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FLORENCE: Food courts bring in high traffic and big sales,
and owning a food-court restaurant
could make you a multimillionaire.
Thank you so much.
But the restaurant industry can be ruthless.
Oh, crap. Oh, crap.
Son of a [bleep]
I'm really stressed about that chicken, George.
I'm Tyler Florence, and I've been
in the restaurant business for over 25 years.
My job each week is to help two teams
of aspiring food-court entrepreneurs
get one step closer to their dream.
This could set us up for life.
Awesome.
FLORENCE: Each week, two new teams
will have three days to prove to me
that they have a solid concept
along with a concrete marketing plan.
Who wants to win a bandana?
But, ultimately, the winner will be determined by
who brings in the most cash.
Team Wingzza. Let's go.
Whoop. Whoop.
Opening a restaurant is no easy task.
We got our first problem.
God [bleep]
86 the gumbo.
But each week, one team will win
the opportunity of a lifetime...
Yes.
I don't want to let us down.
...and own their very own food-court restaurant.
Everybody, come on down.
Welcome to "Food Court Wars."
-- Captions by VITAC --
Closed Captions provided by Scripps Networks, LLC.
This week, we're in Grand Traverse Mall
in Traverse City, Michigan.
Known as the cherry capital of the world,
Traverse City is a popular summertime tourist destination
that is also known for its robust wine country.
Let's meet our two teams.
I'm Matt.
And we're Matts' Beignets.
LITTLE MATT: Matt and I are friends.
I met Big Matt, as I like to call him,
about eight years ago over at his party store.
Hey, guys. How's it going?
BIG MATT: He was very persistent in wanting a job,
so I ultimately gave him a shot.
And he's worked with me ever since.
BIG MATT: I want to get some beignets started here.
Matts' Beignets is our food concept.
We are at 375, which is absolutely perfect.
LITTLE MATT: Beignets are a French pastry like doughnuts.
They're square-shaped, opposed to a circle.
They're deep-fried,
and then we sprinkle them with powdered sugar.
All right, my favorite part.
We got savory ones, we got our pie-filled ones.
I'm close to wanting sauces when you're ready.
BIG MATT: I got most of my inspiration
from the classic beignets of New Orleans.
Dive in.
Beignets are so delicious.
All right. Throw some dips down there.
And it's a great concept, a great product.
So, the beignets sell themselves.
That glaze right there is fantastic.
I've owned a restaurant before.
My restaurant was called the Soul Hole.
We specialized in Southern cuisine.
We were open about three years.
We tried to get a liquor license,
and it just took too long.
So, the Soul Hole is officially closed.
That was disappointing.
I don't like to lose at anything.
LITTLE MATT: Blueberry dipping sauce.
Perfect. I would stir for you, but you seem to have it under control,
so I'm just gonna stand and stare for a second.
It's all in the wrist, man.
LITTLE MATT: My culinary background comes from my mom.
My mom could bake
the most amazing brownies, cookies, cakes.
Anything you wanted, she was always happy to do it.
She battled cancer for 15 years.
Unfortunately, my mom passed away back in June of 2012.
It was a real shock to me. That was my big influence.
So, you know, I want to take it that one step further
and just really make something more of my life
and, I mean, just make her proud.
That's what love looks like.
I can do this all day.
I'm Nick McAllister.
And I'm Autumn McAllister.
And together, we own the House of Doggs
in Traverse City, Michigan.
How's it going?
We've owned House of Doggs
for almost seven years now.
I love hot dogs. I have for seems like all my life.
He was getting a little burnt out at his previous job.
I mean, he had done it a long time.
So, I left my 20-year job of graphic arts
that was very secure and opened a restaurant.
Taylor, your order's up. I got a Flint Coney.
We have selections of all kinds of hot dogs
from all over the country.
All of our hot dogs are named
after different genres of music.
Two Be-Bops, One R&B, and a classic rings.
Business for House of Doggs right now is challenging.
We live in a tourist town where we have great business
two months out of the year,
and the rest of the year is a struggle.
When our business slows down in the wintertime,
I absolutely hate laying anyone off.
So I do sideline construction work.
The Fusion dogs are up.
Being able to win this restaurant would mean
that Nick would no longer have to work so hard
in the off-season out in the blizzardy weather.
And it will provide more financial security
for all of us.
Here you go, Miss Keegan. Thank you so much.
BIG MATT: I've had a few business failures.
To have another restaurant, another shot at doing this,
would be wonderful.
AUTUMN: There's a lot on the line here.
It would be great to feel like you had a sense
of financial stability all throughout the year.
Very good.
Welcome to the Grand Traverse Mall
in beautiful Traverse City, Michigan.
Thank you.
Over the next three days, you'll be tested
on the three key elements of running a successful restaurant.
First, we'll test your restaurant concept.
Then, on Day 2, we'll work on your marketing.
Day 3 is opening day.
This is when your fate will be decided.
Your restaurant will be open for business
right here in this very food court.
The restaurant that earns the most on opening day
will win their space rent-free for one year.
It's a lease worth over $100,000.
That's awesome.
I'm a chef and a restaurateur
with three restaurants in San Francisco.
I have been where you are right now.
Today you're going to be tested on your concepts.
We're headed to the Turtle Creek Casino & Hotel.
Not only is this a popular tourist attraction,
but the casino is a great location
to get honest feedback from the local customer base.
You'll be making your signature dish,
so you have to make sure that that signature dish
reflects your restaurant.
The casino guests will be determining
the winner of this challenge.
The team with the highest rating wins.
The winner of this challenge
will get extra serving time on opening day.
A few extra minutes of serving time
could make the difference of winning and losing.
We're ready.
All right, guys. Let the food-court war begin.
All right! Whoo!
All right, man. Well, I'll do sauces.
You rock beignets.
Today we're making our signature dish,
which is the original deep-fried beignet,
lots of powdered sugar, and our buttermilk glaze.
BIG MATT: Oh, dude. It smells so good.
Big Matt's taking care of the dough,
and I'm making the buttermilk glaze,
which is a couple cups of sugar, butter, buttermilk,
baking soda, and then vanilla extract
just to make it even sweeter.
Just cranking 'em over here.
BIG MATT: We are serving 12 beignets per order,
so 540's my target number.
That's a lot of beignets today.
Let's lay this one down in there.
Keep it kind of taut.
What do we want to serve them? What do you think?
Well, I think probably we want to serve something
that is our signature, so maybe our Fusion.
The Fusion would be perfect.
Today we're going to be serving our Fusion Dogg
with our natural casing hot dog.
It's got ketchup, mustard, our homemade fusion sauce,
and then we put crushed potato chips on the top.
It's a fusion of flavors.
And that's how we came up with the name "Fusion."
Oh, the main ingredient.
NICK: So, to make our fusion sauce,
we start out with cream cheese.
We chop up some banana peppers,
and then we add banana-pepper juice,
blend it all together until it becomes a nice consistency.
Oh, yeah. It needs more juice.
You have to pay attention to the thickness
because it'll soak into the bun and the chips too fast
and make for a soggy hot dog.
BIG MATT: Okay, when you get a second,
Yeah.
We are officially done with this section.
BIG MATT: We finally reach this point
where we can pack up to get ready to go.
The only way we can take these beignets to the casino
is in this cooler.
We've stacked them up.
That's 40 pounds of beignets.
I don't know what the bottom rows
are gonna look like when we get there.
All right.
There's actually 52 in here.
Should I take four extra for breakage just in case?
NICK: We got to get going to the casino,
so we pack up all our stuff in a cooler
so we have everything we need.
You get the steamer, I'll get the cooler.
Okay. Slide it on out, girl.
We timed it out so we would have
the hot dogs and buns steamed up,
and then we're going to put the hot dog with the bun
and apply the ketchup and mustard and the fusion sauce
and then sprinkle some crushed potato chips over it.
I think we've got it timed out right,
so we can't have anything go wrong.
Oh, yeah. They're starting.
Our pre-cutting is just nothing.
BIG MATT: Worst case -- I just opened up the cooler,
and our beignets are one complete sheet again.
I don't have cutters here.
I'm just gonna have to pull them out, break them apart by hand,
and put them in the fryer oil.
We got to pick it up.
Time today is tough.
It's gonna come down to the wire.
We got our first problem.
What?
Didn't have the grate on the bottom of that thing,
and the ones on the bottom are soggy.
Oh, no. You're kidding me.
So, we're rolling along making hot dogs.
And I reach down to the lower buns in the steamer,
and I find some that are soggy.
Yeah, they are just soggy messes.
This is terrible. This is a real problem for us.
Oh, my God, Nick. What can we do to save the rest of them?
We got our first problem.
The ones on the bottom are soggy.
Oh, no. You're kidding me.
You can't serve a soggy bun to a customer, 'cause it's nasty.
Oh, my gosh. Save it, though. Let it dry out.
The more soggy buns that I have,
the less points we'll get.
We could lose the advantage.
We can make it work.
I'll put those back in the steamer
once I empty them out to warm them up.
Okay. I think that's good.
LITTLE MATT: We've got two minutes, man.
All right, dude.
That's probably enough for one more batch,
so try to stretch what you can.
We are serving high rollers at the casino,
and I'm so excited because I think
we're gonna tap into the customer base
that could be going to the mall.
If these people love our food,
I think a lot of them are gonna show up to the food court.
We've got a chance to get more service time.
Before opening day, we're gonna do
everything we can to get that
because that can make the difference
and make or break this whole competition.
It's gonna come down to the wire, dude.
I don't believe it.
The high rollers are here now,
and I can't believe how many beignets I've cut.
But I think we've got this pulled off.
Whew.
Today we are serving our original beignets,
which is 12 small, little, deep-fried French doughnuts
with powdered sugar on top
and an awesome buttermilk glaze dip sauce.
How you guys doing?
AUTUMN: We are serving our Fusion Dogg.
It's got ketchup, mustard, our homemade fusion sauce,
and crushed potato chips on the top.
I think the community is gonna absolutely love it.
WOMAN: Thank you.
Thanks so much.
Delicious beignets. Can't go wrong there.
BIG MATT: Yes.
Watch out. They're a little bit addictive.
[ Laughs ]
All right. Cheers, everybody.
WOMAN: Cheers.
Hey, what's up, Matts? How are you? Good to see you, man.
Outstanding.
So, it looks really good.
This is the kind of thing that really gets people going.
Fried doughnuts, a really, really good sauce --
it's simple, and it can seem gourmet pretty quickly.
Do me a favor.
Pat your forehead down, right, and smile?
Thank you very much.
Thank you, Tyler.
AUTUMN: All right. Thanks, guys.
NICK: Thank you very much.
The chip dip is addicting, though. I'm warning you.
Good. How are you, Tyler?
I'm doing good. I'm doing good.
So, this is the Fusion Dogg, right?
Yes. This is our signature hot dog.
Would this be the presentation,
how you would serve it at the mall?
Okay, good.
And anything you'd want to do to improve this, or is this it?
I think that's it.
No, unless you tell us something we can improve,
we feel pretty confident about it.
Let me give it a shot.
Thank you.
Our signature hot dog.
Would you go out of your way
to have either one of these dishes?
I wouldn't for the hot dog.
You wouldn't for the hot dog?
WOMAN: When I go out to eat, I want something
that I'm not gonna make at home.
Well, awesome, guys.
Too much powdered sugar.
I would lighten up a little bit on the powdered sugar.
WOMAN: These are amazing.
They're good? You like them a lot?
There's too many.
There's no way I would eat all of those.
The bun felt soggy?
With the sauce, maybe? I don't know.
Hey, good job, guys.
Good job.
BIG MATT: We really need this advantage.
Extra time could be very beneficial
to win "Food Court Wars."
Great job, everybody.
Thank you.
Thank you.
House of Doggs,
casino guests love the chip combo on the hot dog.
But one very important note that we got
is that people make hot dogs at home
and they won't go out of their way
to go have an ordinary hot dog.
Matts' Beignets, people loved your beignets.
However, your sauce was too sweet,
and there was way too much powdered sugar.
And your portion size, 12 pieces, is way too big.
The casino guests have weighed in, and they selected a winner.
The team that's getting the extra time on opening day is...
...Matts' Beignets.
Yes.
Yes.
We won. I am so excited right now.
I'm almost speechless. I can't believe it.
I feel like this is that step closer to owning my own business.
As you can see, next to me is the prize wheel.
Each number on the wheel represents
how much extra service time you can have on opening day.
If you spin a 12, you're gonna be sitting pretty.
If you spin a 1, you're gonna have to hustle.
Matt, step on up and try your luck. Come on.
All right. You ready?
Yep.
Oh, come on, 12.
Oh, it's coming back around slowly, my friend.
Slowly. Uh-oh. Uh-oh.
Oh, come on, 12.
Oh, it's coming back around slowly, my friend.
Slowly. Uh-oh. Uh-oh.
Uh-oh. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. Uh-oh.
Whoa, you got 12. Congratulations.
BIG MATT: Nice. [ Laughs ]
I can't believe I spun a 12.
We've just won 12 minutes of extra service.
That easily gives us an advantage.
A food-court kiosk can make $8 in one minute on average.
You just earned yourself potentially $96 extra.
Nice.
Next, you'll be tested on the second element
of running a successful restaurant,
and that's marketing.
Traverse City is a culturally rich town
with amazing opportunities for marketing events.
I want you to dig deep and see what's going on this weekend.
Pick a location that best represents your brand
and set up your marketing event there.
These events are the perfect opportunity
to attract potential customers for opening day.
Tonight, I would like to meet with both teams
and lend some advice and some support
so both teams are locked and loaded on opening day.
Does that sound good?
Sounds good.
All right. Fantastic, guys. I'll see you soon.
Cool.
I think you're on to something very smart here.
I want to talk about your portion, right?
I want you to put four in a portion.
Right?
If you cut that, instead of 12 pieces so it's unrecognizable,
into 4 pieces that are handsome and big
and look like they've got some really great value going on,
it's gonna look better, right?
You're gonna sell more.
Okay. Okay. I like that.
And that's a lot easier, yeah.
I think Tyler is complete right.
I mean, the bigger beignets, they look better,
and it just draws the eye.
So, bigger beignets, smaller portions, happy customers.
You give people a simple idea
and you do it at a world-class level,
people will love you,
and they will flock to your place.
I love it.
BIG MATT: Based on Tyler's comments,
I have a really good feeling right now.
The curb appeal on a bigger beignet is so much better.
Thank you, Tyler.
BIG MATT: It's gonna make our labor time a lot shorter,
and I think these recipes are gonna kill it tomorrow at our marketing program.
Sounds good, man. I'm actually really pumped for it.
All right, cool.
FLORENCE: Hi, guys. How are you?
NICK: Good, how you doing?
Great job today. I'll be perfectly honest with you.
The reason we do events like this
is to get an honest sense
of what people think about your food.
People across the board felt
your hot dog was kind of ordinary, right?
People make hot dogs at home every day.
So, what I'd like to do is actually take that Fusion Dogg
and make it your specialty, but make it something
that would really stand up in any city in America.
No.
The homemade potato chips
could be a really hot, signature item
to go along with a hot dog,
because potato chips are a thing
that people aren't gonna make at home, right?
AUTUMN: I feel pretty good
about the advice that Tyler gave us.
Making the homemade potato chip
will give us a little bit of an edge
because it's something that I think
the public will respond well to.
They love potato chips.
Let's come up with two other hot dogs, right?
I think you need something
that has a vegetable topping on it, right,
and then something that feels more like a chili dog.
NICK: I think this is a great idea.
You have to have quality food
that people will remember and keep coming back to.
Okay, guys. Awesome. Thanks so much.
Thank you, Tyler.
I think our new dogs
are going to generate a lot of excitement.
So, you want to go figure out our marketing plan?
Let's do it. We better get after it.
Okay.
I know that there's this wine season thing going on,
Toast of the Season.
It's like the last wine event,
like a big brouhaha, the last one.
And, dude, the beignets would go perfect with wine, man,
so I think we should do something with that.
Okay.
BIG MATT: Tomorrow, we are going to a winery.
We like the customer base that could be going to the winery.
We've had great success at the casino.
We just need to continue that tomorrow, and we win.
I think if we had something to give out,
like, with our logo on it,
something that reminds them that we were there,
'cause they're gonna go to a bunch of wineries,
and then they're gonna get home and probably be like, "Ugh,"
So, then, they wake up the next morning,
they're gonna see a Mardi Gras bead
or some medallion or something
that's gonna have our logo, that says "Matts' Beignets."
So, you're thinking a French Quarter kind of Mardi Gras thing?
I think it'd be awesome.
You know what beignets look like to me?
Oh, dude.
Doesn't a sumo wrestler look like a huge, puffy beignet?
Giant beignet, man.
Oh, man, that'd be awesome,
'cause that's something that people would remember, man.
It's memorable, and then they have
the medallions to follow up.
All right. Let's do it.
7 Monks has got a beer event.
I mean, it's beer week. That should be perfect for us.
Yeah, that's right on our block. We know where that is.
We know how big it is.
AUTUMN: The 7 Monks, it's a very awesome taproom in town.
It's gonna be a perfect place to hold our marketing event
because it will allow us to really reach our local customers
and get them to come to our opening-day event.
But it would be cool to have some type of game
to create some excitement.
How about a corn hole game?
All right. Awesome.
What do you think would be a great prize for a beer event?
Yeah, a pint glass?
Awesome, right?
Coming off a loss in our first challenge
is very disheartening.
We know what's on the line.
So, we really need this to come off great.
All right.
Let's go.
Is that the only jug of banana peppers we have?
AUTUMN: No, there is another whole jar.
Marketing today is very important for us.
We have to impress the crowd and convince them
how much they need to come to the mall.
Looks like we're set up here for the chips.
Do you want to get the food processor out?
Today we're making the new-and-improved Fusion Dogg
with homemade baby potato chips,
and our Rock Dogg, which has
chili, ketchup, mustard, cheese, pickle, onion.
How do you work that thing?
Uh, I don't know.
We do need to taste, and we need to work through our sauces.
We may make one or two versions.
So, why don't you get started on those?
BIG MATT: Today is marketing day.
We really liked Tyler's advice on the menu changes,
so we're going to be serving our updated, larger-cut beignet
with powdered sugar and the customer's choice
of salted caramel or our cherry dark chocolate.
BIG MATT: I think it's supposed to change colors
a little bit, isn't it?
It's supposed to be, like, a darker caramel-looking thing.
We'll keep stirring that bad boy constantly.
Hey, guys. How are you? How you doing?
Good morning. How are you?
I like your shirts. Those are cool.
So, we're gonna make some potato chips. Is that cool?
All right. Cool. Good deal.
So, first of all, you need a mandolin, right,
which you have right here, and we need some potatoes.
So, these are fingerling Yukon Gold potatoes, all right?
So, we're shooting for a nice circle, right?
And we're gonna rinse the potatoes off.
We're gonna get as much starch off as possible.
And then we'll take on the fryer thing next.
AUTUMN: I'm feeling super positive
about the homemade potato chips
because that is something that I have felt
for a long period of time we really needed to do.
Yes, it's a little bit harder to begin with,
but I think once we get it down,
I definitely think it's gonna be good for our restaurant.
We really needed this.
This will be a signature element on your dog, right?
This'll be really cute.
I promise you it'll be great.
Awesome. Thank you so much. Thanks.
LITTLE MATT: Oh, those look nice, man.
I'd say so.
Go try it.
Matt and Matt. How are you? How you doing?
Hey, Tyler. How you doing today?
Good morning. Good to see you, man.
Pound it out, man.
So, it looks like you got a couple sauces
you're working on here already, right?
We're about to make another attempt at the caramel sea salt.
We're really struggling with it.
I don't know if maybe we're off on our measurements,
but it seems to be seizing up before it changes color.
Equal parts sugar and water, right?
Equal parts sugar and water.
Put it in a pot and just let it go.
If you just leave it alone --
The more you stir it -- see what's happening right here?
You see all these bubbles are starting to happen
on the outside of this, right?
Before you stabilize it with butter, if that falls in, right,
it's gonna crystallize the sugar, so leave it alone.
Wow. Oh, okay. All right.
Thank God Tyler just walked in.
He's helping us out right now.
I kept telling Little Matt to stir.
We don't want to stir it at all.
So, I think this next round is gonna be a good one.
This is a perfect, perfect caramel sauce,
really, really gorgeous, nice and smooth.
Right.
How's that?
Oh, that's good.
Oh, they're gonna love this.
Right?
Nice job.
Congratulations, boys.
These are perfect.
This could really give us an edge today.
It sure could.
Oh, man. This one is perfect.
Look at that. It's so pillowy.
AUTUMN: We have everything prepared.
It's time to get all packed up
and head over to our marketing event.
Set her down.
BIG MATT: You set for this?
I'm ready.
BIG MATT: So, today we're gonna see
if we can get as many people from this winery
to come to our event tomorrow.
I believe we're gonna have a good outcome.
Hello, everybody.
I'm Matt. This is my partner, Matt.
And we're the Matts.
[ Laughs ]
There it is.
AUTUMN: I'm really excited to get into 7 Monks.
I think our food is gonna pair excellent
with the craft beer there,
and I think it's gonna be out of this world.
[ Cheers and applause ]
All right. Which one would you like?
I would love the salted caramel.
Yeah.
I can't even really describe to you how good it is.
We're taking some beads.
We'll support you.
I'll take the blue one, too.
You want to try our corn hole game?
If you make one in, you get a free pint glass.
NICK: Hey, all right.
There you go.
This is also an invitation
to our grand opening tomorrow at the mall.
We hope you guys can support us
and bring as many friends as you can.
LITTLE MATT: How are the beignets, guys?
Look at him. It looks like he ate too many.
It's all right. I'll just work it off later.
I put on the sumo suit. People start smiling, laughing.
I start going out, working the crowd,
getting people pumped about our beignets.
Like it. Love it.
[ Laughs ] Hey, Tyler. Good seeing you, man.
I see you're causing quite a stir?
A little bit. I think it's the suit.
Thank you very much.
How are the beignets working out?
I think they're going great.
I agree. I love it.
This is the perfect size. It's really changed everything.
Good deal. You got a flyer or anything?
We're just doing these beads right here.
These beads say anything about tomorrow?
Uh, no, but they're asking.
They're finding out more information,
like, why are we doing this, what's going on?
You got to get them to the mall tomorrow, okay?
All right? Fantastic. Nice job, guys.
Thank you, Tyler.
Oh, good.
Yes.
Great. Great.
Wonderful. Wonderful.
No.
This is my second one.
Fantastic.
Yeah, great.
This is round 2.
FLORENCE: How are the beignets?
Delicious.
The chocolate is good.
Yes.
If there's one thing that you are gonna remember
Oh, taste.
All right, cool. All right. Thank you so much.
[ Indistinct conversations ]
NICK: How you doing?
What's up, guys? How are you? How you doing?
How's it going?
Oh, absolutely.
It looks like you got a lot of people in here that love you,
right, which is cool.
Thank you.
Hi, ladies. How are the hot dogs?
They are awesome.
This is amazing.
And did they get a chance to explain to you
Yes.
And do you like the new Fusion Dogg?
I love this. The chips, awesome.
It is amazing.
All right. See you tomorrow.
We'll be there.
This is our invitation for our grand opening tomorrow.
Oh, awesome.
Bring some friends.
NICK: Come out tomorrow
and show support for our opening day.
FLORENCE: So, how do you think it went?
I think it went really well.
It was super awesome to see the support from our community,
from everybody that came out and just said,
"We're really rooting for you."
People loved the Fusion hot dog, by the way,
loved the potato chips.
I think you guys did a great job today.
I walked away with "people love you guys to death."
And they want to see you succeed.
That's cool. That's what you want to do. All right?
How important is this for you tomorrow?
This is huge for us.
It's so tough for me to run my business,
pay my employees what I would like to pay them,
and I'm taking on side jobs in the wintertime.
It's been seven years of trying
to make this business a success.
We're getting to an age where he can't continue
to do in the off-season what he's been doing,
which is building homes, the construction.
It is super *** him.
So, I believe this is a little push that we needed
to just really say, "Okay, let's make some changes."
Refocus, yep.
At the end of the day, it's all about money tomorrow.
So, if you guys can get the hot dogs out,
burn through the line,
you guys have a really, really good opportunity to win.
All right, guys, listen. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you so much. Get some sleep.
Tomorrow's a big day.
Thank you so much.
All right. Let's go get some rest.
Okay.
Hey, what's up, fellas?
Hey, how's it going?
How are you? How's it going?
Good to see you, man.
Do you guys feel good?
LITTLE MATT: Oh, feel awesome.
BIG MATT: Oh, a good day. A very good day.
Started out a little hectic this morning,
but I think we nailed it.
So, a couple of things I saw downstairs.
First of all, you had the room in stitches, right?
But some people that we spoke to got the message
that you're opening up a restaurant tomorrow,
and some people didn't.
A lot in retainment, not so much of a call to action.
Other than that, I really felt you guys had a good event, okay?
I really do. All right.
So, tell me why this is important to you.
I was in the restaurant business for a couple years, and it failed.
And that's a hard thing for any business owner
to have to deal with.
And why is this important to you?
It's very important for me 'cause my mom
always wanted to see me do bigger and better things,
and unfortunately, she's not gonna be around to see it
'cause she passed away about a year and a half ago
after a long battle with cancer.
And I just want to make her proud.
You're a good son.
That's awesome.
There's a lot riding on this.
I want you guys to give everything you got tomorrow.
Opportunities do not knock like this every day.
No.
All right. Good luck, fellas. Nice job.
Thank you very much.
Thank you. I was very impressed today.
Let's do this.
All right, man.
Check it out, man.
BIG MATT: Over the last few days,
Designs By Dawn has been transforming our space.
Oh, dude. Check it out.
She's done a great job.
This looks amazing.
This is awesome, man.
LITTLE MATT: Everything's decked out.
It's our restaurant now. There's no better feeling.
That's our place.
This is like a legitimate restaurant now, man.
Bring it on.
Oh, my gosh!
NICK: I walk in the food court, and I see House of Doggs.
How awesome is that?
Oh, my gosh. They did a fantastic job.
That's exactly what I was gonna do.
That is exactly what I was gonna do on the bottom.
And everything looks exactly how I would have done it.
Oh, my God! It's awesome!
Let's make sure this stays there.
Right in this spot. House of Doggs. Let's go.
How you doing, teams? How you feeling?
Fantastic.
Today is arguably one of the most important days
of your lives professionally.
Definitely.
In a couple hours,
your restaurants will be open.
You'll have two hours to prep your food
before you open for business.
Matts' Beignets, because you won the advantage,
you will start
with 12 additional minutes of service time.
All right.
House of Doggs, that means
you will have to wait that 12 minutes
before you can start selling to your customers.
The team that earns the most money today
will walk away with their space rent-free for one year.
It's a lease worth over $100,000.
Wow.
Sweet.
Absolutely.
Let the food-court wars begin. Let's do it.
All right. All right. All right.
It's opening day. This is what it's all been boiling down to.
We got to nail it today.
If we do, this is the first day of the rest of our lives.
What about these things?
Steamers over here.
We got to check the steamers, honey. What do you think?
Fryers are up to temp.
AUTUMN: It's game on, and we really have a lot of pressure
to make sure that things
come off the way that they're supposed to
because we absolutely want the final outcome to be
that the House of Doggs wins this competition.
Stick with our normal strategy.
You do sauces. I'll do the beignet batter.
For opening day, we're going
with our Original Beignet, of course, with the choice
of either our blueberry dip or the salted caramel.
And then our number-two item is a Banana Split Beignet,
which has bananas, whipped cream,
chocolate, and a maraschino cherry on top.
And then the third option is a Black Forest Beignet,
which has our cherry dark-chocolate sauce,
whipped cream, and a dark cherry on top,
and some chocolate shavings.
Well, I'm gonna get started on the coleslaw.
After you get those started,
you're gonna prep and start cutting the chips, correct?
NICK: You're on it.
So, today for opening day,
we're making our new Fusion Dogg with our fusion sauce,
scallions, and the new little potato chips on top.
And then we have a Broccoli Cheddar Dogg
with our broccoli cheese sauce and French-fried onions on top,
and a Slaw Dogg with chili, homemade coleslaw,
and then we're gonna serve that
with a side of homemade potato chips.
Sweet!
[ Laughter ]
The cavalry's arrived.
Hey, man. How's it going?
Sweet.
BIG MATT: My cousin Adam shows up.
This is fantastic
because Adam works for me at my party store.
He's our kitchen guy, and he's really gonna help us out.
Who knew that we'd be matching?
I had a pretty good idea.
Oh, really?
AUTUMN: Dave!
Things have changed, huh?
Here he comes to save the day!
NICK: My friend Dave is our helper.
I'm so happy to see him,
'cause I know he's got skills in the kitchen.
He's been doing it for years.
He's done a lot of successful catering jobs.
He knows his way around the kitchen.
In 20 minutes, we have to put the dogs and buns in.
Okay.
With the other team getting that extra 12 minutes,
I'm feeling a little bit more stressed and anxious
about making sure we get everything done.
Oh, yeah. I am the chip master!
We got a problem big-time. Our chocolates both seized.
LITTLE MATT: What are we gonna do?
I don't know, but once these have seized,
I don't know how you bring them back.
So we're gonna have to change our plan.
I'm freaking out at this point.
The chocolate sauce is a disaster.
I don't know what we're gonna do.
LITTLE MATT: Oh, my heat's not even on, dude.
I look down. I realize one of the burners is off.
I thought it was on simmer.
Turns out it's been off I don't know how long.
I'm starting to panic a little bit.
We've only got seven minutes, dude.
We got to start doing something.
Oh, mother of God. Turn that burner down.
Oh, my God.
Mama. Why is that burner still on?
LITTLE MATT: It's starting to get a little bit more pliable.
All right.
Why don't you start pouring for me for a second?
We'll save this one, and we should be in good shape. Don't want a lot.
BIG MATT: After we flipped the burner on,
I'm pouring more cream into the chocolate sauce.
It actually looks like it's coming back to life.
I can tell you we're gonna have a chocolate sauce, though.
Okay. Sweet.
Time is winding down fast. We have so much more to do.
Hey, Matt, do you want to still sauté the bananas,
or you want to go raw?
Let's just go raw.
I don't have it up on the board,
so nobody's expecting nothing.
Oh, crap. Oh, crap.
This is our 12 extra minutes, man.
We're in business. We're in business. We got to go.
We're gonna end up using our 12 minutes for prep, I believe.
Our line is starting to build up,
and we're still trying to play catch-up with a lot of stuff.
We're using our 12 minutes that we won for prep.
This is turning into a nightmare.
How come you guys aren't ready yet?
BIG MATT: We're getting there.
We're almost there. Oh.
Whoo. Looking good.
Are you guys ready for beignets?!
Yeah!
Four number ones? Got four number ones.
Oh, you got it.
BIG MATT: 8 minutes into our 12 minutes
of extra service time,
we finally got our first beignets out the window.
Look at that. Beautiful.
Awesome. They look great.
LITTLE MATT: Today for opening day,
we got three menu items to choose from.
First is our Original Beignets with the choice
between our salted caramel sauce or our blueberry sauce.
Or we have our Banana Split Beignet
with bananas, whipped cream,
dark-chocolate sauce, and a cherry.
And then we have our Black Forest Beignet
with some whipped cream, our dark-chocolate cherry sauce,
and a black cherry on top.
Cool.
All right. And that's $15, please.
Thank you so much.
You're welcome. Thank you.
NICK: How much time do we got?
Like 30 seconds.
NICK: So, we've got Autumn watching the timer.
She's counting down the minutes.
We're getting ready to serve these customers
that are already lining up.
BIG MATT: The line is huge.
I don't know if it's because everybody wants a beignet
or we're just not moving people through fast enough.
Speed mode?
Adam, you're gonna take over the fryers here as soon as you're done.
AUTUMN: All right! We're open!
Welcome to the House of Doggs. What can I get for you?
Can I get the Fusion with a Slaw Dogg?
Fusion. Slaw Dogg.
Good times.
Finally, that last second ticks off,
and we can start serving people.
We need two Broccolis and a Fusion.
NICK: We're serving the Fusion with our upgraded sauce,
the Broccoli Cheese Dogg with broccoli-cheese sauce
and some French onions,
and the Slaw Dogg with chili and slaw.
That look like the Fusion you're used to?
It's a Fusion on steroids right there, my friend.
LITTLE MATT: What can I get for you guys today?
I would love a Banana Split Beignet, please.
Banana Split?
He doesn't want any sauce, though.
BIG MATT: Even though I think we're finally moving some product,
it's taking way too long to get each dish out.
To have all these people here willing to spend money
and we can't give them something,
we might be in trouble.
Thank you. Have a great day.
AUTUMN: I just made that Broccoli Cheddar.
You just made it and handed off to me.
NICK: All right. Well, okay.
We're getting our groove mixed up
because I'm used to doing that -- I'm sorry.
I'll be right with you, honey.
We got to get these caught up.
NICK: I have a whole new line of ingredients,
so it's tough to get everything out as fast as I normally do.
Struggling to keep up with the demand.
Thank you so much for being patient. You're fantastic.
That'll be $10, please.
Thank you very much. I hope you enjoy.
Oh. Thank you. Thank you.
WOMAN: Hi, a number 3, please.
A number 3, good choice.
Thank you very much. Please enjoy.
Excellent. Thank you so much.
Your hot dog will be up right over here.
Thank you for being patient. That's $5, please.
It's going great.
Good? This is it. Last big push.
You got to get through these people, okay?
All right.
Thank you very much.
Matt, how you doing, man? How are you?
How's it going? Hey, Matt. Last big push, guys.
This is it. The competition's almost over. Finish strong, dude.
Okay. Okay.
All right. Thank you so much for coming in today.
All right. I got your number 1 and your number 3.
Thank you.
There you go. It's gonna be $5, please.
Mmm.
The chips are very good.
Oh, I like the crispy edges, yeah.
FLORENCE: Ladies and gentlemen, can I have your attention, please?
The food-court war is now over!
[ Cheers and applause ]
Please give a big round of applause
for House of Doggs and Matts' Beignets.
Well, honey, you ran the line like a trooper.
Thank you.
I feel like I've been hit by a powdered-sugar bomb.
Congratulations, House of Doggs, Matts' Beignets.
You did an amazing job.
Thank you.
As you can see, we have your friends and family
here to support you,
and I can see a lot of love in the room.
Matts' Beignets,
you had an extra 12 minutes of service time.
You weren't prepared when diners arrived.
But you quickly recovered,
and you earned an extra $60 in that amount of time.
Fortunately, your beignets are delicious,
and customers kept coming back for more.
But will it be enough for you to win?
House of Doggs, you started out with a disadvantage.
Orders started to pile up, and the kitchen got backlogged.
But you used your business savvy to recover,
and you expedited new orders with grace.
Thanks.
Guys, this could change your lives.
One of you are about to win a restaurant
rent-free for one year.
I've tallied up the money,
and the restaurant that earned the most will win.
With a grand total of $1,469,
the winner of "Food Court Wars" is...
...House of Doggs.
[ Cheers and applause ]
We won!
Whoo-hoo!
Congratulations, guys.
We feel awesome.
Oh, feel great.
And this is the opportunity that we've been waiting for,
especially that it's rent-free.
It's very exciting to see what's gonna happen.
Who knows where it can go from here?
Thanks for all your hard work.
Aww. Aww, thank you, honey.
WOMAN: You did okay, honey.
Oh, thanks.
That hurts.
It hits hard for all the work
that we've done, everything.
We just couldn't pull it off.
Aww.
BIG MATT: Even though we didn't win this,
there's still a future for Matts' Beignets.
I am a dreamer, and there's gonna be other dreams
that'll come down the pipeline.
But I still say Matts' Beignets is going to continue.
Good job, guys.
NICK: We have a lot to look forward to now.
We have a lot of positive things going on,
you know, more financial security.
We're in business all year-round, and we're very excited.
Hey, guys. What do you think?
Awesome. Thank you, Tyler.
Very excited. Thank you for all your help.
I would like to introduce you to your new best friend.
This is Bill Agge.
He's the general manager of the Grand Traverse Mall.
Hi, Bill. Very nice to meet you.
How you doing?
So, guys, we got a couple things for you.
First and foremost, I would like to present you
with the first dollar you ever made in the House of Doggs.
[ Cheers and applause ]
This is for you.
You're welcome.
And then, second of all,
Bill has got a lease for you to sign.
This is your restaurant as of right now.
Congratulations, guys.
AUTUMN: I'm happy for Nick because I would rather have Nick
here indoors at the mall, as opposed to having him out
doing the construction work in the off-season.
I think it's awesome. I'm gonna have him around a lot longer.
Congratulations. You got yourself a restaurant!
[ Cheers and applause ]
This is definitely how we wanted it to end.
We're leaving here today with an answer
to what our future was gonna hold.
House of Doggs!
I'm just beyond excited for us.