Felipe’s Taqueria co-owner on prioritizing internal growth over unit growth
Take-Away with Sam Oches
Nation's Restaurant News
4.9 • 17 Ratings
🗓️ 29 July 2025
⏱️ 57 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this episode of Take-Away with Sam Oches, Sam talks with Pike Howard, the co-owner of Felipe’s Taqueria, a six-unit fast-casual concept out of New Orleans that has prioritized its systems and business model in its nearly 20 years in business as it slowly grows across the South. Pike was a finance guy when his father-in-law pulled him into the Felipe’s business, and that mindset has benefited the company as Pike has helped it develop a strong brand identity, vision, and infrastructure and to resist the urge to grow quickly. Pike joined the podcast to talk about why unit growth has not been as much of a priority as internal growth and how the fast-casual category’s evolution has made hospitality all the more important to today’s consumer.
In this conversation, you’ll find out why:
- Sometimes you need to let guests choose their own adventure in your restaurant
- Growth can be a distraction, so set clear growth goals and stick to them
- Restaurants are a math problem and operators need to know that math
- You have to be honest with your customers when things go bad
- The data you collect is a relationship building tool
- Innovating with your beverage program is not a very heavy lift
Register for CREATE, our event for emerging restaurateurs, by clicking here.
Have feedback or ideas for Take-Away? Email Sam at sam.oches@informa.com.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey there, welcome to Takeaway with Sam Ocas, a podcast from Nation's Restaurant News. |
| 0:04.6 | I'm Sam Ocas editor-in-chief here at NRN, and this is the show where I give you an all-access |
| 0:08.9 | pass to the restaurant industry's most influential decision-makers. |
| 0:12.8 | This week, I'm talking with Pike Howard, the co-owner of Felipe's Takaria, a six-unit-fast casual |
| 0:19.3 | concept out of New Orleans that has prioritized its systems |
| 0:22.8 | and its business model in its nearly 20 years in business as it grows slowly across the south. |
| 0:28.9 | Pike was a finance guy when his father-in-law pulled him into the Felipe's business, |
| 0:33.6 | and that mindset has really benefited the company as Pike has helped it to develop a strong brand identity, a vision, and an infrastructure, and to resist the urge to grow quickly. |
| 0:44.5 | The result is a unique and healthy business that really leans into its hospitality and its hybrid service model with a full bar as differentiating factors. |
| 1:00.0 | Pike joined the podcast to talk about why unit growth has not been as much of a priority as internal growth and how the fast casual category's evolution has made hospitality all the more important to today's |
| 1:05.0 | consumer. In this interview, you will learn more about why you sometimes need to let guests |
| 1:10.0 | choose their own adventure in your restaurant, why you sometimes need to let guests choose their own |
| 1:11.4 | adventure in your restaurant, while you have to be honest with your customers when things go bad, |
| 1:16.1 | and how the data you collect is a relationship-building tool. Also, reminder, we are gearing up for an |
| 1:21.9 | incredible create event for emerging restaurateurs this October 15th through 17th in Nashville. Our agenda is nearly |
| 1:30.6 | set in stone and it features leaders from companies like Kava, Din Tai Fung, Fogo des Chou, |
| 1:35.9 | Honeygrove, and Dutch Brows, not to mention a keynote chat and performance from the Bacon |
| 1:42.5 | Brothers starring none other than Kevin Bacon himself. |
| 1:46.3 | Also, if you're an emerging restaurant leader, we have a special session that will allow you |
| 1:51.3 | to pitch your concept directly to investors, but act now as spots are limited. |
| 1:57.7 | This event is free to restaurant operators to attend, so go register at |
| 2:02.1 | create.nrn.com today. Jumping now into my interview with Felipe's Takaria, co-owner, Pike |
... |
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