Lauren Silberman: Great. Thanks so much.
Operator: Your next question comes from Andrew Strelzik with BMO Capital Markets. Please go ahead.
Andrew Strelzik: Hey, good afternoon. Thanks for taking the question. Two parter on new store performance for me. I noticed in the release the Texas Roadhouse stores open less than six months. There was an 8% decline in the average weekly sales, and it’s the third quarter in a row of declines, and those have kind of accelerated over the last, over that period. So just curious, what is driving that? Any color behind that would be great. And then, just more broadly color on new store performance would be great? Thank you very much.
Michael Bailen: Hey, Andrew, it’s Michael. Thanks for the question. Yes, that’s something, I mean, that comes across in the numbers. There’s some timing and regional impact in there. When you go back to the first quarter of last year, I believe it 15 new stores, three of those were in California. Those are high-volume restaurants. We’re going to use some of our highest sales in the country out there and that was really pushing that number higher. So, I would say the anomaly, if you want to call it anything, was how high that number had gotten in that first quarter. Now, we don’t have those California stores in that 25 store number for the first quarter. We’re very happy, let me emphasize, very happy with the performance of our new stores and how they are performing.
We don’t expect every restaurant out-of-the-gate to be doing $150,000, $160,000 per week in sales. But, as we look across all of those, there is nothing that is concerning us, about their performance or our ability to continue to open more stores. There’s just always going to be a little bit of a timing issue and a region, the states that they may open in.
Andrew Strelzik: Great. That makes sense. Thanks a lot.
Operator: Your next question comes from [Jim Solera with Stevens] (ph). Please go ahead.
Jim Solera: Yes. Thanks for taking the question. I wanted to ask if we could get an update on the Butcher House initiative. And maybe at a high level, do you really think of it as a way to build brand awareness or more of a frequency increaser or a way to get more customer data? And, maybe one tag on to that well as well. Does it help you guys with new site selection as you can start to get some, frequency and data information of where people are ordering from?
Gerald L. Morgan: No. I think mostly what any of that retail segment of our business is about brand awareness. And, we’ve done some really creative things. We’ve had a lot of fun with it. And, I think that’s the real focus on our retail. It’s just really brand awareness and having some fun. We’re continuing to look at every aspect of the business and see what we do with it in the future, but right now we’re uncertain.
Jim Solera: Okay. And then, if I think about the performance of your brand, obviously, the food traffic has been very strong, which is divergence from a lot of your peers. It seems like is there a scenario where as the macro gets tougher, the value proposition at Texas Roadhouse is such that you continue to source more people from peers, in a way it actually makes your trends more resilient given the value positioning?
Gerald L. Morgan: Well, we certainly believe that, and we continue to do what we do. We can’t really control what they do. We believe in our value that’s built into our menu. We continue to try to be very conservative and take care of our business, but take care of our guests and really understand the dynamic of where we’re at today. And so, I just believe that we focus on our food being smoking hot, picture perfect recipe right, fast, fun, and friendly in our dining rooms. It’s rewarding us, and all three of our brands have excellent food that we’re proud of. We love to hustle to help people and serve, and that’s what gives us the advantage, I believe. And, we’re really proud of everything that our operators are doing out there, and they play this game at a very high-level.
Jim Solera: Great. Thanks, guys. I’ll hop back in the queue.
Operator: Your next question comes from Gregory Francfort with Guggenheim Securities. Please go ahead.
Gregory Francfort: Hey, thanks. I appreciate the update on Bubba’s and Jaggers. I’m just curious how you’re thinking about balancing the capital priorities across the three brands in the next couple years? And then, for Jaggers, maybe specifically, it seems like you’re accelerating the franchise development. What’s the plan long-term on how you’re thinking about the company operator versus franchise development there and maybe what your pitch to prospective franchisees looks like? Thanks.
Gerald L. Morgan: Thank you for the question. I believe that we’re going to stay focused on Roadhouse in that mid-20 growth. Bubba’s, we’ve talked a little bit about how we’re building the pipe pipeline, and it is absolutely our second brand and we’re very invested and excited about what it’s doing. Jaggers is exciting for me in a lot of different ways. We’ve got eight company stores and three franchise stores, and we’ve got people interested, the food is incredible. Our service model is really working from a speed of service standpoint. So, we are building our very first international restaurant with Jaggers. So, the thing about franchising is you can go a little bit faster, and you actually learn a lot. We’re really good at casual dine and to really get our head around Jaggers and what it needs to be highly successful.
We wanted to bring some partners in that could help us grow, and that’s what we’re doing with our franchise, partners. We’re learning. We’re partnering up. It’s going to help us grow on the company side and on the franchise side. And, it’s hard to tell you what percentage right now going forward, but we’re definitely, leaning into both and learning a lot. And, we really appreciate our franchise interest in the Jaggers concept.
Gregory Francfort: Thank you.
Operator: Your next question comes from Jim Sanderson with Northcoast Research. Please go ahead.
Jim Sanderson: Hey, thanks for the question. I wanted to go back to a little bit more insight on Bubba’s 33. I think the comp was a little bit weaker than, Texas Roadhouse. But, can you walk through the same-store sales breakdown traffic price mix for Bubba’s?
Michael Bailen: Hey, Jim, it’s Michael. We actually don’t get into that detail as much or at least not at this time into that breakdown. I mean, but, yes, you’re correct. It’s not, it did not comp to the same level that Roadhouse did, but again, Roadhouse is kind of different than everyone else out there. But, again, we are with only 45 restaurants, the handful are not growing, it can skew that number. But overall, we saw some great performance in Bubba’s early this year and then are very encouraged by the margins that we’re seeing there and what that business can deliver going forward.
Gerald L. Morgan: Yes. And, I’ll add on just a little bit on that. We’re really if we just look at Bubba’s and not compare it to Roadhouse, we’re very, very happy with the performance, not only on our sales. We’re attacking sales. We’re in controlling our cost. We’ve done some things in the building to help us long-term, and we’ve done a little bit of menu engineering. We’ve added a combo appetizer, which has really been a success and reorganized a little bit of how we do wings. And, we’ve got a new sandwich we’re excited about to be offering out there, and so there’s a lot of momentum. As I look at the first quarter in Bubba’s 33, it tells me we’re in the right business. Burgers and pizzas and cold beer and rock and roll, we’re going to be just fine.
Jim Sanderson: Okay. Can I assume from that, that you had positive traffic in 2024 at Bubba? Is that fair?
Michael Bailen: Yes. I think that’s fair to say.
Jim Sanderson: All right. I just want to ask a follow-up question also on same-store sales in April. Is there any issue related to the Easter calendar shift that impacted performance?
Michael Bailen: Easter, no. Easter was still fall within our April period, so no impact from Easter.
Jim Sanderson: No shift between, okay. Very, very good. And then, last question for me. How does Texas Roadhouse usually do for Mother’s Day? Is that, an important event or not so much?
Gerald L. Morgan: Yes. It’s an incredible event. It’s all a part of Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day. We kind of call it the Triple Crown. And speaking of that, the first leg of the Triple Crown is, here in Kentucky over the next couple of days, and we’re excited about that. But, yes, Mother’s Day is huge, for Texas Roadhouse and the restaurant industry overall, and we have some dominant players out there. We’re excited about Mother’s Day and Father’s Day.
Christopher Monroe: And, Jim, this is Chris. I’ll just throw in. There’s also Mexican Mother’s Day that is celebrated as well. So, we have that we have that, as a part of our, repertoire as well.
Jim Sanderson: All right. Thanks. I’ll pass it on. Thank you very much.
Gerald L. Morgan: Thank you.
Operator: Your next question comes from Jake Bartlett with Truist Securities. Please go ahead.
Jake Bartlett: Great. Thanks for taking the question. My first is just a clarification or kind of a modeling question. Do you expect to open company-owned Jaggers of the 30, company-owned stores you expect? I think you said four Bubba’s, any Jaggers in there? And then, the real question, the bigger question is about G&A. Anything we should think about in the second quarter? We typically don’t disclose how much exactly you spent on the conference, but if there’s any variance, anything we should be aware of as we try to model G&A. As I kind of try to make the adjustments in the first quarter, I get about 10 basis points of leverage, in the first quarter, kind of, adjusting for the one-time last year. Is that the kind of leverage you expect going forward just for the year as a whole? Thank you.
Gerald L. Morgan: I’ll let Michael answer that second part. On the Jaggers’ growth, yes, we only have one, maybe two this year as far as we know can look at, but I’m building the pipeline. I do expect that to grow in the future. We’re working some deals right now that are looking really positive. I believe we had three last year, and so we’ll continue to look at the ramp-up on that because it is now hitting, the goals and the targets that we’re looking for.
Michael Bailen: And, this is Michael, on the G&A question. In the first quarter, yes, we did on an adjusted basis, we did get a little bit of leverage. I think the next several quarters, again, some of it will depend upon your assumptions for topline revenue, but I do think it may be a little bit tougher for us to get leverage on G&A in the second quarter and third quarter. When you think about some of the investments we’re making in Roadhouse Technology and some of the other things that we’re doing internally. We’re definitely investing in the business and this being a 53 week year for us, which could continue to result in strong performance. We’ll probably be taking some extra accruals for bonuses and compensation during the year. So, I would expect you could probably see G&A for the year being in a flattish range, but the second quarter and third quarters could be a little bit more difficult to get some leverage.
Christopher Monroe: And, I’ll just add to that, the back half of the year could be impacted by the change in the timing of our equity grants that we talked about, and that is probably what you were referring to at least in part there in the second quarter and third quarter.
Jake Bartlett: Great. And, if I could sneak just one quick one in. On the extra operating week impact on EPS, it’s greater than the just the proportion of the week. I think in 2019, there was a 60 basis points benefit on the restaurant level margins from the extra operating week. Is that kind of, any reason to think that would be different this time around?
