Bentonville-based Good Gravy Group looks to scale, offer retail items

With an experienced restaurant franchise executive as part of the leadership team, Bentonville-based food and restaurant company Good Gravy Group plans to grow by adding new locations, franchising and landing products on retailers’ shelves.

The company’s flagship brand, Tusk and Trotter, has restaurants in Bentonville and Rogers. Good Gravy Group’s leadership team includes President AJ Baird, Managing Partner April Seggebruch and Culinary Director Rob Nelson. The company has nine investors. Nelson and Seggebruch are also co-founders and co-owners. Baird joined the company as president in April 2024.

“I started at Sonic when I was 14 and kind of caught the bug,” said Baird, who was recruited by a friend to work at McAlister’s Deli after graduating from college. “That’s kind of how the story started … I love people. I get my energy from people.” He added that he naturally takes on new things. “It’s a grind. Rob can attest. … Some people just aren’t built for it. And I found my niche.”

Baird of Memphis, Tenn., joined McAlister’s franchisee Southern Rock Restaurants after a 2011 acquisition. Over the next 11 years, the company grew from 23 to 135 restaurants before being sold to a private equity partner.

He’s spent about 28 years in the restaurant industry, nearly all with McAlister’s. His roles included general manager, area director, and director of operations before he became president and chief operating officer of Southern Rock Restaurants. He left the company in 2023, one year after it was sold to the partner.

Afterward, Baird’s father connected him to someone who knew Good Gravy Group investors, including Seggebruch.

“It was interesting with the pipeline that Good Gravy had, and very rarely do I meet somebody that’s aggressive as I am when it comes to business. So, that was a great fit with April,” Baird said. “Then, [I] met Rob, and Tusk and Trotter just blew me away.”

Baird said Brothers Meethouse — a barbecue restaurant at 405 S.E. Fifth St. in Bentonville — was in the works then, which interested him. He noted an added benefit: Family who live in Northwest Arkansas. He started consulting for Good Gravy Group before joining full time in April. He said he plans to move to Northwest Arkansas, possibly this summer.

POISED FOR GROWTH
“Entrepreneurship is all about building things,” Seggebruch said. “Building great companies starts with great people.”

Good Gravy Group knew if it was going to scale, it needed to find great people, and Seggebruch said Baird will guide the company through this growth phase over the next five to 10 years. In 2024, the company doubled in size and is expected to do so this year and in 2026. Revenue is approaching $10 million. She said the company is raising capital for its various concepts and noted that it comprised Tusk and Trotter before starting on its growth path.

Seggebruch said the company’s growth plans over the next five to seven years include adding new locations of its existing brands throughout Northwest Arkansas when they find the right place. It also has brands that could be expanded nationwide. Trash Ice Cream is the first, and two yet-to-be-announced brands are expected to follow. She said the company aims to offer Trash Ice Cream products on retailers’ shelves and plans to grow through “corporate-owned stores and franchising.” Trash Ice Cream has stores in Bentonville and Rogers. A Fayetteville store is expected to open soon.

Brothers Meethouse is the newest brand. For opening weekend, the company placed miniature charcoal bags on doorsteps of over 2,000 Bentonville residents to invite them to a community barbecue. Seggebruch said the weather didn’t cooperate with smoking meats over the coals, but the restaurant was packed with people who brought their bags.

“The space is just absolutely phenomenal,” she said. “It’s just incredibly inviting and comfortable and exactly what we wanted it to be.”

The company looks to work with other barbecue establishments to create an identity for Arkansas barbecue.

“Once we get everything locked in, you’re going to see specials … where we’ll smoke ducks … bison … goat — Not just sticking to the script of pulled pork and brisket,” said Nelson, adding that the restaurant will use rice vinegar instead of apple vinegar or regular vinegar and sorghum syrups instead of brown sugar and molasses, typically in barbecue sauces. The smoker uses area wood, such as cherry, hickory and oak.

BRAND DISTINCTIONS
Seggebruch said the company’s new brands were created in-house. The company has about 130 employees, including graphics design and branding staff.

Nelson said its brands are unique from each other. Baird attributed each brand’s uniqueness to the “local focus and the attention to local food … It means something to us, and it also means something to the community.”

Nelson highlighted some foods unique to the Ozarks, including the pawpaw, black apple and black walnut. The company recently collaborated with an area rancher to raise a formerly endangered breed of Mulefoot hogs. It’s become a rare breed certified by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to be sold at retail. He said this type of pork is only available at Tusk and Trotter.

Besides Brothers Meethouse, Trash Ice Cream, and Tusk and Trotter, the company also has Butcher and Pint, High South Catering, and The Bend. It plans to reopen Butcher and Pint on Arkansas Highway 72 in Pea Ridge by the end of the first quarter of this year. The company also manages the upscale bar The Leroy on Dickson Street in Fayetteville.

Baird said The Leroy has two sports simulators that are the first of its kind in Arkansas. Along with the bar and simulators, The Leroy also has a dining area, lounges and four duckpin bowling lanes.

PATH TO GROWTH
Seggebruch met Nelson in 2010 — the same year she and Stan Zylowski launched Bentonville software firm Movista. They were interested in the food and beverage sector amid few sit-down restaurants in Bentonville and wanted it to have “a community watering hole.”

She joked that she and Zylowski knew nothing about the sector or how to make a menu but wanted to figure it out. A friend connected them with Nelson, a French-trained chef looking to open a restaurant. Then, he was the executive chef at River Grille Steakhouse in Bentonville.

They worked with Nelson to develop the space, menu and name. While those things went through multiple iterations, Seggebruch said, “What we never wavered from was having a comfortable, adored place in town that served amazing food that welcomed all, whether you’re in biker shorts or a suit and tie. That eventually became Tusk and Trotter in June 2011.”

Nelson said Visit Bentonville, Downtown Bentonville Inc. and Fayetteville chef Case Dighero collaborated to develop the cuisine’s name, High South.

“High South Cuisine is what’s running around, swimming around, flying or growing in the Ozark Mountain region, so that’s the focal point of what we try to do a Tusk and Trotter,” Nelson said. “From there, it took hold.”

Seggebruch said the restaurant’s original intent was to support a small investor group, Nelson and his wife, in starting their own establishment. But they worked better together.

“Instead of breaking the band up, we said, ‘Hey, let’s evaluate making this band larger — taking it on the road, if you will.’ And we pivoted in 2018 to turn it into a restaurant group,” she said. “Tusk and Trotter has been super successful. We’ve really enjoyed it. Not just us, but the community is super passionate about it. Can we multiply this? And how do we multiply this?”

Good Gravy Group then started adding new restaurants and concepts.

“We will continue to grow in concepts and dollars we own and manage. That is fundamental and great,” she added. “Although our passion sits in creating experiences that leave customers smiling — We all could use a few more of those. We are building brands that aren’t just good enough but unmatched in their category. In five years, our brands will be household names across the country.”