Famous Dave's: Dave Anderson

How I Built This with Guy Raz

Guy Raz | Wondery

Business

4.8 • 31.1K Ratings

🗓️ 2 November 2020

⏱️ 77 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Growing up in 1960's Chicago, Dave Anderson didn't eat much deep dish. Instead, his dad took the family to the South Side for barbecue, and those memories—and aromas—stayed with him. For years, Dave tinkered with his own recipes for sauces and sides while working as a salesman and business advisor to Native American tribes. Finally in 1994, he opened his first barbecue shack in the last place you might expect to find one: the little town of Hayward, Wisconsin. The chain grew quickly—too quickly—and Dave developed a love-hate relationship with the brand he'd created, but never lost his passion for smoked ribs and brisket. Today, Famous Dave's has around 125 restaurants across the U.S., making it one of the largest barbecue chains in the country.

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Transcript

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1:01.0	Did you give it the name famous Dave's as kind of a joke? Because you weren't get famous, right?
1:10.0	Well, on the road out of town, there's like Dave's guns, Dave's antiques, Dave's boats.
1:17.0	So I was going to name my place Dave's famous barbecue shaft.
1:22.0	I get my business cards and it said famous Dave's barbecue.
1:27.0	I am mad, can't believe the printer messed up my business cards and my wife said Dave calm down, why don't you just leave it.
1:35.0	So famous Dave's the rest is history.
1:39.0	From NPR, it's how I built this. A show about innovators, entrepreneurs, idealists and the stories behind the movements they built.
1:54.0	I'm Guy Ross and on the show today, have a passion for smoked ribs led Dave Anderson to open a barbecue shack in the middle of nowhere and have a brew into famous Dave's.
2:07.0	One of the biggest barbecue chains in the country.
2:14.0	So most of the biggest restaurant chains started in small places.
2:20.0	McDonald's was born in San Bernardino, California. Domino's in Ipsilanti, Michigan.
	...

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