ONE OF THE NATION'S FASTEST GROWING FULL-SERVICE BRANDS WON'T CHANGE WHO IT IS OR WHAT IT STANDS FOR, WHETHER IT HAS 20 OR 200 RESTAURANTS.
People tell Raymond Griffin he’s nuts all the time. If they stopped, it might start to worry him. It would mean The Lost Cajun has become exactly what the status quo calls for—a story that fits one of the fastest growing full-service brands in the country.
But eight years after opening a 15-seat, 850-square-foot Cajun restaurant in, of all places, Frisco, Colorado, nothing about this tale aligns with logic, which is exactly how Griffin wants it. What is crystal, however, is this:
“You know what,” Griffin says. “I don’t think this thing can make it anymore; I know it. Within three years we’re going to have 100 stores. It’s literally growing that way. We’re going to have in excess of $20 million in sales this year. And if that isn’t crazy, I don’t know what is.”
The Lost Cajun started franchising in 2013 and now has 17 locations across four states. Doesn’t sound overly robust until you check the timeline.
By the time the year ends, Griffin’s brand expects 2017 to have included 15 openings, bringing the total to 25. A six-unit deal for North Carolina was announced in mid-June. On July 30, the company said a second San Antonio store was arriving August 13. A week earlier,
The Lost Cajun shared plans for its eighth Colorado restaurant, slated for Westminster in September.
The restaurants are averaging $1.1 million per store at a paltry check average, per person of $10–$12.
This gives a glimpse into the kind of volume Griffin’s stores are doing.
The response continues to surprise him, and has since day one. The improbable nature of a Cajun sit-down franchise, which serves its food on red-checkered paper in square red baskets, is still resonating with guests, regardless of the market. In other words, The Lost Cajun bewilders the heck out of those who walk in the door.
Griffin refers to a Rosenberg, Texas, location to illustrate the point.
“When they hear that name—Lost Cajun—they come in their hoping to be happy but expecting to be disappointed,” Griffin says. “But, when we put that plate of samples in front of them and they smell it, you can see their head kind of roll back. They go, ‘This is like my momma’s.’”
