When The Melt CEO Ralph Bower visits his restaurants, he likes to randomly ask team members what their No. 1 goal is for the brand.
The correct answer is very simple (and, if they get it right, he says he will often hand that team member a $20 bill on the spot).
The No. 1 goal for everyone working at The Melt is to deliver an “I Love It Here” experience.
Bower literally wants every guest in any of the restaurants (or ordering for delivery) to say they love it there. And he wants every team member to know that’s their job.
It’s not so much a mission statement as an obsession, Bower explains.
In each restaurant twice a day, every team member is asked about the No. 1 goal and how they are delivering that “I Love It Here” experience.
That could be surprising each guest with a quarter of a warm cookie before they leave, for example. Or maybe, if a side of fries is forgotten in a delivery, the team member can pop those fries into an Uber to get delivered, without asking permission. (Team members have up to $100 per guest to do whatever is needed, Bower said.)
“I Love It Here” guides every decision made in restaurants, whether it’s an element of construction or a change to the menu, he said.
“If we see food that’s not made properly, I don’t say ‘it’s not toasted right, or it doesn’t have enough cheese.’ I say, ‘Is this I Love It Here’?” Bower said.
At most restaurant chains, employees might have a vague idea of the mission. But Bower sees this No. 1 goal as fundamental.
It’s like having a team of highly skilled football players, he said. “No matter how good they are, if they all run a different play, that’s a team that’s going to lose.”
And, at The Melt, the “I Love It Here” experience seems to be paying off.
Known for burgers and other things dripping with melted cheese, The Melt recently opened its 19th unit, with another seven scheduled to open around Southern California this year, all company owned. Within five years, Bower believes the chain could grow to a total of 85 company units.
It’s an acceleration of growth, after opening three restaurants last year.
Later in 2026, The Melt is planning to launch franchising with the goal of spreading the brand across the country. That growth will be in addition to the company-owned locations planned.
The Melt hasn’t filed its franchise documents yet, but Bower said the chain has grown its average unit volume from about $1.5 million going into COVID-19 to more than $3.5 million today.
Same-store sales were up about 5% in 2025, he said. “And that was one of the slower years we’ve had. In light of what’s going on with the rest of the industry, I think it’s pretty good,” he said. Traffic has been positive for a decade.
Bower has worked to keep pricing low, though The Melt did raise prices about 2% in December to deal with rising costs.
But The Melt hasn’t really had to discount.
“If you’re a brand that can deliver on exceptional guest experience, then you don’t have to negotiate on price,” he said.
He boasts that the brand has average Yelp and Google scores between 4.6 and 4.7, with some stores hitting 4.9. “That’s almost impossible,” he said. “No one has guest feedback like we do.”
The Melt was born at a time when Silicon Valley money was seemingly raining from the sky. Founded in San Francisco by tech mogul Jonathan Kaplan (known for the Flip Video camera) in 2011, The Melt was originally a grilled cheese-and-soup concept. It was also an early adopter of touch-screen and mobile ordering. Kaplan had ambitious plans, pledging to open 500 units by 2015.
That didn’t happen. And, in fact, some early units in Texas and Colorado were later closed. At the time, poor real estate decisions were blamed.
Bower came on board as CEO in 2016. The next year, The Melt pivoted, rebuilding the menu into more of a burger brand with other melty things.
Now The Melt is known for its signature MeltBurger, featuring a mix of Angus and Wagyu beef topped with two slices of aged cheddar melted on the grill and topped with a pickle-jalapeno mix that adds a bit of kick. The meat is chopped, not ground, so there’s space for the cheese to really melt in, said Bower.
There are other “melted goodness” comfort foods: a crispy buttermilk-brined chicken sandwich, grilled cheese (of course), mac & cheese, and shakes made with real ice cream.
About 60% of sales is off-premise, including 40% through third-party delivery.
For those channels, the “I Love It Here” experience translates to accuracy. Bower said the chain tracks errors, and reduction of mistakes is tied to bonuses. The Melt has reduced its delivery error rate from about one error per $2,000 in sales to one per about $4,500, he said.
“In the restaurant industry, you move what you measure,” he said. “When we put bonus dollars against it, people got really good at reducing errors.”
The Melt is also open late, depending on location, with some units open until 3 a.m.
In fact, Bower said about one-third of the chain’s restaurants do more than $2 million in annual sales after 10 p.m.
The brand loves urban and college-campus-adjacent locations, not surprisingly. But this year The Melt is opening in two lifestyle malls (exterior pads) and Bower said it is proving out the model in all sorts of spots.
The Melt recently hired Greg Vojnovic as head of franchising. He worked previously at Popeyes with Bower, who was then president of the U.S. division. (Bower was also once CEO of Pei Wei, and he held leadership roles at Yum Brands, KFC and Domino’s.)
Franchising will largely focus on geographies outside California and Bower said they plan to go slow, and find the right partners (and real estate).
“We don’t have to go fast on franchising,” he said. “We’re not desperate for those dollars, so we can afford to do it the right way.
“Everybody says that,” he quickly added. “But we’re really going to do it.”