Brunch is growing in demand, but families with young children know the leisurely two- to three-hour affair is not really an option.
Enter Vicious Biscuit, a fast-casual breakfast, lunch and brunch concept out of Mount Pleasant, S.C., which is moving out of the South to spread the love of biscuits.
The concept was co-founded by Michael Greeley and George McLaughlin, who is now CEO. At the time, both had young families and saw an opportunity to build a brand around a brunch experience that could be a bit, well, faster.
The first location, just north of Charleston, S.C., opened in late 2018 in about 2,000-square feet. Lines were out the door, but McLaughlin said the restaurant could still get folks in and out within about 45 minutes.
Guests order at the counter and sit. Food is run to tables. On the menu is a lineup of biscuit-based dishes—they’re really knife-and-fork sandwiches—with playful names.
Top sellers include the namesake Viscious Biscuit (fried chicken on a cheddar jalapeno biscuit with maple-sausage gravy, candied jalapenos and a maple syrup drizzle), as well as the Fat Boy (buttermilk biscuit with fried chicken, pimento cheese and a hot honey drizzle), and the more classic Shrimp & Grits (on a buttermilk biscuit with bacon crumbles and chives).
The menu at Vicious Biscuit is breakfast and brunch focused. | Photo courtesy of Andrew Cebulka.
There are more healthful options (oatmeal, egg white omelet and more), as well as a kid’s menu—and even bowls, which were added recently for Gen Z diners who love everything in one bowl.
And there’s a short menu of cocktails, like mimosas, the Vicious Mary and a Vicious Screwdriver, though McLaughlin said alcohol typically accounts for about 4% to 5% of sales, though it can go as high as 8% in some markets.
“We’re really driven by our food,” said McLaughlin.
And he added, “Everybody loves biscuits.”
At Vicious Biscuit, they are made from scratch in each restaurant. The primary one is a buttermilk biscuit with a drop-biscuit-like crumb, not the layered, flaky style that requires more labor.
With franchising now taking off, McLaughlin notes that the menu makes good use of small number of SKUs. The biscuit dough is cross-utilized for beignets, as well as jalapeno cheddar “pups” (like hush puppies) and sweet potato fritters.
Seven of the 10 units are company owned, and three franchise locations have opened over the past year or so, including units in Ohio. Because the chain is open from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m., it offers a better quality of life for operators, with evenings free, McLaughlin said.
Four more restaurants are expected to open over the next few months, and another five or six are expected to open next year. McLaughlin said the chain should double in unit count by the end of 2026.
This year has brought the chain’s evolving tech investments to fruition.
In August, Vicious Biscuit launched a new app and rewards program. Guests can earn points toward free food or discounts, but also get birthday perks, early access to promotions and new menu items, and secret menu items.
Amanda Kahalehoe, Vicious Biscuit’s COO, said a goal is to win that data to better understand the brand’s customers and what they want.
“Most brands enact loyalty because their competition is. But they don’t really do anything with it,” said Kahalehoe. “It’s what you do with it that matters.”
Vicious Biscuit is growing into a very data-driven brand, she said. “We’re not just making decisions based on what we think or perceive, or what’s subjective. But it’s really fact based.”
That data will help Vicious Biscuit grow, fundamentally, by better understanding what drives traffic.
Kahalehoe is building a tech stack that will support the brand to 1,000 units, potentially, without having to keep replacing things.
“We don’t want to get to 50 units and have to unwind a point of sale, or build a new loyalty program,” she said. “But if you have the key infrastructure there, and you have the really good tools that are integrated well, you can continue to scale effectively.”
Guests order at the counter and food is run to tables. | Photo courtesy of Andrew Cebulka.
Catering is an opportunity, she said. The goal is to reach between 5% to 10% in catering sales, and the new app includes a new catering menu. Vicious Biscuit is also targeting the “gatekeepers,” people who book catering for offices or pharmaceutical reps, with extra rewards to keep them coming back.
“There are not a lot of brands out there that do great breakfast catering,” she said. “But we have our own one-part approach so that we can really show what our product looks like, that there’s upselling opportunities for the guests, and that they’re able to order different sides. We can customize. They can reorder at will. And, if they’re a school or tax-exempt, they’re able to just load that in there, so they can transact independently.”
Vicious Biscuit is up against a few biscuit specialists. There’s the 69-unit Maple Street Biscuit Co., owned by Cracker Barrel, though that concept is closing some units. There’s also the 86-unit Biscuitville.
The fast-casual segment more broadly has seen sales dip this year amid an uncertain economy. But McLaughlin said Vicious Biscuit has seen a lift in sales and traffic—though there has been some trade down on alcohol.
McLaughlin declined to reveal sales (on the franchising website, the company said the top 50% of the system sees an average unit volume of $2.1 million).
But McLaughlin said consumers see the brand as offering a good value.
“We’re delivering a very high quality, chef-driven-type food for value that most people are just blown away by when they visit us,” he said. “There seems to be some doom and gloom in the market. Fortunately, we’re not facing that.”