Famous Dave's

“Well, you know, one of the things I didn't realize is that when the company went public is you don't own your name anymore.”

“Well, the road to Famous Dave's, not only are we in a small town, but I was also eight miles out of town, and on the road out of town, there's like Dave's Guns, Dave's Antiques, Dave's Boats, so I was going to name my place Dave's Famous Barbecue Shack. We're …”

“I basically, emotionally, legally, financially, was separated out of Famous Dave's.”

“We were supposed to open up at six dollars. We ended up opening at 11.”

“Even though I never advertised, it wasn't but months that the word quickly has spread throughout Wisconsin, and even as far away as Iowa. I mean, we're serving 6000 people a week”

“And today I wish I had fought harder. And I had trusted my gut more, because I would have stayed to the smaller footprints, and I would have stayed to a smaller core menu.”

“Well, there were times when Famous Days had its lows, where I put up my stock as a collateral, and there were margin calls, and by time things were where they were, there wasn't much left.”

“He tried to turn Famous Dave's into a McRib. Got rid of a lot of the history of Famous Dave's. There was a lot of fun antiques that were part of the decor. He started pulling the stuff off the walls. He started getting rid of you know, our honey buttered cornb…”

“Today, there's without a doubt, Jeff listens to me. Jeff is the first CEO that actually brought me back to the board and said, you know, the board needs to hear your ideas, Dave, because after all, you know, I, I'm one of the few barbecue restaurant owners th…”

“I think that was one of the worst mistakes of my life, going public, because I didn't realize that when you go public, you don't own it anymore.”

“Yes, that's one of the unfortunate things of publicly traded companies. They felt they didn't need me, you know.”