They've all be concepts his group has created. Over roughly 18 years his company has opened (and closed) a number of them. Some are still open, some were closed and re-branded, one concept was even interesting enough that Brinker offered to buy it but they turned it down. It closed down like a year later. Covid was really tough on their businesses. It's also hard to get good people to manage, including chefs. He's be stabbed in the back by chefs who have used his restaurants (and generosity) as a stepping stone to greater things. I bet if I asked him if he'd do it all over again if he could go back in time, he probably wouldn't.

Tough business. I have thought a time or two of making a side hustle out of BBQ (more like day dreamed), but it looks like it would have to be more of a labor of love than a strong business. I follow on social media a guy who runs a BBQ shop / catering business in Colorado. He posts his operations numbers and revenue from time to time and he seems to do pretty well, but would never get wealthy unless he expanded. The thing is, he has low overhead because he runs it with college age local kids who he trained up himself while they were highschoolers. Plus, his only real estate is a small plot on a highway where he runs his operations from out of a railroad car converted into a small kitchen / storefront (plus they an old, coin operated carwash on-site too). His smokers are all on wheels so he can take them to catering spots. It's really smart actually. But if he had to pay for a location in a normal-sized city, have operations that require increased store hours, etc. it may be much more difficult to have a workable level of profit. At least in my opinion.

Anyway, from what I've read and been told (all anecdotal stuff), it's a tough business. There's probably a lot of other business ideas where you could have a much greater chance of success with less risk and difficult variables. The exception could be a McDonalds or Chic-fil-A, but I'm sure getting approved in both cases is a tall task.