At Jack Brown’s Beer & Burger Joint, CFO Graham Davis plays a pivotal role in overseeing the financial strategy of a growing restaurant chain that stays deeply rooted in simplicity and community.
Davis, who joined in February, honed his restaurant industry skills through his time at Inspire Brands — the parent company of restaurant chains Dunkin’, Arby’s and Buffalo Wild Wings — where he led operations performance and held several senior roles in analytics. Now, he oversees financial strategy while ensuring that Jack Brown’s stays true to its origins in providing a fun, neighborhood beer and burger experience.
The brand, known for its simple menu and distinct culture, has grown to 21 locations, with more on the horizon. Despite the company’s recent success, Davis remains grounded in the belief that growth should align with maintaining the company’s identity, and is emphasizing smart, sustainable expansion.
In a recent interview with CFO.com, Davis shares insights into his transition from the corporate world to a smaller, more intimate restaurant brand, as well as the challenges and opportunities he faces in managing growth while preserving Jack Brown’s unique culture. From overseeing expansion to tackling culture labor challenges, Davis provides a candid look at how he balances the role of CFO with business strategy and operational priorities.
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Permission granted by Graham Davis
Graham Davis
CFO, Jack Brown’s Beer and Burger Joint
First CFO Position: 2025
Notable recent employers:
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
ADAM ZAKI: What did you learn at a massive company like Inspire Brands that you’ve brought into your role at Jack Brown’s?
GRAHAM DAVIS: When I started at Inspire, it was one of my first forays into the restaurant industry. I quickly learned that what we do behind the scenes in finance and analytics really has to be connected to real team members serving real guests in real restaurants. Every dollar that hits my paycheck or pays for anything we’re doing in the office first passes through the hands of the hourly team member. If everything we are doing from a finance, accounting and process optimization standpoint isn’t designed with that team member in mind, then what are we doing?
To the guest, the brand isn’t what we think it is. To the guest, the brand is that person they’re looking eye to eye with at the cash register, at the table. So, from a finance and accounting standpoint, what are we doing to serve that team member and free them up to serve the guests? That’s what I learned at Inspire, and it’s been cool to see how that can transition and carry over to Jack Brown’s.
Jack Brown’s has always been built on feel — it’s the vibe, the culture, it’s what you feel when you walk in, and that’s 100% what’s made it successful. We should continue to focus on that, but it’s finding a balance of how we bring in a data-driven decision-making approach while still living that people-first, guest-first culture. We don’t want to make decisions just because data tells us it’s right, but we can leverage that data, those insights and information through point of sale and guest experience metrics to better serve the team and the guests.
That’s something we hadn’t tapped into before. There have been a lot of decisions based on feel, and luckily, most of the time they’ve been right because gut instinct typically leads well, but now we can back that up and support it with data.
Jack Brown’s recently opened the 21st location outside of Nashville, Tennessee. As CFO, how do you balance supporting growth while staying realistic about the business?
The history of Jack Brown’s is not based on hitting certain unit volumes or sales numbers. The goal was never about hitting 50 units or $50 million in sales. Jack Brown’s was born out of two childhood best friends wanting to start a bar. So, the root of Jack Brown’s is based on friendship, community, nostalgia and providing a place where people could belong.
It’s been refreshing, honestly, coming from a really large organization driven by valuation and IPO preparation, to a brand driven by its roots. Jack Brown’s isn’t going to expand just for the sake of expanding. We’re not going to open locations just to hit a certain number or a certain sales volume. We’re going to expand because we feel it’s the right thing for the business.
We only pursue smart growth. We’re very opportunistic. We don’t have a 50-unit development pipeline. We want to position ourselves so that when the right opportunity comes along, we can pounce on it, but we don’t have to rush into every opportunity.
That’s been a mindset shift because in larger brands, especially those backed by private equity and looking to scale massively for an IPO, it’s about hitting those metrics and opening units as fast as possible. But Jack Brown’s, we’ll grow at the speed that the business can support, both from a cash flow standpoint and a people development standpoint. We believe our people are our biggest asset, and we don’t just want to say that; we want to back it up.
If current efforts to improve ingredient quality, both in the marketplace and by regulators, were to impact laws around your sourcing, how would that affect your business?
Fortunately, our menu is extremely simple — beer, burgers and fries. We don’t serve lettuce or tomatoes, which might surprise many people. That was a decision made from the beginning, and it’s worked out well for us. If our [cost of goods sold] went up, it would be a challenge, like it would be in any business, but I think we could adapt. Our focus on quality and consistency is key.
We source 100% American Wagyu beef from Snake River Farms, use Martin’s potato rolls for our burger buns and the potatoes for our fries come directly from Idaho. We focus on simplicity and intentionality, and I believe we could make any transition to meet any new regulations while staying true to our brand’s commitment to quality.
Do you have any plans to educate team leaders on the new tax rules regarding tips?
It’s something we’re kind of just starting to talk about. There’s a lot of misconception around what no tax on tips means. People don’t understand it’s under certain thresholds, certain income limits and capped at a certain amount.
There are efforts we can do on our end to help educate our teams, but we’re still in the early stages, like most, trying to unpack really what all is in this bill and what it all means. [We are] still seeking some additional guidance coming out from the various departments on how this all actually comes to life. Once we have that, we’ll be able to take that and educate our teams a little bit better.
Finding sustainable and quality labor in the restaurant industry has been a lingering challenge, particularly for front-line roles. Is this still an issue for your business?
The scarcity of labor isn’t as big an issue now as it was [during the COVID-19 pandemic], but the labor isn’t getting any cheaper. Culture has played a big part here. That’s helped us attract and sustain talent. What’s great is that our front-of-house staff often choose who they want to work with. We walk the talk when it comes to people-first values, and that also allows us to have an environment where lots of our stores do most of their front-of-house hiring off referrals.
You get to choose your team here. It’s a lot of fun to see people join because they feel like they’re part of something special. Many of our front-of-house and back-of-house team members even came from other restaurant concepts, tired of the grind where everything was about numbers and not taking care of the people.
Data optimization and analytics were your main areas of focus at Inspire Brands. What’s your take on the pursuit of perfect data?
I believe it’s more about sifting through the noise. One of my first bosses at Deloitte always said, “There are lies, damned lies and statistics.” You can take data and make it say anything you want. So I don’t believe in spending all our time pursuing a perfect “single source of truth.” The data should support decision-making, not drive it. It shouldn’t be the be-all-end-all.
Employees on the front lines should be the real drivers of our business, and the guests should be, too. At Jack Brown’s, our data should help us understand why things are working or not working, but the real drivers are our team and the customer experience. We use data to support the action, not the other way around.
