n TASTE
Owner Travis Hausauer has grown Squeeze
Burger into a small chain through the use of
licensing agreements.
PHOTO BY DEBBIE CUNNINGHAM
Despite Squeeze Burger’s licensing
agreements, Hausauer still calls the de-
cades-old restaurant a family business.
“I’ve worked with my wife, all my kids,
my nephews, my nieces,” he says. “Just
so many of them.” He also counts family
among his licensees; his daughter’s father-
in-law owns the Tracy branch. Hausauer
considers this on-the-job family bonding
one of the main perks of running his own
business. “There’s never been a day when I
didn’t feel like going to work,” he says.
There’s another option for family-
owned chains that want to grow beyond
the bounds of individual ownership with-
out franchising: partnering with a growth
equity platform. The sandwich shop Men-
docino Farms took this route when it sold
a majority stake to TPG Growth, part of
the investment firm TPG, in 2017. At the
time, there were 16 Mendocino Farms
restaurants, all in Southern California.
Less than two years later, the chain has
26 locations stretching almost as far north
as its Mendocino County namesake, in-
cluding a breezy, high-ceilinged spot that
opened in Sacramento’s Ice Blocks devel-
opment in December 2018.
36
comstocksmag.com | October 2019
Cofounder Mario Del Pero, a Yuba
City native who started Mendocino Farms
in 2005 with his East Bay-born wife and
business partner, Ellen Chen, likes to re-
peat an aphorism when explaining the
company’s growth: “If you’re doing it right
in the restaurant space, all ships should
rise with high tide.” Mendocino Farms’ in-
vestors, which have included the grocery
chain Whole Foods since 2015, aren’t the
only rising ships, he says. Customers, em-
ployees and even neighboring business-
es also benefit from every new location.
“In the old days, we would have thought
of (nearby restaurants) as competitors,”
says Del Pero, “but, in fact, we create these
kinds of synergistic dining destinations.”
Del Pero and Chen maintain consider-
able decision-making power. The couple
leverage their status to hold the growing
chain to its founding values: supporting
local artisans and farmers and creat-
ing neighborhood gathering places. “We
want this place to be your favorite place
to come, a place where you feel loved and
cared for,” Del Pero says.
Though Kiki’s Chicken Place has yet to
attract TPG-scale investors, the business
is grounded in similar values. On a recent
summer afternoon, Gonzalez punctuated
her conversation with greetings to every
group that passed through the door —
teenagers enjoying their break from high
school, young men picking up enough
takeout to feed a dozen friends, parents
toting milk bottles for those too small to
eat chicken.
This is all part of her technique for
growth. “If you want to grow, you have to
connect with your community,” she ex-
plains. “As a family-owned business, it’s
incredibly important to make your cus-
tomers feel like part of that family.” n
Jennifer Fergesen is a freelance writer
who covers food and the stories behind
it. Born in New Jersey, she has written for
publications around the world, including
in Iceland and the United Kingdom.Read
more at jcfrgsn.journoportfolio.com.