NOSTALGIC FOR A TASTE OF EARLS?
Restaurant cookbook serves up 30-plus years of food trends
At 87, he’s a folksy charmer known for sporting high-tops and a hipster-daddy beard.
But make no mistake, Leroy Earl “Bus” Fuller is as canny as that day in 1957 when he launched his first A&W franchise in Edmonton. That led to the purchase and creation of a host of other eateries, including the fabled Fullers.
Now, the restaurant chain (named jointly after Stanley Earl and Leroy Earl) is at the heart of a private restaurant empire, with significant interests in Joey and Cactus Club, driving total annual sales rumoured to approach a half-billion dollars a year.
“Like anything else, you just strive to be better all the time, and part of it you get from observing what other people are doing and trying to improve your own concept,” says Bus Fuller, a one-time machinist from Montana.
“It’s like the fellow said, ‘Adam was the only guy with the first idea.’”
Certainly, Earls isn’t the first restaurant chain to produce a cookbook; chains from White Spot to Cactus Club to the McEwan Group hit that pop culture milestone some time ago. But what this cookbook (with all proceeds to charity) does better than anybody is capitalize on that combination of new and nostalgic that keeps Earls front-of-mind with diners.
Though its trendy, Vancouverbased Chef’s Collective pops out fresh ideas like free-run eggs, the chain has wisely kept favourites such as Leroy’s Dry Ribs on the menu for decades. Heck, the wallpaper design in the recently renovated bathroom of the Earls Tin Palace on Edmonton’s Jasper Avenue is inspired by a vintage menu of this Edmonton staple, which launched in 1982 in a defunct Fuller’s restaurant.
It’s the same with the cookbook, featuring favourites from the 1980s to present-day in the restaurants, now numbering more than 60 in Canada, and a dozen more in the United States.
If you can’t think about the 1980s Spinach Artichoke Dip without remembering your first restaurant date, or you’re a millennial who demanded Mediterranean Linguine for birthday supper, the “eat a little, eat a lot” theme of the new publication will appeal.
From the classic nachos to the more modern rice bowl, the cookbook offers 110 recipes, including standards like Sticky Toffee Sauce and new fare such as Preserved Lemons.
Stan Fuller, Bus’s eldest son and Earls’ chief executive, explained his philosophy about the secret to the company’s success.
“It goes way back to when Bus operated the A&Ws,” Stan said by phone from Vancouver.
“He always had a philosophy, which I believe, that the people who are in the organization have to be treated unbelievably well, such that they are compelled to treat the customers well, too.
“That’s hard for a restaurant to do, and we’re not perfect every time.
“But that’s what we try to do.”