The Brothers Grill: Feltners Sign License Deal for Griddle Rail

Efficiency is a priority for the three Feltner brothers, owners of the burgers and franks restaurant in Fayetteville that bears their name.

When identical twins Travis and Chase, 31, and younger brother Grant, 30, opened the second location of Feltner Brothers on North College Avenue in 2011, that standard of efficiency led to ingenuity, resulting in the invention of an innovative piece of restaurant equipment and a licensing deal with a manufacturer and distributer that specializes in hard-to-find commercial kitchen products.

The Griddle Rail is a removable device that attaches to most commercial flattop grills and charbroilers. Its purpose is to keep seasoning shakers, buns, cooking utensils and other essentials at the ready while the appliance is being used.

Like most innovations, the Griddle Rail was born of necessity.

Travis Feltner recalls that, upon moving into the new kitchen, the brothers had little room to keep cooking tools and other small items near the restaurant’s griddle.

There was a wall on one side of it and a deep-fryer on the other. “We didn’t have anywhere to put anything,” he said.

With two years of restaurant ownership already under their belts (the original location opened off Dickson, on West Spring Street, in 2009), the Feltner brothers had an established relationship with equipment salesman Brian Bruso at NWA Restaurant Equipment & Supply in Springdale.

They looked to him for a solution, but he couldn’t find one.

Bruso said there were attachment devices available on certain brands of grills, but they were installed at the time of purchase. There was not an after-market solution.

And so, the brothers decided to make their own.

Working with a local stainless steel fabricator, they designed and built a storage apparatus that they attached to their griddle by drilling a hole through the side of it.

 

Picture This

It was not until Travis Feltner, a fitness enthusiast, took inspiration from the mechanics of his doorframe pullup bar, that a viable product design began to materialize.

On Feb. 23, 2012 — Feltner remembers the exact day because it was his mother’s birthday — he sat down on the couch and drew designs for the Griddle Rail. 

The product would be adjustable and could be removed for cleaning, and it held metal steam table pans that would serve as compartments to house utensils, seasoning shakers, condiments and the like.

Feltner brought his drawing to the stainless steel fabricator, and the two spent about two or three weeks working on creating a prototype. To this day, that is the griddle rail being used in the Feltner Brothers food truck.

“That unit has become a testament to the functionality and the safety of the product itself,” Feltner said. “It’s really been about a four-year restaurant product test for its durability, safety — everything that you would do to test a product.”

After building the prototype, the next logical step was to apply for a design patent — a process he says was quick because of the product’s uniqueness — and then find a manufacturer.

The Feltners started their search locally, but couldn’t find a company that would make the product for anything less than $450 or $500.

“We couldn’t even sell those things for $450 or $500,” Feltner said. “We had gotten to the point where we had spent all this money on prototypes and went through the patent process, and we were kind of at a point where we’d just have to give up.”

 

Sales Experience

Meanwhile, an acquaintance who was a buyer for Wal-Mart Stores Inc. — and, therefore, traveled to China and Taiwan several times a year — heard about the Griddle Rail through mutual friends.

After some discussion with the Feltners, the friend shopped the product with a maker in Taiwan, who made it at a price that was reasonable enough that the Feltners could continue to pursue the venture.

They brought in an inventory of 100, and then Feltner says he spent a few weeks back in the fall of 2013 and the winter of 2014 hitting the streets in Northwest Arkansas as a salesman to various restaurants.

“I sold about nine or 10 really quickly, and then life here at the restaurant just took over,” Feltner said.

It was at that time that he realized he had been burning the candle at both ends.

 “I was putting in 40 hours a week peddling a new piece of restaurant equipment and then working at the restaurant 20 to 30 hours a week, and I just couldn’t do both,” he said. 

He chose to return his focus to Feltner Brothers, which was the venture that was paying his salary at the time, and he got some helpful advice from his equipment supplier: license the product and let someone else do the work.

Bruso says he recognized the uniqueness of the product.

“It was the first time someone’s come up with this type of thing that retrofits to any grill,” he said. “I told them, ‘What you really need is some sort of sales rep that can go around to different restaurant suppliers, and that’s how you’re going to sell mass quantities.’”

He recognized New Jersey-based Franklin Machine Products as the go-to company for specialty wares.

“I told them that’s where I’d go,” Bruso said.

 

FMP Fit

In February, Feltner Brothers signed an exclusive licensing agreement with FMP.

“FMP is known for, if you can’t find something anywhere else, you will find it at FMP,” Bruso said. “They thrive on representing products that you can only get through them.”

The company has more than 15,000 inventory items, according to its LinkedIn page.

Within its 1,400-plus-page 2016-17 catalogue, Griddle Rail is the first product listed in the “New Products” section at the front of the book, Feltner said.

The Feltners are still working through the initial inventory, but once they sell those 82 units through FMP, the Griddle Rail will then be FMP’s product to manufacture, distribute, market and sell. The Feltners will collect a monthly royalty check.

All it takes is for one major restaurant chain to pick up the product, and they will really be in business.

“We’re just seeing where it goes,” Feltner said.

Feltner hinted that the Griddle Rail might not be the only invention that will come from Feltner Brothers, although he said sharing any specific information was premature.

 

Timing is Key

In the meantime, the brothers are forgoing the temptation to take the success of the current restaurant and start building new branches.

The only Feltner Brothers location is now at 2768 N. College Ave. The Feltners made the business decision to close the original restaurant on West Spring Street in 2013, not because it wasn’t making money, but because they saw an opportunity to maximize profits and reduce overhead by focusing on the North College Avenue restaurant, Feltner said.

Before they commit to new stores, they want to focus on making that location the best possible store it can be.

“We stand out from the burger competition because of the love and attention to detail we put into everything we do,” Grant Feltner said. “On top of that, we build personal relationships with our guests. We know them by name and what they want to eat right when they walk through the door. We’re not just here to collect their money.”

Bruce Yermack will testify to this way of doing business.

A retired commodities broker originally from Chicago, Yermack has been coming to Feltner Brothers twice a week since shortly after the first location opened up on Spring Street.

The Feltners have known his order by heart for years. On Monday, he has a double cheeseburger with pepper jack cheese, mustard, tomato, pickle, green relish and onion. On Thursday, Yermack has a regular frank on a poppy seed bun with mustard, green relish, onion, a pickle spear and a pickle spear on the side.

“They treat me well. It’s not corporate. It’s not mass-produced,” Yermack said. “They care about what they’re doing. This is their livelihood.”

And Yermack is knowledgeable about the industry, given the fact that his father was in the restaurant business in Chicago for years.

The Feltners hope to have an impact on the industry as a whole — whether that will be through multiple stores or just one, that’s all right by them.

“Too many people think that they’re not capable of something big in this world,” said Chase Feltner. “We kind of adopt the mentality of ‘Why not us? Why can’t we change the restaurant industry?’”