Imagine this. You have a winning menu. Customers love it. You’re getting five-star reviews. From a business standpoint, you’re where everyone hopes to be. The food program is sailing along well. Then, you decide to change the menu and drop customer favorites. Starting with something completely new is the plan. Sounds crazy, right?

That’s what Kenny Sharrak, owner of the Eureka Eatery in Monroe, Michigan, decided to do. He said, “The Eureka Eatery started off as a gas station. It was a dog. When we came in, $8,000 was owed to the jobber. We decided to build it up and sell it. We did $2.7 million in sales in a year. Six months into it we decided to open a restaurant. I knew nothing about cooking; I couldn’t cook an egg, but I did love food.”

Sharrak liked Mediterranean cuisine. He went with that and opened the restaurant as Eureka Gyro. They sold bowls, salads, gyro bowls and other items. It was very successful. “People loved it. The neighborhood loved it. As I was progressing, I wanted to see how I could drive more business inside,” Sharrak recalled.

That’s when it hit him. He would embark on a culinary odyssey to find something new that customers would love. He decided to try new flavors. “I went on food adventures. I tried 23 restaurants in three days. I went to Arizona, Texas and Ohio. I would launch monthly specials to see how they would work,” he explained.

As new specials launched, Sharrak developed marketing strategies. “We did corned beef egg rolls. We did Chicago hot dogs, BLT dogs,” he said. Then, a trip to Nashville, Tennessee changed everything.

“I fell in love with hot chicken. I launched Nashville hot chicken. I spent countless hours and nights developing the chicken. The kitchen would close at midnight, and I’d start tearing up the kitchen all night. I had chefs come with me. We were playing around. It was fun and exciting trying new flavors. You don’t usually get that experience at gas stations,” Sharrak said. It wasn’t all smooth. “Chefs would get cocky. I ended up firing every chef. I wanted more. I knew there was more to achieve and develop. I was lost at some point with the chefs. I was 28, and the chefs were older than me.”

And Then, Success

“I launched Nashville hot chicken a second time, and it did phenomenally well. Last year, I launched a whole Nashville hot chicken menu. I took off all the Mediterranean food. We were a successful restaurant. We had 400-500 five-star reviews. To develop a successful brand and convert it was tough.”

You take a bite into this sandwich, and it’s just pure joy.

As Sharrak grew his business, the pandemic hit, but instead of hurting sales, it helped them. “We tripled our business during COVID. During the second month, we saw growth right away. Right before the shutdown in February 2020, we opened the drive-thru. Sales started to pick up immediately. We started to grow. We had 40% growth month over month. We had to hire more people. It was so exciting. The business was booming, and people were loving the food.”

Customers can taste the attention to detail in the food. “When the chicken comes in, we inspect every breast,” Sharrak said. “We massage the breast. We open it to make sure it’s fit to be consumed. If we find spots we don’t like, we throw it out. We marinate 48 hours before we bread it. Then, we fry it and dip it into butter and season to the customers’ seasoning level.”

That means turning up the heat.

“There are seven different seasonings, from mild to medium hot, hot, burning, cluckin’ hot and inferno and, of course, no heat at all. We use the hottest stuff in the world,” he said.

Pure Joy

Eureka Eatery sells 300-400 Nashville hot chicken sandwiches a day and is now a regional favorite. “Our flavor is phenomenal,”

Sharrak said. “We compete with any big chain restaurant. You take a bite into this sandwich, and it’s just pure joy.” He’s constantly tweaking ingredients, from the pickles to the buns.

Lines at the eatery’s drive-thru back up into street, which Sharrak deems “amazing.”

To handle demand, Sharrak had to grow the store and make it more efficient, including investing in new equipment. “We’d switch friers, buy better holding cabinets,” he said.

Sharrak has good reason to be proud of what he’s accomplished. “Today, we’re a destination food spot even though we’re located in a gas station. People want great customer service and great food.” He adds, “15% of our customer base drives an hour to get here.” Plans for a food truck and new locations are in the works.

Sharrak knows great food brings people in, but customer service is paramount: “I think people want to be appreciated. Nobody wants to go to a place where they’re not appreciated. We take orders outside on order pads. We have multiple registers up front to take care of guests. We’re launching an app.

I want customers to be treated right. It’s one of the most important aspects of the business. It’s flavor, customer service, marinating, massaging. It’s the drive-thru process and the register process. Each part is its own driver. Each part is a piece of the puzzle.”