By ANDREW BAILEY
BG Independent News Correspondent
Scott Dailey officially bought BG Burgers on March 16 — the same day the Trump Administration released guidelines to encourage social distancing and close restaurants, bars and more.
“It was possibly the worst day in the history of the U.S. to buy a restaurant, but I did it,” Dailey said.
The previous owner, Chris Kline, was looking to sell the restaurant at 1424 E Wooster St, because of his Parkinson’s disease. Dailey had been a restaurant consultant for Gordon Food Services for 15 years, and after hearing of the opportunity from a mutual acquaintance of his and Kline’s, decided to realize his dream of owning a restaurant in Bowling Green, a place he has always felt at home.
BG Burgers is the first restaurant Dailey has ever owned, and because of this, he has the unique perspective of only running the restaurant during a nationwide pandemic. But Dailey sees an upside to it.
“I think I would’ve had a harder time if I had bought it a year before and then had to adjust,” Dailey said. “It was kind of a blessing in disguise because I didn’t have any time period where I was operating outside of the COVID-19 pandemic. Everything is normal for me right now.”
It hasn’t been completely smooth sailing though, especially from a business standpoint. They’ve felt the coronavirus’ impact in their year-over-year sales and have had to sacrifice some of their bottom line to bring on additional staff, Dailey said.
Dailey calls this approach, “doing the right thing.”
“It’s easy to buy cheaper ingredients or not have that additional employee come in. Because over a year’s time, that adds up to a lot of money that your business can make. We don’t believe in cutting those corners,” Dailey said.
After the coronavirus led to meat shortages across the country, Dailey saw the price of ground beef more than triple since the two weeks of training he had before officially becoming owner.
He came to the crossroads of either losing money on the meat he purchases or switching to a cheaper grade of meat. He opted for the former, to “maintain that high-end hamburger.”
Like many other restaurants, BG Burgers has had to adapt their service model to fit the
COVID-19 guidelines. Through thorough sanitization, trying to keep customers and employees six feet apart and having hand sanitizer readily available, they’ve been sticking to “the standard stuff,” according to Dailey.
But the coronavirus didn’t stop Dailey from following through on his plans for the restaurant after buying it. He revamped the menu to keep what they thought were the best items and added, “their own flair” to old and new items.
One of these new changes to the menu was discontinuing their partnership with DiBenedetto’s subs, and creating and selling their own subs instead, a decision Dailey said was a mutual decision.
Another change Dailey is in the process of making is how they serve customers, for a quicker service.
“This used to be a full-service restaurant. You come in, sit down, get a menu, have a server. We’re more of a service restaurant now, so we want to get more people in here to eat,” Dailey said.
His way of doing this is by emulating the “Five Guys system” of placing an order, getting a number and picking up the food from the counter after the number is called.
Despite the coronavirus’ impact from a financial and customer service standpoint, Dailey cites the community’s support of local businesses as something which has kept BG Burgers afloat.
“I can’t say enough about the support just from word-of-mouth and a social media standpoint. Everybody just gets behind the independent businesses of this community and it’s been a huge help,” Dailey said.
The Bowling Green community is what drew Dailey back after moving to Indiana for his job with Gordon Food Service. The community rallying behind the local businesses is what makes Dailey a proud resident of the city and plays a part in why Dailey decided to move forward with buying BG Burgers despite the impending pandemic.
But buying a restaurant is a decision that comes with second-guessing, and Dailey’s 90 days of ownership have seen him worrying if he made the right decision at the right time.
However, those 90 days have also been an enjoyable time for Dailey.
“It’s been the best decision I’ve ever made. It’s so much fun running a restaurant. I knew I would like, I didn’t know it was gonna be fun,” Dailey said.
If he could go back in time and see coronavirus-laden future that awaited him after buying the restaurant, he would still go through with it.
“Aside from wishing the pandemic had never occurred, I wouldn’t change anything,” Dailey said. “If I had had a crystal ball and known that the pandemic was gonna hit, I would still buy the restaurant. Absolutely no doubt about it.”
