One man serves Native Grill and Freddy’s Frozen Custard to Idaho

Native Grill & Wings, an Arizona-based family-friendly sports bar/restaurant chain, will open its first Idaho eatery Oct. 31 on Marketplace Boulevard in Nampa with a second Native Grill expected to open by March at North Pointe on State Street in Boise.

The Native Grill in Nampa will be the eighth restaurant Brad Williams has opened in Idaho from his Arizona base since October 2014.

Williams also has the franchise territory for Freddy’s Frozen Custard & Steakburgers for the big cities in Arizona and all of Utah, Idaho and Montana.

He built all seven Freddy’s in Idaho starting in Meridian in October 2014, then Nampa (December 2014), Idaho Falls (January 2015), Caldwell (May 2015), Chubbuck (January  2016), Boise (May 2016), and Eagle (August 2016) with an eighth in the permitting stage in Rexburg.

“I want another couple (Freddy’s) in Boise, Twin Falls and Coeur d’Alene, probably another half dozen (in Idaho),” Williams said.

Adding more Freddy’s and Native Grills depends only on “wherever you can send me to the right piece of ground,” he said.

A third Native Grill could be in store for Twin Falls if Williams finds a suitable location.

“That would definitely be one I look at,” Williams said.

Native Grill & Wings has 32 stores in Arizona, where the company was founded and is headquartered in Chandler. So far, Native Grill has just one each in Montana, South Dakota and Texas with single stores so far planned in Oklahoma and Massachusetts. These are generally franchises owned by people who have a past with Native Grill in Arizona, Williams said.

The Idaho Native Grills are from Williams’ own franchise. Williams actually is chairman/CEO of Wingtime LLC, which became the 90 percent owner of Native Grill & Wings in September 2015. Williams originally planned to be a Native Grill franchise holder but ended up buying the company – and being a franchise holder, too.

Native was founded in 1979 as a pizza place but not many months later shifted its focus to chicken wings. Today it is known for offering 20 flavors of chicken wings, combining a family-friendly environment and a sports bar feel.

Idaho is the fifth state for Native, which until 2014 was called Native New Yorker Grill & Wings. All the expansions beyond Arizona started in 2012, first San Antonio, Texas, then Rapid City, S.D., in 2015 and Missoula, Mont., in January. Native Grills are scheduled to open in March in Tulsa, Okla., and Oxford, Mass.

Williams decided to open a Native Grill in Idaho because he already had a Freddy’s in Idaho.

Freddy’s is based in Wichita, Kan., where Williams lived for 20 years as an attorney. He observed Freddy’s growth after its founding in 2002.

“All of a sudden people were buying up parts of the company (as franchisees),” Williams said.

He said he was the 13^th franchise holder with Freddy’s when he opened his first Freddy’s in Arizona in 2011. Now, nearly half of his 17 stores are in Idaho and four are in Salt Lake City and he has the rights to open up to 60 stores.

His first Freddy’s was in Tucson and since then he expanded along the 112^th longitude line, first to Surprise, a Phoenix suburb, then St. George, Utah, and Salt Lake City.

“With operations in Utah, it made sense to latch on to a couple more states, so that’s what we did,” said Williams. “We really like the (Boise) area overall. For our first store in Meridian, six guys transferred from Surprise. They love Boise.”

In 1½ years, Williams opened five Freddy’s in the Treasure Valley and in that time he also took to the helm of Native Grill.

“When nobody knows your brand, we wanted to get up as many stores as we could,” Williams said.