Growing a Restaurant During the Age of COVID-19

By Mike Switzer

Published November 12, 2020 at 9:43 AM EST

Since first opening in 1997 in Pawleys Island, our next guest’s restaurant has grown to 43 locations across the Southeast. And the pandemic hasn’t slowed them down. Since June, they’ve signed agreements for ten more, opened nine more, and three additional locations are scheduled to open from now until the end of the year.

Mike Switzer interviews Ricky Richardson, CEO of Eggs Up Grill in Pawley’s Island, SC.

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Mike Switzer

After almost 20 years, Mike Switzer retired from Wells Fargo Securities in 2001 as Senior Vice President/Investment Officer and Certified Portfolio Manager. In 1999, he and his wife, Maggie, purchased and operated for eight years the Baskin Robbins ice cream store on Forest Drive in Columbia. They grew the store from a bottom-tier operation in the Baskin Robbins franchise system to one in the top 5% nationwide within three years, tripling sales along the way. While operating the ice cream store, Mike and Maggie received patents for a portable ice cream sink and fold-down sneezeguard they invented and in 2002 started Magnolia Carts, an ice cream cart manufacturing company, which they sold in 2013.

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