Freebirds Takes Flight

Freebirds is not part of the run-of-the-mill Tex mix with a routine Tex Mex menu. Like the customized Harley hanging overhead with a high-spirited Statue of Liberty rider, it's a build-your-own burrito commingled with fun and flair. "It's a cult following," Alan Hixon, Freebirds' president and COO, a six-year veteran of the company, tells GSR. "To have that kind of fanatical customer is highly unusual. What makes us different is the overall experience. We ship burritos all over the country, even to the White House."

Hixon, a 20-year restaurant executive, says each decision, including the expansion plan, is put to a test before it's implemented. "We always ask 'How do we do that in a Freebirds' kind of way?'" he said, citing the logo's backward "F" as a testament to the drive to be unusual. "It's all about freedom and the ability to accomplish great things and doing it in a way that's not normal. And, that's what we do with respect to the restaurant industry."

First, employees' individuality is encouraged. "They can have green hair if they want," Hixon says. "We just want them to be themselves."

Second, Freebirds' 2,500-sf to 3,000-sf interiors cost roughly $500,000 to finish out. Each store has a customized Harley-Davidson, except for one in Houston which is sporting a roller coaster with Barbara Bush and Willie Nelson riding in place of the familiar three-dimensional Libby. Voodoo Customs of Austin creates the ride while teams of artists air brush clouds with subliminal shapes and other murals to ensure each interior's uniqueness. "We don't bring in wallpaper and tile by the truckload," Hixon says. "We want to provide an awe-inspiring experience."

Third, the restaurant staff prepares ingredients and sauces each day for build-to-suit, foil-wrapped burritos, sized to whet all appetites. When the food's gone, customers twist the foil into pieces of art and tack it to the wall. Hixon says the art, almost always intricate designs, is removed several times a week to make room for other customers' creations.

The first Freebirds opened in 1987, the brainstorm of college roommates Mark Orfalea and Pierre Dupe, who gamed out a taqueria-style restaurant in their dorm at the University of California at Santa Barbara. Dupe went on to become an accountant and Orfalea followed the restaurant dream. Hixon says three years later Dupe was headed to College Station, TX, home to Texas A&M University, to test drive his version of Freebirds. His next move was Austin and then he held firm to two locations until 1999 when Hixon came on board. Hixon was working with a company that wanted to buy Freebirds and ended up joining the team as vice president.

Two years ago, Hixon became president and COO, recapitalizing Freebirds with backing from the Houston Texans' Steve McKinney and the now-retired Ryan Young. Hixon also charted the expansion plan that year.

All are corporate-owned restaurants, except for Orfalea's in Santa Barbara which is and will remain the only licensed location, according to Hixon. The Austin-based Freebirds is up to 11 Texas restaurants after opening four last year; it goes to an even dozen in March when doors swing open on a fourth location in Austin. In the fourth quarter, Freebirds flies into San Antonio. Hixon says there will be at least 20 Freebirds by 2006. "We're being very deliberate in our growth," he stresses, citing the heated competition among fast-casual chains as reason to keep the future locations under wraps. The plan, he admits, includes making runs in neighboring states.

Freebirds executive team grabs end-cap locations in class A retail centers with leases and options for a 15-year or more term. The team's now gaming out a freestanding unit, which is expected to open next year.

"The unique challenge for this account," says Mike Mayse, president of the architectural firm Mayse & Associates Inc. of Dallas, "is working hand-in-hand with Freebird's artist in providing the necessary architectural and structural details for safely securing and displaying the various artistic elements, such as the trademark suspended motorcycles and riders busting through the wall." Philomena Hu is Mayse's project architect for the account.

Hixon won't disclose the volume of the 11 restaurants, but did say it surpasses all expectations. "It's higher than what is normally seen for our square footage," he says. "We've proven to ourselves that the concept had greater legs than most people thought. We'd been penciled into a college-oriented concept."

Long after they graduate, Texas A&M alumni keep coming back for more, delivering a built-in customer base for a chain that's maturing alongside its patrons. A Freebirds survey showed a high percentage of longtime customers, with one reporting that he ordered the identical burrito several times a week for the past decade. The survey also showed 50% of its customers stack the same burrito with every visit.

Freebirds' three-year recapitalization plan reaches its term in 2006. Careful not to tip his hand, Hixson says then "it's time to get to the next level. The potential for the brand is very huge, but we don't want to get ahead of ourselves. We are committed to and focused on accomplishing the strategic plan for 2006."