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COACHES brings burgers to Niles, Boardman
By Kalea Hall
NILES
Stacy Howlett remembers going to a lot of burger joints two years ago.
That’s when her husband, Patrick, really started to think about opening a burger joint of his own and needed a way to tell his wife about his dream.
Visiting every burger restaurant within hundreds of miles of their Poland home was the way to do it.
“He said he wanted to pitch me something,” Stacy said.
Patrick finally pitched his dream of starting a burger restaurant that would quickly grow.
Two years later, the couple have two open COACHES locations and another one coming soon.
“We’ve learned that people love our burgers,” Patrick said. “We also learned that we didn’t have enough space. Our expectations were blown out of the water.”
Inside their newly opened Niles location, Stacy and Patrick recall the beginning of marrying their careers and forming a business together.
Patrick, the dreamer, has a background in working higher-up management positions for a top pizza chain, and he loves burgers.
Stacy, the realist, has managed call centers for more than a decade. She knows how to manage people and perfect policies.
“We are about two main things: our product and our service,” Stacy said.
To start this business, the product came first.
On his burger-eating ventures, Patrick was really doing research. He would critique those burgers and remember what he liked and didn’t like.
He knew he wanted the burgers at his restaurant to be juicy and “great tasting.” Also, all aspects of the burgers had to marry well together.
To find the perfect burger combinations, the Howletts used three tough critics: their children.
Stacy and Patrick know how a family operates: children are the deciding factor in where the family eats. So they knew they had to appeal to the children and not just the parents.
“I would bring all the stuff home, and we would make different cheeseburgers,” Patrick said.
The Howletts chose to blind taste test when finding the food vendors for their product. They wanted what tasted the best and to not have any other factors at play in what they chose.
The menu started to come together. After the basics came the signature burgers, such as the crowd favorite Big Texan – a burger topped with American cheese, bacon, barbecue sauce and onion tanglers. Two other signature burgers, the Cleveland and Pittsburger, are topped with fresh-cut fries.
For the nonred-meat eaters, COACHES has turkey and vegetarian burger options.
Stacy also insisted that a variety of salad options were available.
Milkshakes were a must for this family-friendly atmosphere. COACHES spins the basic flavor shakes and some interesting others such as green apple, cotton candy and salted caramel pretzel.
“It’s been a really fun process,” Patrick said.
When it came to developing a brand for their restaurant, the Howletts thought about their children.
“We like the idea of coaches that come out of the community and go on to bigger things,” Stacy said. “We feel that a coach has an impact on a child. It’s to pay homage to coaches big and small.”
Every month a new coach is honored by the restaurant.
“I love that aspect of what we do,” Stacy said. “It’s about community.”
The Howletts signed the lease on their Poland location, 9065 Springfield Road, in April 2015 and opened the full-service burger bar in July.
From the start of the business it was always known the COACHES brand would quickly grow.
The success of the first COACHES led to opening of two new franchise locations that have a fast-casual dining experience. At these locations, a server doesn’t wait on you. Instead, you order at the counter. The focus is on delivery and takeout.
“It’s not so much about the dining, but more about the burger itself,” Stacy said.
The Niles location, 2 Youngstown-Warren Road in the Pinetree Plaza, is open and has a ribbon-cutting ceremony set for noon June 1. A Boardman location, 714 Boardman-Canfield Road, is under construction and should open in June.
Menus at the new restaurants feature all of COACHES signature burgers and sandwiches, wings, salads and nonalcoholic beverages.
The half-pound patty was replaced with two quarter-pound patties at the fast-casual COACHES to make them easier to eat.
In addition to the new locations, COACHES rolled out a new logo to mark the announcement of its franchise capabilities, and has branded itself as “COACHES: Burgers, Shakes, Wings and Fries.”
COACHES features a Burger of The Month every month. For May it’s the “HAM”burger – a half-pounder topped with grilled onions, pepper jack cheese, ham and spicy barbecue sauce.
In less than a year, Stacy and Patrick have grown from one to three locations, learned a lot and developed a growing list of loyal customers.
“You have to be willing to accept feedback,” Stacy said of her advice to new business owners. “You have to be willing to digest that.”
For more information on COACHES, go to www.coachesburgers.com.