Yahoo Finance Surcheros in Warner Robins sets opening date. Meet the family behind the new restaurant
A Surcheros Fresh Mex restaurant is expected to open Aug. 20 in Warner Robins.
That’s the word from franchisee Kyle Cullars, who with his wife, Debbie, and their two sons, Taylor and Connor, plan to expand the brand over time across seven counties in Georgia. Perry will likely be their next location.
The quick serve restaurant chain is known for its made-to-order Tex-Mex food including burritos, tacos, nachos, quesadillas, salads and bowls. Guests can choose from a variety of meats, toppings and sauces.
The 3,400-square-foot building is up for the Warner Robins location at 1277 S. Houston Lake Road, with the interior work in progress.
The restaurant will be able to seat about 90 people inside and another 24 on the planned, outdoor covered patio. The restaurant also has a drive-thru.
The now red-brick building will be painted white to look like their first Surcheros, which they opened in their hometown of Milledgeville on July 20, 2020 in the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The backstory
“It is very exciting for me and my family,” said Cullars, who serves as owner and operator. “When Debbie and I first opened the Milledgeville store, we had no intention of opening more than one.”
Then, about two years ago, their sons came to them saying they would love to be a part of Surcheros and help it to grow.
After much thought and numerous discussions, Cullars signed an area development agreement with Surcheros for the counties of Baldwin, Green, Houston, Morgan, Newton, Peach and Putnam.
“So this is kind of the next step in that evolution,” he said. “It’s big growth for our family personally.”
Cullars credits his wife, a registered nurse at Atrium Health Navicent in Macon, for first getting them interested in the restaurant industry.
“She is the dreamer of the family. She is the one who’s always had the dream of opening a restaurant and we followed that dream and over a long process ended up landing on the Surcheros franchise,” he said.
Cullars was first exposed to Surcheros when his eldest son was at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College.
“We fell in love with the food when we went there,” Cullars said. “I mean, just super fresh, delicious food.”
That led Cullars to reach out to Surcheros founder Luke Christian.
“I had a two hour telephone conversation with him where we really just hit it off and realized our values were completely aligned,” Cullars said.
The Milledgeville location opened before Cullars retired from the University System of Georgia, where he worked for about 25 years as an administrator overseeing auxiliary services of student-related businesses like bookstores, dining, parking, transportation and housing. He worked at Georgia Tech and then mainly Georgia College in Milledgeville.
Also, he’s a realtor in Milledgeville with his sister Kimi Clements, who’s been in business about 28 years. He plans to eventually lay that down as more Surcheros restaurants develop.
Worth noting is that the Milledgeville restaurant was recently named the Small Business of the Year by the Milledgeville-Baldwin County Chamber.
The food
“Amazingly delicious and fresh,” Cullars replied when asked to describe the food. “Nothing is ever frozen. We don’t even have a freezer on site.
“All of our food is brought in, in the morning. It’s processed by us and by processing I mean, slicing, dicing seasoning, all of that. But just super fresh. Our salsa that we serve today, this morning came in as whole tomatoes. The guacamole that we serve today, came in this morning as whole avocados.”
Guests go down a line to have their dishes built with choices of grilled chicken, steak, pork and ground beef, more than 20 toppings from southwestern rice to pico de gallo, and a variety of sauces and dressings.
The menu offers healthy meal options, which depend a lot on what a guest may order, Cullars said. For example, a salad in a fried shell will have more calories than in a bowl. All the meats are grilled, but some toppings and sauces add more fat and calories than others.
“We’ve got a number of different types of dressings, and that’s where you can get into trouble,” Cullars said. “The more dressing you put on it, the less healthy it might be.”
His go-to at Surcheros is the grilled chicken burrito with the flour tortilla or the burrito bowl, which is basically the same thing but without the tortilla wrap, he said.
Growing brand
The Surcheros chain, which has about 30 restaurants in Georgia and Florida, is growing both with corporate and franchise stores including a new store in Middle Georgia. Corporate broke ground on the Gray store in April.
Surcheros also is expanding into South Carolina with its first store in that state set to open in Beaufort Station, according to What Now Charleston. Surcheros is expected to continue to expand its reach in Georgia and South Carolina while also moving into Tennessee, according to Businesswire.
“We are excited for this rapid expansion that features growth inside our home state and across the Southeast,” Jake Philpotts, Surcheros vice president of business development and franchise relations, told Businesswire. “Our corporate-owned locations are pacing alongside our franchise locations, which highlights our organization’s faith in the longevity and prowess of the brand. By 2026, our brand will triple in size.”
The first Surcheros opened in Douglas in 2007, according to the company website. In 2017, the brand began franchising.
Noting corporate’s plan for “tremendous growth in the years ahead,” Cullars said he feels like he’s “kinda getting in on the ground floor of a great business.”
Hours for the Warner Robins location will be 10:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday. The restaurant will be closed on Sundays.
