How a popular Charlotte barbecue restaurant found ways to thrive despite COVID

Owners of a popular Charlotte restaurant group known for barbecue, beers and bikers say, despite the yearlong coronavirus pandemic, the company is in the best financial position in its 16-year history.

Mac’s Hospitality Group’s bottom line has been helped by patio seating filling up at limited capacity with spring weather, a new social media strategy and its community support. Mac’s also has seen a 520% increase in take-out and delivery sales in the past year.

“That increase creates a whole other business to run,” said Mac’s Hospitality President Shang Skipper, in a recent interview.

The restaurant group has eight Mac’s Speed Shop barbecue locations in the Carolinas, plus SouthBound restaurant on South Boulevard. The first Mac’s Speed Shop opened in 2005 on South Boulevard. Other locations are in Steele Creek, Cornelius, Matthews, Wilmington, Fayetteville, Greensboro and Greenville, S.C.

Mac’s Hospitality also operates three other businesses in Charlotte, the speakeasy BackStage Lounge attached to SouthBound, an outdoor music venue called The Music Yard and the self-pour taproom The Studio.

Mac’s Hospitality Group has added 50 more employees compared to its workforce before the pandemic, for a total of 550 people, Skipper said. “And we probably need another 50 employees.”

Mac’s Hospitality also is eyeing expansion, with plans to open a restaurant in an undisclosed location in the Southeast. “Our goal is to grow,” Skipper said. “We’re definitely lucky for all the support Charlotte has shown us.”

‘Toughest decision I’ve ever made’

Like other restaurant owners, Mac’s Hospitality Group had to close its dining rooms on March 17 a year ago as COVID-19 cases surged locally and across the country.

Skipper said Mac’s immediately laid off 450 employees at its restaurants. At the time, there was no guarantee of a Paycheck Protection Plan or other financial assistance programs.

“It was probably the toughest decision I’ve ever made in my life,” he said. “Because you’re affecting so many people’s livelihoods at one time. But we just couldn’t sustain that. I wanted to have something for people to come back to.”

The company had a good takeout service but no delivery.

So it partnered with third-party services like Door Dash, PostMates and Uber Eats, and added a technology system that sends tickets directly to the kitchen. Skipper said after a couple of months, they were able to bring back about 100 employees for just to-go orders.

During the shutdown, Mac’s Hospitality Group took the time to retrain employees and reinvigorate the menu, like adding a fried chicken sandwich. Mac’s also reworked some of the food process, such as how to make the brisket moister.

And SouthBound’s menu got a total revamp back to its original focus on Southern California-Mexican cuisine.

Dealing with COVID cases

Mac’s Hospitality Group also applied for and received a PPP loan of more than $2 million in the summer. That enabled Mac’s to bring back the majority of staff, Skipper said.

But running a restaurant during a pandemic wasn’t without other hardships. Some locations ran on limited hours and under other state and municipal restrictions. Then there were COVID-19 cases among employees.

Skipper said there were a “good number” of cases throughout the restaurant group, whether through contact tracing or a worker who contracted the virus. A restaurant location would close temporarily to be professionally sanitized and a different team from another location would fill while exposed staff quarantined. The home office staff also pitched in.

The pandemic shutdown also gave the group time to think about and make improvements, Skipper said.

“We could look at what’s wrong and gave us time to evaluate it,” Skipper said. “And we’ve continued to increase our volume, especially with the patios and warmer weather.”

And Mac’s also found a way to reach people by ramping up it marketing strategy.

How Mac’s reached its community

A light-hearted approach on social media got traction for Mac’s growing its audience by 30%, Skipper said.

Some examples on Facebook included “Word of Advice — smoke brisket, not meth,” and “If you ain’t talkin’ Mac’s for dinner, I’m nacho type,” with a photo of the barbecue meat-topped nachos. Also, “You can’t live a full life on an empty stomach” promoting the combo platters.

And, the restaurant group launched a clever way to help the community.

Last spring, Mac’s started its “Take a Pound, Freeze a Pound” promotion for people to eat it, freeze it or donate it just as grocery stores were limited or out of stock on meats, Mac’s director of marketing Callie Murray said in a statement.

“We had a ton of product from suppliers on hand when the pandemic hit,” Murray said.

Mac’s also launched a Give Back Program where customers could buy food and have it delivered to front-line workers and other groups in need. Mac’s joined local causes from schools to Second Harvest Food Bank to the Isabella Santos Foundation for children with cancer.

The Give Back Program has fed more than 10,000 people. Skipper said it will continue indefinitely.

“It gave the local community an opportunity to give back even though they didn’t really know how,” Skipper said. “We became hyper-focused on local marketing and made sure people knew that we were absolutely there for our communities in a challenging time.”

This story was originally published March 16, 2021 at 11:51 AM.