Food, Franchises, and Frank Talk with Dan Bejmuk
Dan Bejmuk is among the 30+ thought leaders who will be joining us on stage at Street Fight LIVE 2025. His professional (and personal) passions include MULO (multi-location) food brands. We sat down with him to learn a little more about the path that led to his current role at Dreambox (an agency).
What brought you into the multi-location (MULO) restaurant industry?
“Really…I just love food. Back in 2000, our agency (Dreambox) started working with the Benihana restaurant brand. After they received an industry award for the top national chain restaurant website in 2003 (besting our friends at Burger King and Starbucks in second and third place respectively) our work with multi-unit restaurant brands really grew (now over 150 brands), including becoming Yard House’s digital partner for eighteen years, along with a number of multi-concept operators, including Yum! Brands, Delaware North, Landry’s, Fox Restaurant Concepts, FAT Brands and many regional brands.”
What’s the biggest change you’ve seen over the past five years?
“The explosion of tech vendors focusing on the restaurant space, combined with their extreme specialization in some cases. The restaurant industry today is struggling with pandemic-induced changes, along with an oversaturation of restaurants. We have more restaurants per capita today than we did just ten years ago, putting pressure on industry leaders and challenger brands more than ever to drive guest traffic.”
You go to many of the industry conferences. What are some of the themes you hear regularly?
“This combination of people wanting to learn how to make their brands more competitive is right there with level-sets on how they’re doing already. Sure, networking is always a big deal; plus, any conference today is flooded with the promises of how AI is already changing the game to add just the right amount of paranoia into everyone’s day.”
What are some of YOUR favorite MULO food brands and why?
“As an agency, my favorites include the real leaders that thrive on consistency and truly frictionless experiences. Franchised brands tend to have a tougher time than company-owned stores with consistency and potentially mixed tech-implementations introduces friction. I’m a SoCal boy, so of course, company-owned In-N-Out Burger is a leader on the consistency scale.
On the franchise side, Freddy’s Frozen Custard & Steakburgers has developed a remarkable degree of consistency. I’m also a Sugarfish regular; the way they’ve changed the sushi game across their system has been nothing short of remarkable.”
How do you spend your free time?
” Fun fact about me…I’m a licensed charter boat captain, which means my free time tends to revolve around the water when I’m not neck-deep in parenting my eight-year-old daughter Chloe. Oh! I also travel well!”
We’re grateful that Dan Bejmuk will be speaking at Street Fight LIVE 2025! Register today and join us Sept 30th to hear his perspectives on consumer loyalty and which MULO brands (restaurant, retail, and others) are winning the “street fight” for share of consumer wallet.
