/80s thing. The more immediate problem they've had is that the food no longer justified the relatively premium price and they have a lot more competition in the fancy hamburger bracket. This owner does not been to have been able to revive Fatburger, which expanded too quickly and somewhat randomly. They have fewer locations now than they did a even few years ago.
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Re: Johnny Rockets Returns To Retro Diner Roots As It Joins FAT Brands

Post by storewanderer »

buckguy wrote: August 16th, 2020, 6:02 am I'm not sure there's really that much demand for 50s retro---that was a 70s/80s thing. The more immediate problem they've had is that the food no longer justified the relatively premium price and they have a lot more competition in the fancy hamburger bracket. This owner does not been to have been able to revive Fatburger, which expanded too quickly and somewhat randomly. They have fewer locations now than they did a even few years ago.
Most of the Fatburgers I've seen are in casinos and what I'd call captive audience locations. Those locations seem to be okay. The concept seems to work in those locations. I bought a burger at one in Macau and it was pretty good.

Someone tried to franchise two Fatburgers in Reno strip malls. They failed badly. Operations were a disaster. They had extremely strong business to start and the problem was their service was so, so slow. The pricing was also very high. However I think had their service not taken 40 minutes for a single order, they probably would have had a shot at survival at one of the locations, even with their high prices. One of the locations actually got featured on Undercover Boss and the CEO went in and did a shift there due to it being so notorious for having problems (running out of meat, etc.). I think that location later actually got evicted from its space. They also had a Fatburger food truck that they were driving around the area for a few weeks after the two physical locations closed I assume to get rid of the old leftover food or something. The whole operation was just extremely unprofessional.
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Re: Johnny Rockets Returns To Retro Diner Roots As It Joins FAT Brands

Post by klkla »

buckguy wrote: August 16th, 2020, 6:02 am I'm not sure there's really that much demand for 50s retro---that was a 70s/80s thing.
The Happy Days TV show in the 70's certainly started that craze but in the case of Johnny Rockets it's literally their brand. They were stupid to ever try and 'modernize' it. If sales had declined they should have looked at their marketing, which is and was practically invisible.
storewanderer wrote: August 16th, 2020, 9:38 am Most of the Fatburgers I've seen are in casinos and what I'd call captive audience locations. Those locations seem to be okay. The concept seems to work in those locations. I bought a burger at one in Macau and it was pretty good.

Someone tried to franchise two Fatburgers in Reno strip malls. They failed badly. Operations were a disaster. They had extremely strong business to start and the problem was their service was so, so slow. The pricing was also very high. However I think had their service not taken 40 minutes for a single order, they probably would have had a shot at survival at one of the locations, even with their high prices.
That's a very good summary of FatBurger. Here in LA they have a lot of freestanding locations that do well. Their product is actually pretty good. But as you say their service is a disaster. They are so slow. Always. At least they are consistent lol.
veteran+ wrote: August 16th, 2020, 5:24 am Wow.......perfect example of faulty R&D and typical High Paid executive incompetence (this is why they make so much more money than their front line employees........LOL).
Yes, you see this in many companies. Too many executives at HQ making bad changes to make it appear as though they are doing something.
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Re: Johnny Rockets Returns To Retro Diner Roots As It Joins FAT Brands

Post by Super S »

There was a period of time in the last 15-20 years where a number of restaurants were experimenting with the 1950s diner atmosphere. Several independents, and Burgerville in my area even experimented with some elements of it (neon lights, jukeboxes, signage and interior colors) in new locations and remodels for a few years. Burgerville has moved on from that, and most of the independents have closed. It seemed like many of these had high prices for ordinary food.
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Re: Johnny Rockets Returns To Retro Diner Roots As It Joins FAT Brands

Post by retailfanmitchell019 »

Super S wrote: August 17th, 2020, 9:02 am There was a period of time in the last 15-20 years where a number of restaurants were experimenting with the 1950s diner atmosphere. Several independents, and Burgerville in my area even experimented with some elements of it (neon lights, jukeboxes, signage and interior colors) in new locations and remodels for a few years. Burgerville has moved on from that, and most of the independents have closed. It seemed like many of these had high prices for ordinary food.
Denny's has done this with their "Denny's Diner" concept, which other than some 50's style decor, is just a regular Denny's. Denny's still has plenty of 60's build locations open.
Ruby's Diner in SoCal is successful at this 50's style diner format.
There is also the Downey, CA McDonald's, in operation since 1953 without any exterior changes.
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Re: Johnny Rockets Returns To Retro Diner Roots As It Joins FAT Brands

Post by buckguy »

Fatburger's base for years was mostly freestanding locations in the LA area---like Tommy's and other LA chains they were much better than chain burgers elsewhere. They went on a franchise driven expansion nationally about 15 years ago. The ones I saw were in strip malls. They had picked-up some cred by way of LA-based hiphop performers and think entertainers or athletes had some of the franchises. The stores' performance was pretty uneven and the franchises started closing after a couple years. They were a definite step up from a lot of their competition--they had the only decent onion rings in Atlanta and the only non-grisly burgers, but some locations in the Atlanta area did better than others and they left Atlanta when they also left most other places.

As for Johnny Rockets, it may just be time to retire the concept. The last time I went one, the only thing memorable was the milkshake.
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Re: Johnny Rockets Returns To Retro Diner Roots As It Joins FAT Brands

Post by veteran+ »

buckguy wrote: August 18th, 2020, 6:45 am Fatburger's base for years was mostly freestanding locations in the LA area---like Tommy's and other LA chains they were much better than chain burgers elsewhere. They went on a franchise driven expansion nationally about 15 years ago. The ones I saw were in strip malls. They had picked-up some cred by way of LA-based hiphop performers and think entertainers or athletes had some of the franchises. The stores' performance was pretty uneven and the franchises started closing after a couple years. They were a definite step up from a lot of their competition--they had the only decent onion rings in Atlanta and the only non-grisly burgers, but some locations in the Atlanta area did better than others and they left Atlanta when they also left most other places.

As for Johnny Rockets, it may just be time to retire the concept. The last time I went one, the only thing memorable was the milkshake.
Yep, Fatburgers were just as busy as In & Out Burgers.

Side note: Not really a "diner" but many Hamburger Mary's are closing as well.
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