Can you imagine what it would be like to serve over 1,000,000 sandwiches? Over 32,000,000 bagels? Over 72,000,000 customers? Reed Beaupre and Matt Smith certainly can. They own and operate the Colorado bagel chain Big Daddy Bagels, and are community leaders in breakfast and lunch cuisine. Through five locations across the state – each exceeding 4.3 stars on Google Reviews – the franchise is a runaway success. It’s also spreading profit on thick, with sales recently increasing by 40%.
For nearly 30 years, this bagel chain has grown, improved, and expanded their customer base significantly. Now, they’re using Otter’s impactful Restaurant Operating System to succeed in the digital age across in-house, delivery, and take-out orders. Big Daddy’s Operational Manager, Matt Smith, controls all the brand’s locations from a single tablet, streamlining its service and sales. Below, you’ll see how tools like POS Integration, Order Manager, and Menu Management bring Big Daddy Bagels major revenue. Let’s dig in!
How did you get started at Big Daddy Bagels?
Reed: I started working in the restaurant business when I was 12 years old as a dishwasher. I worked my way up to being a chef. I went to college, but I decided I wanted to stay in the vein of restaurants. I actually got recruited into the business by a family member. We opened up a store in Fort Collins called Rocky Mountain Bagel Works, which is what we were called initially, but we ended up changing our name and went our own way. That was a long time ago, now.
What keeps you at the restaurant?
I really like dealing with customers – serving people and having those interpersonal interactions. Especially with the regulars. I know people that have been coming in for 25 years! I’ve had a lot of experiences like that.
How has the Big Daddy Bagels brand grown?
We have five locations. Our first was in Boulder, Colorado, in 1996. We didn’t open another location for 10 years. Once we opened that second one up, though, it was easy to open the third and fourth. We just opened our fifth this year in Lakewood.
Since starting the restaurant, what have you learned?
A lot! You’ve got to be really detail-oriented, right? You can’t take anything for granted. You have to dot every I and cross every T. By the same token, you need to be flexible, because nothing turns out the way it’s planned on paper. You think that you can never do too much planning, but when you start working, nothing turns out as planned. So that’s what I’ve learned: to just kind of go with it.
If you want to open a restaurant, or any kind of business, it’s all problem-solving. There are always problems: The plumbing’s not working. The ovens aren’t working. How do we do this? This customer had a bad experience – how do you appease that person? Every day is a whole new set of challenges. Very rarely do I get something that I’ve experienced before.
What is the most challenging thing about running a restaurant?
The most challenging things have changed. It used to be just the day-to-day grind and maintenance and staying on-top of equipment. Nowadays – and I’m sure a lot of other companies are experiencing this – it’s difficult with employees. Not having enough employees. There seems to be a lot of these types of jobs and not that many people to go around. So that’s been the biggest challenge these days: staffing.
What is the most satisfying time of year for a restaurant owner?
(laughs) Probably the Christmas party. I get to see everybody and there’s no pressure. I don’t have to tell anybody to do anything. We can just have a holiday beverage and chat about how our lives are going and stuff. That’s probably our crew’s favorite day of the year.
What advice would you give to other restaurant owners?
You can’t have any quitting. People try to make you quit. Life events try to make you quit. So you can’t have any of that. You have to have your eye on the prize, right? And just keep working towards what your eventual end is. I mean, that’s the biggest thing: how much can you take? That’s what I say to people getting into the business: How much can you take? Because you’re going to get a lot of challenges thrown at you. You can be on a roller coaster: riding the highs and plunging the lows. You just have to ride it out.
That’s the biggest personality trait restaurant people have: Commitment. You have to be committed and stick to it, as best as you can. Which is really easy to say, because I certainly haven’t done that all the time, but that’s what I had to do to survive. Try to be that way.
Who supports you at Big Daddy Bagels?
My wife Rebecca is my business partner. We’ve been married for 30 years. We got married young and opened the business together. Most people that open up a business together don’t stay together. But we’ve been able to figure it out and move forward. She’s the brains and I’m the talent. She does the books, and I’m the one that does all the recipes and the menus.
Matt’s our general manager for all stores. My wife calls him MUM, which stands for Multi-Use Manager. We got him involved because it started to be too much work for just the two of us. We needed to bring somebody in. During the first year of COVID, we interviewed a lot of people – some looked better on paper. Meeting him, he had the right temperament and just a great attitude. Him being here has been really helpful to the business.
What has your brand’s experience with Otter been like?
Matt: Otter has been great. I joined this company just over three years ago – at that time, they weren’t using an integration system. We tried a couple other ones out, and then we finally switched to Otter. It’s been great for us. We initially did the integration through the tablet, so everything came through on one printer.
In about a year, we fully integrated our POS system. Ever since then, it’s been great. Definitely a lot more convenient than having to deal with multiple tablets dinging in your ear all the time. Realistically, now, we don’t have to deal with any tablet, because everything comes straight through our POS. So super-streamlined and efficient.
How do you balance online delivery with in-person orders?
We have our own online store as well as our physical locations for in-person sales. We have our third-party sales through Otter. We prioritize in-house orders, because we’re a bagel shop and we get things out really quick. So when somebody comes through the door, and they get a bagel with cream cheese, or bacon, egg and cheese, we make their food first. But as soon as a third-party ticket comes in, we start it right away and make it.
Has Big Daddy Bagels always served delivery?
No, we’d never done any delivery until we brought in third-parties about four years ago. At first it was a nightmare, trying to do DoorDash, Grubhub, UberEats… the tablets were all ringing at once. Now that it’s all streamlined, it really doesn’t matter where an order comes from, because it just looks like a standard ticket. So it’s super, super easy. Yeah, Otter’s definitely streamlined the process for us.
With Otter’s tablet, which we keep in the office, you can mark things out-of-stock, you can change wait times, pretty much everything you need to do for all of your third-party platforms. You just do it straight through the Otter tablet. Super convenient and easy.
What restaurant tech did you use before switching to Otter?
We tried [a competitor] first, and they were a trainwreck. We ended up switching to Otter over all the other options. I’ve been reached out to by so many crazy companies – like, Canadian-based companies, U.S.-based companies, and they’re all super overpriced for the exact same thing. From a restaurant or business’s point-of-view, nobody likes third-party platforms, but they’re a necessity. Otter makes something you really don’t want to do better, which is nice.
How has Otter affected Big Daddy Bagels’ revenue?
As soon as we integrated with our POS, our sales coming through the tablet increased by probably 40%. We definitely increased sales by being fully integrated with Otter.
What are some of your favorite Otter features?
Auto-Accept. Basically, we have the tablets in the office so employees and staff don’t have to worry about accepting orders. We have Auto-Accept, and then we have 15- or 20-minute work pickup times. So, basically, it’s out of sight, out of mind. Tickets come through our POS on a regular printer, and it’s just like an in-house order.
The menu updating features are super easy, because I can update menus for all our platforms in one place. I used to have to go to Grubhub, UberEats, DoorDash, and update one menu, one item at a time. It was a nightmare. Now it’s everything in one place. One menu, publish it, and it’s done, which is great. Our staff loves the ability to mark items as out-of-stock, too.
What does your staff think about Otter?
They all like Otter, definitely, compared to [competitor]. We also used another third-party who doesn’t integrate with Otter, and their receipts print out all weird. It’s definitely not as organized as Otter is.
How does Otter’s POS integration support Big Daddy Bagels?
We’re using Otter’s Square integration, and it streamlines everything. Orders just come through – even if you’re understaffed, you just make the order and don’t have to worry about it. There’s no dinging, there’s no accepting. There’s no beeping in your ear. The order just comes through, you make it, and you’re done. Super smooth.
How would you describe Otter to other restaurants?
I would describe Otter as “simplification of technology”. You don’t have to worry about multiple tablets. You don’t have to worry about accepting orders. You don’t have to worry about publishing multiple menus – it changes everything. It’s all in one place, and it’s super, super simplified. Really easy – straight-to-the-point convenient. I’d say it’s worth the money.
That’s how Big Daddy Bagels hits big with every order on Otter!
By incorporating Otter’s Restaurant Operating System into their workflow, Big Daddy Bagels has sped up their store’s processes – and revenue. Our solutions for orders, menus, and integrations keep each of the brand’s locations productive, even when they’re short on staff. As this bagel chain continues to grow across Colorado, Otter’s support will grow with it – and continue helping it succeed. With the extra capacity that Otter provides, Big Daddy Bagels is well-equipped to serve its next 72,000,000 customers!
