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When we last spoke with Brian Wiles, COO of Rise, at the beginning of 2024, the company celebrated its 11th anniversary and was launching new menu items with more biscuit options, chicken sandwiches, and‘ Chix & Grits’, Rise’ s take on‘ shrimp and grits’. One year later, we catch up with Brian on what’ s been happening over the last year or so, and it comes as no surprise that Rise has successfully opened additional stores and added even more menu items that are taking its customers by storm.
“ We’ ve opened up some fantastic stores over the last year, and we’ ve experienced continued growth and success in our existing markets,” Brian begins.“ We’ re super excited about adding biscuit beignets to our menu, which are made from unbaked biscuit dough that’ s fried and then tossed in powdered sugar to create a beignet inspired by carnival food. We currently have cinnamon sugar, blueberry, and hot cocoa beignets on the menu, and these flavors have already seen success. In fact, our data shows that we sold more cinnamon sugar beignets in the first two-to-three months than we had cinnamon sugar doughnuts throughout the whole year. We’ re planning to create seasonal limited time offerings like lemon for spring, berries for summer, and of course, pumpkin spice for fall.”
Investment and innovation
Elaborating on the additional stores Rise has opened over the last year or so, Brian continues:“ The recent opening of our Dallas store has been very successful, and we’ re imminently opening a second location in the Memphis market. We’ ve also seen growth in existing locations, such as in Thousand Oaks, where the population is growing, and the demographic is changing. 80