First Watch keeps focus on breakfast

First Watch, a restaurant chain that serves breakfast, brunch and lunch, is rising – and shining.

The Bradenton, Florida-based chain, known for its fresh, seasonal ingredients and made-to-order menu, is one of the fastest-growing in its category in dollar sales and unit growth, according to market research firm Technomic.

Two restaurant veterans who were tired of working late nights launched First Watch in 1983 in Pacific Grove, California.

“This was a bunch of guys who really wanted to be home every afternoon so they could golf,” CEO Chris Tomasso said.

The company now has more than 500 U.S. locations in 29 states. But because each eatery is designed to blend into its community instead of from a corporate model, the restaurants often feel more like neighborhood hangouts than part of a chain, Tomasso said.

Tomasso led marketing for Cracker Barrel and Hard Rock Cafe before joining First Watch in 2006. He talked to The Associated Press recently about building brands.

You say First Watch has retained its scrappy feel despite its growth. How do you accomplish that?

One thing I’ve been saying forever to our teams is, “If we can do it in one, we can do it in 100. If we can do it in 100, we can do it in 1,000.” And the reason that’s so important is because usually, by the time concepts get to our size, they start to dumb down, not realizing the consumer will notice over time. You start outsourcing things. You say, “Well, it’s too much labor to make our pancake batter from scratch.” I will tell you, there’s less expensive ways to do the things that we do, but we know what’s important to the consumer.

What are some of the breakfast trends you’re seeing?

We started to see over the last five or six years this emergence of what we call “power breakfasts.” It’s so much easier for people to meet in the morning before they get to work. So that’s been a big shift for us. And what used to be a shoulder period between 10 a.m. and 11:30 a.m., with remote working and hybrid working we’re starting to see all that fill up.

Does First Watch ever plan to stay open past 2:30 p.m.?

We love our business model. We do tremendous volumes in 7.5 hours. Our teams get to have a job in the hospitality industry that doesn’t have them work until all hours of the night. So I don’t see us expanding hours at all.

You’re a marketer. Is it getting harder to reach customers with all the distractions they face?

I think it’s easier in that you can now reach a lot of people through social and digital without having to do TV and radio like you used to do. It’s also easier now to control the messaging. But I also think there’s challenges. If you make a misstep, it can be amplified a lot. So I think much more care and focus has to go into your messaging and your actions.