Leadership Comeback
Shula's Restaurant Group is returning Dave Shula to the president's chair, reinstating the veteran operator to the role he held for nearly two decades as the family-owned group pursues its next phase of franchise-driven expansion. Shula, eldest son of Pro Football Hall of Fame coach Don Shula and a former NFL head coach himself, originally joined the restaurant business in 1997 before stepping away in 2018 for a five-year college coaching stint at Dartmouth.
The six-concept portfolio — spanning Shula's Steak House, Shula's American Kitchen, 347 Grille by Coach Shula, Shula Burger, Shula's Bar & Grill, and PRIME, A Shula's Steak House — now counts more than 30 locations nationwide, a footprint built largely through hotel and franchise partnerships over the brand's 37-year history. Returning Shula to the top of the org chart signals an intent to accelerate that trajectory through tighter franchise support and selective market entry.
Development Pipeline
Near-term openings anchor the growth story. A Shula's American Kitchen is slated to open this winter inside the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel and Executive Meeting Center in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida — a format consistent with the group's longstanding hotel-embedded operating model. A second market entry is planned for Thomasville, Georgia in 2027, representing a new geographic footprint for the brand, with additional area development opportunities described as under active exploration.
Beyond site-level growth, Shula will take direct responsibility for team building and corporate development, as well as reinforcing operational culture across franchised units. That cultural mandate is central to his stated rationale for returning. "My family name is on this organization and each of our franchised locations," Shula said, citing a charge from his father to protect and extend the reputation built on the football field. That standard — established when Shula's Steak House was founded in 1989 — now applies across a multi-concept, asset-light franchise structure.
Segment Context
The upscale-casual and hotel-restaurant segment has faced persistent pressure on cover counts and average check since 2023, as consumer trade-down trends and elevated food costs compressed unit-level margins across the category. For franchise groups operating inside hotel properties, performance is often tied to occupancy and group travel recovery — a dynamic that has broadly improved heading into late 2026 as business travel volumes stabilize. Shula's hotel-embedded concepts sit at a favorable intersection of foodservice and hospitality, giving franchisees a captive daypart mix that pure street-location operators lack.
For multi-concept franchise groups in the premium-casual tier, leadership continuity and brand equity management are increasingly differentiating factors in area development agreement negotiations. Returning a recognizable family steward to the president role — one with deep operator experience and a direct link to the brand's founding identity — is a calculated move to strengthen that conversation with prospective franchisees. Operators evaluating the franchise development landscape will note the group's dual-track pitch: established brand heritage paired with a still-expanding geographic whitespace.
Shula brings credentials beyond hospitality. His board service on the Orange Bowl Committee since 2016 and his appointment earlier this year as vice mayor of Jupiter Inlet Colony add community-relations depth relevant to market entry and local permitting — practical assets for a group pushing into new territories. Coverage of emerging franchise development trends suggests that operator groups with strong regional brand stories are outperforming in franchise recruitment relative to newer, unproven concepts.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
