Mo’ Bettahs was organized under the direction of brothers, Kimo and Kalani Mack. Born and raised in Hawai’i, they had traditional Hawaiian values instilled in them by their parents Thomas and Wilma. As transplants to Utah, Kimo and Kalani envisioned exemplifying those same values through the creation of a traditional Hawaiian barbecue business. It was clear that this business would be differentiated by providing a unique “Hawaiian Style” product and service experience to customers of Utah. With that vision, they created Mo’ Bettah Steaks and opened their flagship restaurant in Bountiful in 2008.

Savory has reached another milestone. Late last month, Mo’Bettahs opened up its 11th restaurant, this one located in Meridian, Idaho. We had lines of customers around the building, eager to experience authentic Hawaiian style food. Through a coordinated effort between the Savory Value-Add Platform and Mo’ Bettahs management, the location was identified, funded, staffed, trained, marketed, and opened within a six-month period. Early performance indicates that this new market will perform at similar levels to the heritage market of Utah.

The new restaurant benefits from revenue that will be generated by catering, drive-thru or delivery. This allows for smaller dining room footprints, decreased build-out costs and a strong risk mitigant that is new to the food and beverage industry. Savory is leveraging this competitive advantage by identifying ever-changing technologies and delivery options. Savory is specifically engineering its restaurants to cater to off-premise customers. 

The new Idaho restaurant is the most recent example of Savory’s strength, innovation, and risk-mitigation strategy. The fund is growing and we are preparing to make additional restaurant investments in the next four months.