Famous Dave's of America is a

chain A chain is a wikt:series#Noun, serial assembly of connected pieces, called links, typically made of metal, with an overall character similar to that of a rope in that it is flexible and curved in compression (physics), compression but line (g ...

barbecue Barbecue or barbeque (informally BBQ in the UK, US, and Canada, barbie in Australia and braai in South Africa) is a term used with significant regional and national variations to describe various cooking methods that use live fire and smoke ...

restaurants primarily located in the

Midwestern United States The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of the United States. I ...

, serving

pork ribs Pork ribs are a cut of pork popular in Western and Asian cuisines. The ribcage of a domestic pig, meat and bones together, is cut into usable pieces, prepared by smoking, grilling, or baking – usually with a sauce, often barbecue – and the ...

chicken The chicken (''Gallus gallus domesticus'') is a domestication, domesticated junglefowl species, with attributes of wild species such as the grey junglefowl, grey and the Ceylon junglefowl that are originally from Southeastern Asia. Rooster ...

beef brisket Brisket is a cut of meat from the breast or lower chest of beef or veal. The beef brisket is one of the nine beef primal cuts, though the definition of the cut differs internationally. The brisket muscles include the superficial and deep pectoral ...

, and several flavors of

barbecue sauce Barbecue sauce (also abbreviated as BBQ sauce) is a sauce used as a marinade, basting, condiment, or topping for meat cooked in the barbecue cooking style, including pork or beef ribs and chicken. It is a ubiquitous condiment in the Souther ...

. Dave Anderson, an

Ojibwe The Ojibwe, Ojibwa, Chippewa, or Saulteaux are an Anishinaabe people in what is currently southern Canada, the northern Midwestern United States, and Northern Plains. According to the U.S. census, in the United States Ojibwe people are one of ...

- Choctaw who served as the head of the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs from 2004 to 2005, started the first Famous Dave's restaurant near

Hayward, Wisconsin Hayward is a city in Sawyer County, Wisconsin, United States, next to the Namekagon River. The population was 2,318 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census. It is the county seat of Sawyer County. The city is surrounded by the Hayward (to ...

in 1994. The restaurant chain grew throughout the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

and

Puerto Rico Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and Unincorporated ...

in 2014, though all of Famous Dave's Puerto Rico locations closed after

Hurricane Maria Hurricane Maria was a deadly Category 5 hurricane that devastated the northeastern Caribbean in September 2017, particularly Dominica, Saint Croix, and Puerto Rico. It is regarded as the worst natural disaster in recorded history to affec ...

. It has 180 locations in 33 U.S. states as of 2021 and four international locations, in

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749 ...

, Abu Dhabi, Al Ain, and

Dubai Dubai (, ; ar, دبي, translit=Dubayy, , ) is the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the capital of the Emirate of Dubai, the most populated of the 7 emirates of the United Arab Emirates.The Government and Politics ...

History

The first restaurant of the chain was Famous Dave's Bar-B-Que in

. On the morning of November 3, 2014, it was destroyed by fire. The second location opened in the

Linden Hills Linden Hills is a neighborhood in the Southwest community of Minneapolis on a hill overlooking Lake Harriet. It was one of the last areas to be developed in the City of Minneapolis. A majority of the land around where neighborhood is today was ...

neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1995 and was designed to be an old-fashioned "roadside BBQ Shack". It closed in 2014. The third location opened in 1996 in the Calhoun Square development in Uptown Minneapolis and was designed as a Blues club, Famous Dave's BBQ & Blues. It closed in 2019. A "Lodge" format opened in

Minnetonka, Minnesota Minnetonka ( ) is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States. A western suburb of the Twin Cities, Minnetonka is located about west of downtown Minneapolis. As of the 2020 census, the city's population was 53,781. Minnetonka is the ...

and the first franchise-operated restaurant opened in

Burnsville, Minnesota Burnsville () is a city south of downtown Minneapolis in Dakota County, Minnesota. The city lies on a bluff overlooking the south bank of the Minnesota River upstream from its confluence with the Mississippi River. Burnsville and nearby subur ...

Dave Anderson

Famous Dave's catering truck Westland Michigan

In 1986, Anderson earned a master's degree in Public Administration from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

, without earning an undergraduate degree. In 1994, he was one of the first investors in Rainforest Café, a theme restaurant chain, and in October 1994, Dave Anderson opened the first Famous Dave's in

. Two years after opening in Hayward, the company went public in 1996. Anderson stated on Facebook that the

IPO An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...

was "the worst decision of his life". Anderson was Famous Dave's CEO until 1997, but remained chairman of the company's board until 2003.

References

External links

* {{Finance links , name = Famous Dave's of America, Inc. , symbol = DAVE , reuters = DAVE.O , bloomberg = DAVE:US , sec_cik = DAVE , yahoo = DAVE , google = DAVE Barbecue restaurants in the United States Companies based in Minnetonka, Minnesota Restaurants established in 1994 Restaurant chains in the United States Companies listed on the Nasdaq 1994 establishments in Wisconsin 1997 initial public offerings

History

Dave Anderson

See also

References

External links