re: Is Walk-Ons Starting To Struggle?

Ate Sunday at the Baton Rouge Town Center location. The Patty Melt thingy with Shrimp was excellent. Drinks good. Service was good.

No issues but I’ve gotten to where their salads and poboys are very very very not worth it.

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Do we have any data on the size of their chicken finger? Apparently that’s directly proportional to the billions the owners is worth.


Inversely proportional.

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Thank you! This guy has taken a couple math classes!

Honestly when the first location opened, the one by campus, it was a pretty cool concept. Not really an original concept but it was pretty much a sports bar where you could go grab something to eat. Even then the food was never anything that was great. Its just that it was near campus, a good place to go before a baseball game (or any other sport, I have always gone just for baseball games, during football season it is always packed early), but it was never.. at least to me.. A place to go eat. There are better places to eat, it really is more about location.

I've been to one in Metairie, the one in New Orleans (the one down the road from the Super Dome) and the one in Brusly. The one in New Orleans is the best in terms of food and atmosphere, but again, we went out of convenience. It wouldn't be the first place I would pick.

For me it has never been a place where they have anything where I am like "I can really eat _____ from walkons".

Its not a restaurant, IMO, that can be open in just any location. The best place to open a place like that is somewhere with a lot of foot traffic or that is close to some type of entertainment where people can go grab something to eat before going to whatever.

The first location had meh food and drinks to begin with, but it has a great location and kind of served as a book-end of sorts to campus... Chimes on one end and WalkOns on the other end.

As it expanded, the food never got any better in my opinion. But, these days, slap "Louisiana" on anything, and out of towners love it... so I'm not surprised it has quickly expanded across the country.

I can see where it makes sense if the location is great, near a campus or a stadium, etc, but putting them in random suburb locations... I mean it's just no different than a BWW or any other sports bar and grill.

Ultimately, I think inflation is going to really hurt them. As their supply prices and food prices and labor prices keep going up, they have to raise sales prices, but it's already overpriced to begin with. So then they start to cut costs... and usually labor goes first, service goes down, and people think no way it's worth paying this much for sub-par food AND sub-par service.

Add to that the expansion is being run by "industry professionals" who probably know jack about any kind of Louisiana influence, and you end up with just another generic concept.

Outback is better than Walk-On’s

The one in thibodaux sucks and all their seafood is imported.

I imagine the one in Lafayette is going to, with chimes open and superior about to. Last time I ate there, I was worried I may catch hep C from the waitress touching my plate.

Once they expanded it was a fact it would go downhill. Which is a shame as their Buffalo chicken wrap is one of the best I can find. Don’t really care for anything else on their menu though.

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Related Q: Has anything that was bought by PE actually turned out better?

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Better for the PE investors, yes, for all others probably not. For 7 years I had been feeding my dogs food from a family owned pet food operation in TX in business for almost 50 years which got bought out by a PE firm. Last September had recalls for the first time in history for salmonella contamination, I assume quality control had degraded significantly while prices increased. Lived about 3 miles from where Talenti gelato was made in metro ATL and was awesome, got acquired, went to shite in less than 18 months. I bought some last weekend, still tasteless, Unilever owns it.

"International foods conglomerate Unilever purchased the brand in 2014. In 2017, production was moved from Marietta, Georgia, to Unilever's central ice cream producing facility in Sikeston, Missouri."

Victor brand dog food? Mine ate that and had stomach issues all summer so I kept taking fecal samples to vet. I finally changed their food back to Fromm and no issues. Then the recall of Victor. Turns out, they’d been having issues and when contacted, their customers received cease and desist letters.