Strains of Carly Rae Jepson's hit "Call Me Maybe" can barely be heard above customer conversations, kitchen clatter and the sizzle of hamburger meat as beefy aromas linger in the air at the West Broadway and Alberta Street Fatburger location.
Fatburger Canada owner Frank Di Benedetto determinedly waves his hand at a fly to steer the insect out the door of his 812-square-foot freestanding burger stand.
He's one of those rare entrepreneurs who, seven years ago at 51 years old, was not content to run just one fast-growing restaurant chain: Ricky's All Day Grill.
He wanted to run a second brand.
So in 2005, his Frankie's Family Restaurants Ltd., which oversees 66 Ricky's franchises, launched the Fatburger brand in Canada.
Di Benedetto was not concerned that he was going to be entering the most competitive segment of the restaurant business: fast-food burgers.
Fast-forward seven years and he has 25 Fatburger restaurants in B.C., Alberta and Saskatchewan – 12 corporately owned and the rest franchised.
"Our projection is to have 125 total restaurants by the end of 2013 and 40 of those will be Fatburgers," he said.
"Historically, we've been very accurate in our projections and achieved our goals. There are companies that routinely make significant growth projections and then don't even reach 25% of those projected targets."
Franchisees are lined up for Di Benedetto to add three Ricky's restaurants and six Fatburger restaurants by the end of 2012.
Next year, he expects to take Fatburger as far east as Ontario, where Ricky's already operates. Quebec would be next. The strategy in that province will likely be to find an area developer that has experience in building fast food chains.
Di Benedetto also intends to enter a joint venture to open a Fatburger in Seattle and expand the Ricky's brand to Dubai. A Middle East-based Fatburger franchisee is keen to mimic Di Benedetto's Canadian success by building Fatburgers and Ricky's locations together in the Arab emirate.
Canadian landlords frequently like the balance of having the family-casual Ricky's and the upscale fast-food Fatburger brands together in the same development.
That's why, in locations such as on Dunsmuir Street by Stadium SkyTrain station, the two operate successfully side by side.
"We're buoyant and aggressive, with a slight balance of being conservative in our approach to developing the Ricky's brand," Di Benedetto said. "Ricky's are opening all over: north Edmonton, Saskatchewan, Creston, Sechelt and Kitchener."
Di Benedetto's first exposure to Ricky's came in May 1998 when he took a consulting assignment to redevelop what was then Ricky's Pancake House and to raise the profile of its brand. He went on to be the company's president and, eventually, its owner.
It was not Di Benedetto's first stab at being an entrepreneur, although most of his early career was climbing the corporate ladder within McDonald's Corp. (NYSE:MCD).
His first job was at a McDonald's in his hometown of Prince George as a young teenager. He moved to Vancouver after he turned 18 and soon became the assistant manager at McDonald's first downtown restaurant in Canada, at the corner of Smithe and Granville streets.
The next year, in 1973, he was promoted to a store manager in Montreal. He returned to Vancouver to be a store manager before agreeing to go to Winnipeg, at 22, to become a regional manager in charge of seven McDonald's restaurants. Later, he was a regional manager in Edmonton, which he has always felt was his second home after Vancouver.
"In my later 20s, it became apparent to me that I was just as entrepreneurial as I was corporate," he said.
That realization prompted him to leave McDonald's in 1986 when he was in his early 30s.
He invested with the upstart Umbertino's chain, which sold fast-casual pasta. Within a few years, however, the chain collapsed.
Other ventures followed, but none had significant success.
Finally, in the mid-1990s he found his mark.
White Spot Restaurants Ltd. president Warren Erhart hired Di Benedetto as a consultant to help develop the concept for what is now Triple O's.
"To this day, I thank Warren," Di Benedetto said. "His faith and respect for me, and faith in my ability, allowed me the opportunity to do a very large scale, high-profile consulting assignment for a highly reputable well-known organization."
It was that one-year assignment that gave Di Benedetto renewed vigour and confidence and the ability to land other prime consulting jobs. His next stop was the Ricky's assignment, from which he never looked back.
Asked what he does outside work, Di Benedetto pauses. He takes a nearby food tray, walks to the garbage can to empty it and then returns with some thoughts.
"My work is my passion," he said. "I love what I do, and I've been able to integrate my business corporate life into my personal life and vice versa."
Does that make him a workaholic?
"How do you define a workaholic?" he asked. "I spend a lot of time doing what I do and I enjoy doing it. I love the people who I work with. I love seeing them grow and take on new responsibilities."
Friends say there's no doubting Di Benedetto's work ethic.
"He's one of the hardest-working people I have ever met," said ABC Country Restaurants Inc. principal John Harper, who is a friend of Di Benedetto's even though he's also a competitor.
Harper's family restaurants compete with Di Benedetto's Ricky's chain. "Frank wrote the book on working hard – day and night. He eats, sleeps and breathes his work."
Harper adds that Di Benedetto deserves a bigger profile and more respect for building a restaurant empire that generates $160 million in annual gross sales.
But life's not all work for Di Benedetto.
When he's not spending time with his extended family, he loves to drive high-performance cars.
"I have a stable of some nice cars," Di Benedetto said. "Fortunately, life has been good." •
