Troy GuardEstablished in 2010, TAG Restaurant Group has 13 restaurants operating under six brands that includes a steakhouse, a burger bar, a brunch spot and a cocktail bar.
Headquartered in Denver, TAG started with a single restaurant, a chef-driven concept from owner and executive chef Troy Guard, which opened in 2009 and closed during the pandemic. The group continues to grow, however, and plans are underway to open two more restaurants by year’s end.
How are you growing TAG Restaurant Group?
Guard: We are continuing to grow in Denver, but I moved my family to Houston a year and a half ago to focus on opening more restaurants here. This year we’re also opening in Charlotte, N.C., an up-and-coming city with great energy. We’re looking to grow the Guard and Grace and HashTAG brands the most.
For HashTAG, there’s still a lot of room for breakfast to expand and that category has really taken off in the last 10 years. We’re opening more Guard and Grace locations because people who go to steakhouses always have disposable incomes and don’t feel the pinch when things get tight with the economy. The casual dining in the middle area has been a little more challenging, at least for our group, in this past year. Even in the breakfast sector, people are watching how they spend their money — they might not spend $20 on breakfast but maybe $7 or $10 instead — so we’ve seen things fluctuate a lot in the middle.
Are you adapting to the market changes?
Guard: Yes, our fourth HashTAG (opening in Denver this year) will be counter service instead of full-service. Guests will order on their device or at a counter and then we’ll bring their food to them. I’m trying a new way to make it more quick-casual while still providing high-end service and food.
With multiple concepts, is it better to have similar or different restaurants?
Guard: It’s probably easier to have just one brand because you’re handling just one style, one menu. But I’m a think-outside-the-box guy, probably too much at times, but I like doing new things, it keeps me fresh, keeps me innovative, but it also keeps things balanced. I have one restaurant that’s $12 per person and another that’s $125 per person. I like the challenges; I like to think how I can make it a higher-end product and how do I make the other a less expensive experience while still making it good quality.
How much time do you spend in the kitchen these days?
Guard: If I was in the kitchen all the time I wouldn’t be able to grow the way I have. For big events and menu changes I’m there in the kitchen but on the day to day, I’m not. I’m still involved, it’s just at a different level. At first, I didn’t like being away from the kitchen, but I saw if wanted to grow — my own skills to grow the company — I’d have to step away. I had to delegate, I had to trust, I had to learn so many things outside the kitchen.
What links all your concepts?
Guard: We always say we need a vibe. So if you come into the $12 restaurant or the $125 restaurant it’s always the same vibe. We always buy the best product we can and try to give the best service.
Did you always plan to be a multiconcept operator?
Guard: No, I never really thought I’d open more than one restaurant. Once you open one restaurant that’s pretty good people come knocking and say they’d like you to open others. So it was organic and opportunistic. It wasn’t planned. It was at three or four restaurants when I thought about having a group. Now I have to really divide my time.
What are the advantages of having a restaurant group versus several disparate restaurants?
Guard: Now, we have bigger infrastructure, so we’ve combined all our departments, payroll, accounting, marketing, etc., under one umbrella so they handle all of the restaurants.
And as you grow and spend more money, the food vendors and liquor vendors give you better buying power.
We’ve also got more staff, more help, more people to pull from, so it’s a bigger team. I like having more people involved. We can also offer people more opportunity. Fifty percent of employees want to move up, make more money and have a different title, so opening new restaurants and having a bigger group gives people chances to stay and advance.
I can also share things between restaurants. At Guard and Grace I trim the steaks and then sells the offcuts to Los Chingones, our Mexican concept, which is cheaper than the meat I’d buy otherwise. If I have extra bread at Guard and Grace I sell it to HashTAG to make bread pudding. If you put in the work in the kitchen, you’re going to save for all the restaurants in the group.
What are the disadvantages of running multiple concepts?
Guard: It’s harder in some ways, because it’s a lot more people to manage. Sometimes the hardest part of our job is finding and keeping employees.
At the beginning of the year I had four managers put in their notice. So many people just quit without coming to me to see if we can fix the problems, and I wish they’d give us the chance to talk about things. Feedback and communication can go a long way.
Does being a restaurant group make it easier to grow?
Guard: Yes, it means I have a cushion, and we can move money around if one restaurant isn’t doing as well for a time. But it can get out of control. You can have one restaurant not doing so well for a while but if you have two or three not doing well it’s a big suck.
We can also move people around and we like to promote from within. So we have a better chance of success because we already know their strengths and personalities.
We have a five-year plan for growth and we’re working in two-year increments to make sure we have the people and money in place. We’ll open two — maybe three — restaurants this year and we have a new brand coming out in spring 2027. We’ll probably open a fourth steakhouse and a fifth breakfast restaurant, so we’ll open three or four more locations that year.
It’s a lot and takes a lot of money and a big team, but you have to plan accordingly, and some of it is taking a chance and pushing ourselves forward. I might stumble, I might fall, but it’s not the end of the world, so I’ll keep going. I just want to make solid planning decisions.
