FSR June 2023

PICKLEBALL

Smash Park responded to the spring demand by opening additional leagues, and it is quickly emerging as one of the brands to watch in the eatertainment race to be rst to market. e brand’s second store—a franchised Smash Park—opened last year in Pella, Iowa. New locations, all company-owned and -operated, are opening in suburbs of Omaha, Nebraska, and Minneapolis later this year and in 2024. Most recently, the company decided to expand beyond its Midwest base and open in Jackson ville, Florida, slated for October 2024. “All will be similar to our Des Moines store, with both indoor and outdoor courts, but new locations will include additional amenities—duckpin bowling, a private karaoke suite, and ax throwing,” Dahlhauser says. It’s not only the popularity of pickle ball that has restaurant operators seizing the opportunity with new eatertainment brands, it’s also the impact that the sport has on restaurant operations, e ectively expanding service across every dayp art, with stores opening at 7 or 8 a.m.

and running until late night, sometimes beyond midnight. That’s a game-changer for Robert Thompson, whose legacy in eatertain ment dining includes pre-COVID stand out Punch Bowl Social. His vision for Camp Pickle, the new concept he’s debut ing in 2024 with plans to include 10 to 15 pickleball courts in each location, is that it will be running full throttle seven days a week. “We’ll be busy at eight in the morning, something we were never able to do in prior eatertainment concepts,” he says. “I don’t create any concepts that don’t lean heavily into Saturday and Sunday brunch; it’s just free money when you do it the right way.” But weekday breakfasts? at’s a new spin for eatertainment that ts perfectly with pickleball enthusiasts, who omp son anticipates serving co ee, smooth ies, and limited breakfast selection throughout the week. He’s also eager to capitalize on the multi-generational appeal of pickleball, noting that Camp Pickle will be “more

family-oriented” than his previous eat ertainment concepts, but it will abso lutely replicate foundational elements from past successes. “When I started Punch Bowl Social in 2010, I wanted to create a model that expanded dwell time. If you don’t have a craveable food and beverage product it becomes more di cult to expand the dwell time, but if can put together all of the moving parts in concert—the food, the beverage, the gaming, and the way you lay it out so guests move about the space naturally, comfortably—you get incremental spend from guests in the expanded dwell time,” says ompson, whose corporate eatertainment enter prise, Angevin & Co., is the parent com pany of Camp Pickle and its sister con cept, Jaguar Bolera. In March, Angevin & Co. named Chef Manuel (Manny) Barella to serve as culi nary director for both brands. Barella, who was born in Monterrey, Mexico, brings a passion for Hispanic cuisine and was a James Beard Award semi - nalist in 2022.

THE SPORT’S MULTI-GENERATIONAL APPEAL HAS EATERTAINMENT CONCEPTS LIKE SMASH PARK, CHICKEN N PICKLE, AND EMERGING CONCEPTS LIKE CAMP PICKLE VYING FOR A PIECE OF THE PICKLEBALL PIE, PLUS INNOVATING AROUND CHEF-DRIVEN MENUS.

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FSRMAGAZINE.COM

JUNE 2023