When Paul Damico — longtime fast casual veteran and former CEO of brands like Fuzzy’s Taco Shop and Naf Naf — stepped into the role of President and CEO at Ascent Hospitality Management, he wasn’t just changing companies. He was changing categories. Overseeing two beloved legacy brands, Perkins Restaurant & Bakery and Huddle House, Damico sat down with Fast Casual Nation hosts Paul Barron and Cherryh Cansler to talk about what it really takes to breathe new life into brands that have been around for over 65 years — and why, in his view, longevity is actually a competitive advantage hiding in plain sight.
From the moment he arrived, Damico made one thing clear: data would drive his decisions. The first thing he looked at was guest sentiment — and what he found surprised even him. “Huddle House far excels anybody in the category,” he told Barron and Cansler, noting that Blackbox Intelligence data put Huddle House at number one and Perkins at number two in family dining, ahead of Denny’s, IHOP, and Cracker Barrel. With around 300 units each and a franchise base that is genuinely generational — some third-generation operators whose families go back to the 1950s — what Damico inherited wasn’t a broken business. It was a brand craving strong, focused leadership to take it into the next era.
One of the most striking revelations from the conversation was how far ahead both brands already were on technology — something Damico, with 42 years in the industry, freely admitted he hadn’t expected. Thanks to the work of CTO Brian Wallace, nearly 100% of the Perkins system had already been migrated to Toast POS, complete with handheld ordering, kitchen display screens, and digital recipe guides that show cooks plating instructions and prep steps on demand. “In my 42 years, I have never worked for brands that had a unified POS,” Damico said. The impact has been immediate: server steps are down by roughly 50%, tip amounts have increased with the introduction of digital tip prompts, and upsell suggestions are now built directly into the ordering flow. The kitchen walls that were once “wallpapered with job aids” are being replaced by a system that empowers even a three-day employee to execute with confidence.
But perhaps the most exciting development Damico discussed was Perkins Griddle & Go, a new fast casual format that strips the full-service dining room down to a 2,000-square-foot footprint with counter ordering, no servers, and a target ticket time of under six minutes. Designed to bring Perkins’ best breakfast and lunch items — eggs, pancakes, smash burgers, build-your-own omelets, Eggs Benedict — to smaller, more cost-effective real estate, the format is deliberately aimed at a younger demographic that wouldn’t naturally walk into a traditional Perkins. “They’re not going to go where their grandparents go,” Damico acknowledged. Early franchise interest has been strong, with development underway in New Jersey and Texas, and future targets including California, the Mid-Atlantic, and college campuses and airports where younger consumers are already gathering. At $10.99 for a burger, fries, and a slice of French silk pie, the value proposition alone could be a category disruptor.
On the operational side, Damico has identified extended operating hours as one of the most immediate and impactful levers available to franchisees. Post-COVID, many locations trimmed their hours to match a breakfast-only daypart, closing at 2:00 p.m. — a decision that, for a brand historically built on late-night diners and 24-hour truck stops, has quietly drained revenue. Locations that have returned to 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. schedules are seeing 20 to 40 percent sales increases. Meanwhile, Damico is navigating the commodity environment with cautious optimism: with the exception of beef and coffee, most key ingredients are trending down through the brand’s May fiscal year-end. Labor, however, remains the defining pressure, with prime costs that once targeted 50% now running closer to 60% in minimum wage-heavy markets — a challenge that makes the labor-light Griddle & Go format all the more strategically important.
Looking ahead, Damico places the Griddle & Go prototype at an eight or nine on a relevancy scale and sees the mainline Perkins system, currently closer to a five or six, as having significant runway for growth. A newly remodeled location in Turkey Lake, Florida, points toward a refreshed design aesthetic — more female-forward, more contemporary in color palette — that the brand is refining before wider rollout. And while a formal loyalty program for Perkins is still in development, Huddle House already has an app generating strong downloads and high ratings. The message from Damico is consistent: these aren’t nostalgia plays. Perkins and Huddle House have survived bankruptcies, COVID, and decades of shifting consumer habits. With the right leadership, the right technology, and a fast casual format built to compete on value and speed, Damico believes both brands have everything they need to be just as relevant in the next 65 years as they were in the last.
