Randy Burleson’s restaurant risks have shown their rewards
by Paige M. Travis
Randy Burleson is always looking around the next corner for possibilities. He calls it “sticking his nose where it doesn’t belong” or “sticking his neck out”—phrases that evoke inappropriate meddling and risk-taking. Restaurants are a risky prospect, but Burleson, 37, seems like a success who has benefited from taking chances.
Now the owner of three Aubrey’s locations, the Sunspot, EdisonPark, Barley’s and most recently the four-chain Stefano’s, Burleson began his restaurant experience as an employee of Stephen’s Italian Restaurant, located in the Gallery shopping center where Stir Fry Café is today. He was pursuing an MBA at the University of Tennessee and working, as many students do, in the restaurant.
“Somehow I ended up in the restaurant business,” he says humbly, as if the dots connecting then to now are truly a mystery to him.
Stephens was going out of business so Burleson and the other investors that make up Aubrey’s bought the equipment, took over the loans and moved the operation farther west to Farragut. The building that still houses Aubrey’s was designed as a doctor’s office. “The plan was, we’d probably be in business six months so it was built to be a doctor’s office,” Burleson says. The restaurant’s first few months in business lived up to the builder’s expectations.
“It was really bad in the beginning. Bad service, bad food. But we kept working on it,” he says. “But, you know, we didn’t have any money, didn’t have any management or any real experience.”
But the Farragut community stuck with them. Aubrey’s is now an after-work destination for people who want to wind down and have a drink and good meal. Aubrey’s on Emory Road is a family destination pervaded by a friendly din at the busiest hours. And in Maryville, Aubrey’s is one of the town’s most upscale restaurants, treated by its customers as a special-occasion destination for birthdays and anniversaries. Burleson is a bit boggled by the difference in three restaurants with identical style, menu and mission. Perhaps it’s an example of how Burleson’s restaurants are reflections of their loyal customers.
After getting a handle on that first Aubrey’s in Farragut, Burleson says he was comfortable enough to expand. The opportunity came in the form of the Sunspot, the restaurant on the UT campus started by Kelly Henderson. The successful and eclectic eatery was in danger of closing, and Burleson took notice.
“[Sunspot] was our employees’ favorite restaurant, especially the girls,” he says. They told themselves, “We can’t let it go out of business,” Burleson recalls. In the act of “sticking my nose where I shouldn’t,” he looked into taking over the restaurant. In retrospect, he believes they waited too long after taking over before putting the “Aubrey’s” label on the place, favoring instead to keep things the same as they’d been under Henderson’s ownership.
“We were afraid of making everybody mad, so that’s why we didn’t change it in the beginning,” says Burleson, who is rarely seen inside one of his restaurant without an apron on and a rag in his hand. The menu stayed the same for 18 months before he eliminated such items as mushroom ravioli and baked lasagna for dishes that have proven more popular and cost-effective for the restaurant.
Burleson credits the Sunspot for keeping him interested in the restaurant business on a day-to-day basis. The restaurant’s eclectic menu and continuing potential for adaptation is a contrast to Aubrey’s standard fare. The Sunspot is also on the verge of another physical transformation; after expanding the bar into the old Mynatt’s Shoe Store space a few years ago, now the former Cup-A-Joe location is being incorporated as additional bar space and a section for diners who wish to smoke.
“A lot of people smoke,” Burleson says frankly. “Smokers are the most loyal guests we have.” The addition, which should be complete by the end of March, will also add couches and a lounge feel to the bar area, which is frequently overcrowded on weekends and Tuesdays, when customers take advantage of beer specials.
Burleson says the risk of taking over Sunspot has made him more gutsy and added confidence to his business maneuvers, even those as small as expanding the Sunspot bar. “All the conservative Aubrey’s [investors] are completely against it, so it’s me sticking my neck out again, saying, ‘Guys we’ve got to do this,’” he says. Among his bigger decisions to make have been the purchase of Barley’s and Stefano’s, two of Knoxville’s most popular pizzerias. But Barley’s, which first started in Asheville, is more like Sunspot in its range of sandwiches, salads and diverse toppings.
“Sunspot and Barley’s are like cousins, so Barley’s was really easy for us to bring into the company,” Burleson says. But Stefano’s, the longtime Knoxville chain, is a different story. He says he’s still “at arm’s length” with the newest acquisition, whose different business model makes it a challenge. He hasn’t yet figured out how Stefano’s and its Chicago-style pizza fits into the Aubrey’s picture. “Where does it go? We don’t have that answer yet. We have ideas.”
Ideas are something Burleson has in spades. He thinks a wine bar is on Knoxville’s horizon, and that he’ll open one if someone doesn’t beat him to it. His mission as a restaurateur is to keep having fun, to keep dreaming. The near future contains a new Aubrey’s location in Knoxville proper. He says he has a couple of locations under consideration. But the distant future is an exciting question mark—for Burleson, his business partners, and the diners who love his restaurants.
“There are a lot of things we’d like to do,” he says. “We live in Knoxville, and we want to make our environment a better place.”
March 11, 2004 • Vol. 14, No. 11
© 2004 Metro Pulse
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