The Daily Gamecock

Local Bojangles' serves gameday fans

	<p>Up to 40 people work at the Bluff Road Bojangles’ on any given gameday. Franchise owner Eddie Frazier says the restaurant’s profits expand nearly 300 percent when the Gamecocks play at home compared to regular service days.</p>
Up to 40 people work at the Bluff Road Bojangles’ on any given gameday. Franchise owner Eddie Frazier says the restaurant’s profits expand nearly 300 percent when the Gamecocks play at home compared to regular service days.

Bluff Road restaurant serves 4,000 pieces of chicken for home games

Sitting in one of the tables in the center of the dining room, Eddie Frazier swirls his Diet Coke around in a bright yellow cup.

He stares out the window of his restaurant, the Bojangles’ on Bluff Road, directly across from Williams-Brice Stadium, into the tailgating lots that were once home to a farmers market. Frazier has watched the area that surrounds his domain grow and change since he took over as the franchisee of the location in 2008.

“There’s a lot of room for us to grow,” he says, shifting his weight in one of the chairs in the dining room.

He’s talking about the Bojangles’ company, not his location specifically. While the Bojangles’ chain has grown to around 550 restaurants since the first location opened in 1977 in Charlotte, N.C., Frazier’s store on Bluff Road has been trying to keep up with what he says is a growing demand for biscuits and chicken.

“Wherever they eat biscuits, we will go,” he says. “If you eat grits for breakfast and fried chicken for lunch, we’ll be there.”

It’s an exciting time for the franchise, but right now, Frazier is more worried about how many pounds of chicken will be delivered for this weekend’s game than how many stores will open up this year. On Saturday, his staff will work from before the sun rises to well after the moon appears over Williams-Brice.

‘That’s a lot of food’

According to Frazier, 3:30 p.m. games are the busiest for his staff. But the real work begins 12 hours before kickoff at 3:30 a.m., when the first of the workers report to the store.

The chicken will have already been marinated and the mixes for the biscuits will have been prepared. The restaurant will be clean and everything will be in order for when the hoards of hungry fans begin to queue up.

The biscuit-makers are the first to arrive at work, rolling out the dough that will eventually be made into 5,000 biscuits. Three people will work nonstop throughout the day, a continuous cycle of rolling, shaping, coating with butter and baking that starts around 4:30 a.m. in the five biscuit ovens.

The store will open up around 5:30 a.m., the same time chicken is being fried up for the first customers who are lining up to gather supplies to stock their tailgates. By now, the chicken will have marinated for 24 hours to make sure the flavors are consistent throughout each bite.

Chicken Supremes are the biggest seller on gamedays, according to Frazier. At the end of the day, around 4,000 pieces of chicken, 1,500 pounds of fries, 100 pounds of macaroni and cheese and “gallons and gallons” of dirty rice will have moved from the back of the kitchen into the hands of hungry game-goers and out the door.

And since the thirsty fans need something to wash down the boxes of biscuits, tenders and fries, Frazier’s staff makes a new 40-gallon batch of iced tea every 30 minutes.
“That’s a lot of food,” Frazier says, chuckling and taking another sip of his Diet Coke.

On the front lines

Throughout the course of a gameday, 14 fryers in the kitchen will be sizzling away, filled to the brim with hot oil. According to Frazier, there will be half a dozen people who do nothing but fry chicken all day long.

On any given gameday, there are up to 40 people working, compared to the 15 or 18 who would come to work on a normal day.

Outside the kitchen, there are between four and seven cashiers, three to four people cleaning the dining room, three or four others keeping the surrounding parking lots orderly and two security guards on duty all day.

And that’s not even counting everyone in the mobile kitchen, which is essentially a full kitchen stuffed into a trailer that employs around six people on gamedays. Located in the parking lot nearest to Bluff Road, people will form a single-file line across the pavement and onto the sidewalk. Inside, there are fryers and packers, just as there are in the main building.

“I’ll tell you what,” Frazier says, glancing over his shoulder, across the counter and into the kitchen. “This is a great group of people that, when push comes to shove, they can really move food out of here.”

Frazier’s staff receives as much gameday preparation as possible, but it’s harder to train people outside of football season without high-volume days. Aside from the spring football game and the Kenny Chesney concert last semester, business was relatively slow.

But as soon as football season picks back up, many of the staffers are working 50 or 60 hours in a game week.

During football season, Frazier says, “You get all the hours you want here.”

‘A good problem to have’

The kitchen was expanded a few years ago, doubling the space in order to accommodate larger gameday crowds. However, the bathrooms were not expanded, which left the restaurant with an extra-large kitchen and restrooms that could barely keep up with the masses who come into the restaurant seven days each year.

“Just think, when you get 80,000 people drinking beer and walking around, you’ve got to have some bathrooms, you know?” Frazier says.

The restaurant has expanded its efforts from just the kitchen to the surrounding lots, adding in the mobile kitchen and a 25-foot-long bank of six extra bathrooms equipped with plumbing, air conditioning and electricity.

“It’s a good problem to have,” Frazier adds. “It’s the only place I’m facing exponential growth that may outstrip my ability to grow it. I wish I had this problem everywhere.”

Tom Regan, an associate professor in USC’s Department of Sport and Entertainment Management, conducted a study on gameday profits in Columbia in 2008 and is in the midst of re-creating his study this season with the most recent statistics.

According to Regan’s findings, the games leading up to the Carolina-Clemson matchup garnered approximately $6.26 million in economic impact per game, bringing a total of 660,000 fans to the area.

These games leading up to the ultimate rivalry game had local fans spending approximately $67.40 each game and out-of-town fans dropping around $162.20 when it came to gameday expenses such as tickets, travel, tailgating and food.

Enter Bojangles’.

Organized chaos

Less than an hour before the Gamecocks face off against Coastal Carolina, Bojangles’ kitchen is hopping. Shouts for more straws over here and an extra biscuit over there cut through the sounds of the organized chaos.

“12 piece! 12 piece!”

“I need three Chicken Supremes up here, soon as you can.”

“Behind you with hot, behind you with hot!”

The floor is slick with grease, but no one is slipping on it; there’s no time for that today. The line is out the door and wrapped around the building.

The screen displaying the orders being taken and filled changes and blinks rapidly like a strobe light. People bustle by one another from one side of the cramped kitchen to the other, packing cardboard cartons and yelling for more food.

An employee holding straws and lids is stationed next to the door to ensure that each customer leaves with one of each.

There are four cashiers behind the counter, trading debit cards for boxes filled with the food of the South. Someone else is manning the drive-thru window, which has been converted into a walk-up window to maximize locations where customers can place their orders.

“Hot biscuits coming through, hot biscuits!” Frazier cries, as he scurries out of the kitchen and across the parking lot to the outdoor trailer, where the line stretches almost to the street. The door to the mobile kitchen is wide open, providing easy access to the cashier — who is working without a cash register — to reach back and fill orders.

Cooking for Clemson

When Frazier finally slows down long enough to stand still, he says despite the hectic atmosphere, its actually been a pretty slow day.

“The weather was bad earlier, and we’re playing an early game against Coastal,” he says. “We’re hoping for better weather for Clemson. It should be a full day.”

The Palmetto State showdown will bring a much larger, much hungrier crowd to the restaurant next weekend, Frazier says, even though there are hundreds of people around in the parking lot, taking up any available space — picnic tables, truck beds and even the curb.

Regan’s 2008 report says that for the game against Clemson, there were over 82,000 fans in attendance. When fans came to tailgate before the big game, the local fans’ spending jumped up nearly $60 to $97.40. Out-of-town Gamecock fans paid nearly 30 percent more than their regularly season total, spending approximately $212.20 for just that day. The 2008 report stated an overall economic impact of around $8 million in Columbia, according to Regan — more than $1.7 million more than any other game of the season.

Frazier estimates his profits expand nearly 300 percent on gamedays compared to days throughout the offseason.

Just before the game starts, Frazier’s business partner Henry Atkins walks up to check in and make sure everything has been running smoothly. Frazier assures him that it has and tells him he plans on taking his “grandbabies” into the game, but for just one quarter.

He has to be back in the kitchen before the game is over to make sure the post-game crowd gets out the door with some chicken, a biscuit and a big cup of sweet tea.


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