![]() | |
![]() | |
Ford's Garage | |
Company type | Private |
Industry | Restaurant |
Genre | Casual Dining |
Founded | 2012Fort Myers, Florida | in
Founder | Mike McGuigan Daniel Kearns |
Headquarters | 505 E Jackson Street Tampa, Florida United States |
Number of locations | 25 (2023) |
Area served | Florida Michigan Indiana Ohio Texas Kentucky New York |
Key people | Steve Shlemon President Marc Brown, Franchisee |
Products | Burgers, Appetizers, Soups, Comfort Foods, Mac and Cheese, Sandwiches, Milkshakes, Alcoholic Beverages, Soft Drinks [1] [2] |
Revenue | ![]() |
Owner | Icon Restaurant Group |
Website | fordsgarageusa |
Ford's Garage is an American chain of casual dining restaurants founded in 2012. [3] The first restaurant was opened in Fort Myers, Florida. As of December 2023, the company has 25 restaurants in six states, the majority of which are operated by 23 Restaurant Services. The chain has a licensing agreement with the Ford Motor Company that allows it to use the Ford name and the carmaker's logo. [4]
In 2012, co-founders Mike McGuigan, president of McGuigan Restaurant Concepts and Daniel Kearns, President of the Kearns Restaurant Group as well as his son, Zachary Kearns opened the first Ford's Garage restaurant in Fort Myers, Florida.
In May 2013, the company applied to trademark its name as Ford's Garage Venture LLC. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office denied the application, because the name was too similar to the trademark held by the Ford Motor Company. One year later in 2014, the restaurant chain signed a deal with the Ford Motor Company enabling it to use Ford's trademark "Blue Oval" logo and other insignia in its restaurants. [5]
In 2017, Ford's Garage opened their first restaurant outside Florida in Dearborn, Michigan, the birthplace of the motor company's founder Henry Ford. [6] The restaurant in Dearborn is located within the property of the Ford Motor Company and is less than two miles away from the company's international headquarters.[ citation needed ]
In 2023, the company opened a restaurant in Florence, Kentucky. [7]
Ford's Garage's sister restaurants include Yeoman's Topgolf Swing Suite, Tiki Docks, Don The Beachcomber, The Firestone, Capone's Coal Fired Pizza, Cabos Cantina, The Lodge, The Boathouse Tiki Bar & Grill, The downtown social house, Izzy’s Fish & Oyster, and Bimini Bait Shack all located in Florida. [8]
Arthur Treacher's Fish & Chips is an American fast food seafood restaurant and former chain. At the peak of its popularity in the late 1970s, it had 826 stores. However, as of March 2023, there were only three stand-alone Arthur Treacher's locations remaining. The menu offers fried seafood or chicken, accompanied by chips.
Fort Myers is a city in and the county seat of Lee County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 86,395; it was estimated to have grown to 95,949 in 2022, making it the 25th-most populous city in Florida. Together with the larger and more residential city of Cape Coral, it anchors the Cape Coral–Fort Myers metropolitan statistical area, which encompasses Lee County and has a population of 834,573 as of 2023.
Whataburger is an American regional fast food restaurant chain, headquartered and based in San Antonio, Texas, that specializes in hamburgers. Founded by Harmon Dobson and Paul Burton, it opened its first restaurant in Corpus Christi, Texas in 1950. Family-owned by the Dobsons until 2019, the chain is now managed by the private equity firm BDT & MSD Partners; the Dobson family still holds a small stake.
Hardee's Restaurants LLC is an American fast-food restaurant chain operated by CKE Restaurants Holdings, Inc. ("CKE") with locations primarily in the Southern and Midwestern United States. The company has evolved through several corporate ownerships since its establishment in 1960 in North Carolina.
Roy Rogers Franchise Company, LLC is a chain of fast food restaurants primarily located in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States. The chain originated as the rebranding of the RoBee's House of Beef chain of Fort Wayne, Indiana, acquired by the Marriott Corporation in February 1968. However, Marriott first used the Roy Rogers Roast Beef name on conversions of the company's Junior Hot Shoppes in the Washington, D.C. area in April 1968, then the existing RoBee's stores. An aggressive nationwide franchising campaign was launched. At its peak, the chain included over 600 locations. The chain now has 41 locations in five states, either company owned or franchised.
Publix Super Markets, Inc., doing business as Publix, is an employee-owned American supermarket chain headquartered in Lakeland, Florida. Founded in 1930 by George W. Jenkins, Publix is a private corporation that is wholly owned by present and past employees and members of the Jenkins family. Publix operates throughout the Southeastern United States, with locations in Florida (874), Georgia (217), Alabama (94), South Carolina (69), Tennessee (59), North Carolina (55), Virginia (22), and Kentucky (1). Kentucky is the most recent addition to the Publix footprint, with the company's first store in that state having opened on January 10, 2024, in Louisville.
Hungry Jack's Pty Ltd. is an Australian fast food franchise of the Burger King Corporation. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Competitive Foods Australia, a privately held company owned by Jack Cowin. Hungry Jack's owns and operates or sub-licenses all of the Burger King/Hungry Jack's restaurants in Australia.
Fair Lane was the estate of Ford Motor Company founder Henry Ford and his wife, Clara Ford, in Dearborn, Michigan, in the United States. It was named after an area in Cork in Ireland where Ford's adoptive grandfather, Patrick Ahern, was born. The 1,300-acre (530 ha) estate along the River Rouge included a large limestone house, an electrical power plant on the dammed river, a greenhouse, a boathouse, riding stables, a children's playhouse, a treehouse, and extensive landmark gardens designed by Chicago landscape architect Jens Jensen.
Chain of Lakes Park was a baseball field in Winter Haven, Florida. The stadium was built in 1966 and held 7,000 people. It was the spring training home of the Boston Red Sox from 1966 to 1992, after which the Red Sox moved operations to City of Palms Park in Fort Myers.
Shoney's is an American restaurant chain headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee. As of April 2024, the company operates 58 locations in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia.
Rax Roast Beef is a regional U.S. fast food restaurant chain specializing in roast beef sandwiches. The company has been through many iterations, declaring bankruptcy more than once, rising to as many as 504 locations in 38 U.S. states in the 1980s and falling to fewer than 20 locations on more than one occasion. As of 2024, Rax is based in Ironton, Ohio, and has six restaurants in the states of Illinois, Ohio and Kentucky.
Texas Roadhouse, Inc. is an American steakhouse chain that specializes in steaks in a Texan and Southwestern cuisine style. It is a subsidiary of Texas Roadhouse Inc, which has two other concepts and is headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky. As of August 2021, the chain operates about 627 locations in 49 U.S. states and 29 international locations in 11 countries.
Cici Enterprises, LP, doing business as Cicis Pizza and also known as simply Cicis, is an American chain of buffet restaurants based in Coppell, Texas, specializing in pizza. The company was founded in 1985, and started franchising by 1987. In November 2015, the company began a new marketing campaign which included the renaming of the company to Cicis, and a redesigned logo and website.
Frisch's Restaurants, Inc., doing business as Frisch's Big Boy, is a regional Big Boy restaurant chain with headquarters in Cincinnati, Ohio. For many years a Big Boy franchisee, in 2001, Frisch's became the exclusive owner of the Big Boy trademark in Indiana, Kentucky, and most of Ohio and Tennessee, and is no longer affiliated with Big Boy Restaurant Group. As of December 2024, the company operates 27 locations in Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio. This included multiple Big Boy stores in Cincinnati and Dayton, Ohio. Frisch's is the oldest, longest surviving, and smallest regional Big Boy operator, excluding Bob's Big Boy in California, which was the original Big Boy restaurant and franchiser. The last new Frisch's opened in the Northern Kentucky International Airport in 2023. In 2015, Frisch's entered a sale and leaseback agreement of company owned locations. When Frisch's was unable make full lease payments in 2024, the company was evicted from most stores. Leadership of Frisch's passed from founder David Frisch to his son-in-law and finally his grandson, until 2015, when the company was sold to Atlanta-based NRD Capital, an equity fund which focuses on restaurant development. Frisch's also previously owned numerous Golden Corral restaurants in Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia but after closing six under-performing stores in 2011, Frisch's sold the remainder in March 2012. In November 2024, after a series of evictions that led to closures of dozens of locations, a group of senior managers purchased all non-franchised remaining locations and company branding rights.
Hog's Breath Cafe, is an Australian and international restaurant chain and franchise of steakhouse restaurants. The restaurant purveys prime rib as its signature dish, which is slow-roasted for 18 hours.
Buc-ee's Holdings, Inc., commonly referred to as Buc-ee's, is an American chain of country stores, gas stations, and electric vehicle chargers created and owned by Arch "Beaver" Aplin III, headquartered in Lake Jackson, a city south of Houston. The chain was founded in 1982 in Clute next to Lake Jackson and began expansion with its first travel center in Luling south of Austin, Texas in 2003. The company began expanding outside of Texas in 2018 with the opening of a location in Baldwin County, Alabama and since opened stores in Georgia, Florida, Kentucky, South Carolina, Tennessee, Colorado, and Missouri with new locations planned for North Carolina, Mississippi, Ohio, Virginia, Louisiana, Arkansas, Arizona, Kansas, Wisconsin, and Oklahoma.
Po' Folks is an American family restaurant chain founded in 1975 in Anderson, South Carolina. Between 1982 and 1988, Po' Folks was operated by the fast food chain Krystal. As of December 2024, the company operates 5 locations in Florida.
The Henry Ford II World Center, also commonly known as the Ford World Headquarters and popularly known as the Glass House, is the administrative headquarters for Ford Motor Company, a 12-story, glass-faced office building designed to accommodate a staff of approximately 3,000. The building is located at 1 American Road at Michigan Avenue in Dearborn, Michigan, near Ford's historic Rouge plant, Greenfield Village, the Henry Ford Museum, Dearborn's Henry Ford Centennial Library, and Fair Lane, Henry Ford's personal estate.
Newk's Eatery is an American chain of fast casual cafés which operates over 100 restaurants in 13 states.
Oliver George Gleichenhaus named the "re-inventor" of the hamburger, was an American restaurateur, best known for his small Miami Beach, Florida, restaurant "Ollie's Sandwich Shop", located at Third Avenue and 23rd Street, where in the mid-1930s, he created his signature "Ollie Burger" which he prepared with his secret blend of 23 herbs and spices. Extremely profane and irascible, Gleichenhaus was known to curse at and eject diners who requested condiments like ketchup to add to his "perfect burgers".