… cough… hypocrisy… cough
She cooks with gas……not wood. All the other places are old school….The Pit, Sam Jones, Longleaf…. ALL cook over wood
The “old” Clyde Coopers did cook with wood.
All this said, she did get hosed with Covid, the stupid BLM nonsense, & finally the lack of strong policing downtown over the last several years.
I know she went too political against MAB, etc but ….in fairness to her & a lot of downtown businesses….the City Council allowed the homeless contingent to run wild with ZERO response. People got scared…some rightfully so. Some just ran with the “boogeyman” syndrome.
The CIty Council’s way too lax response to gangs & the vagrants & panhandlers had real adverse impacts on downtown business……as is evidenced by the businesses vacating East of Fayetteville St in droves…
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The milkshake brings all the boys to the yard. 
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I’m curious to know if those shakes are all for show or are they actually good. They look ridiculous.
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Joking aside I really hope Kelis gets a cut of sales. She doesn’t appear to be involved.
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Welll… go getchu one and tell us!!!
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A bit of a wrinkle in the Armadillo Grill situation:
https://amp.newsobserver.com/living/food-drink/article287795010.html
Apparently, their license to serve alcohol was suspended for 64 days starting on April 12 this month, and they closed up shop about 5 days later. So, it appears that the closing was, at least in part, due to the drug bust from last summer.
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If you can’t sell alcohol, I suppose that you can’t make a profit?
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Hmm, well Pharrell doesn’t need the money but it’s still a little gross to see white owners appropriating the creative labor of black artists for material gain without recompense. Don’t know much about IP law but I’m guessing “the yard” falls just at the edge of “fair use”.
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Those are franchisees, licensing the brand from corporate (and likely heavily indebted until their initial investment pays off). It’s not a black owned company.
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I mean sick burn and everything but new franchisees typically own literally nothing under the terms of their lease and licensing agreement. I could post an image of the actual owners but that doesn’t seem helpful. And more to the point, Pharrell has a long history of going to court to defend against IP violations by people of all races, so unless lawsuits make him “happy”, I’ve gotta think he’d be feeling some other emotions.
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I believe the owners run the “Raleigh Food Trap” IG page. They racked up 132k followers over the last few years doing content on food around the area.
They bought into The Yard franchise it seems, and are using that massive reach and infulence to promote their new business.
The Yard (the franchise itself) has about 30 current shops across the country, and their corporate Instagram has 259k followers. So Raleigh Food Trap’s IG is already half the franchise itself.
I’m focusing on IG bc that’s how ‘food hype’ is being created these days. Pics/reviews of restaurants and scroll-stopping dishes being shared. The Yard’s wild milkshakes are more for IG sharing than they are for eating it seems.
But with that much reach and free marketing, they should be able to make this work.
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Sheesh, it’s a silly joke about a song that’s so ingrained in popular culture it’s pretty much Happy Birthday. Relax, y’all.
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This is correct - I’ve been following them for years… great content for those interested in the food scene around the area (as the posters in this thread are) - from what I have gathered by their posts over time, this venture is the culmination of a long standing dream - I will check it out before the month is out and let everyone know how it is!
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Pharrell cannot sue a milkshake place for having a name vaguely referencing one of his songs lmfao. He also likely couldn’t give less of a shit. You need to find real problems to worry about, my friend. Also if franchising this was such a terrible opportunity, I doubt this family would’ve taken the plunge.
You’re being super weird, full stop.
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I think maybe the debate shouldn’t be about this family. They have out-marketed most of the food influencers in Raleigh so they must know what they’re doing in that realm.
I think the question really is, are these Shark Tank franchise ideas really sustainable? Like, are these WILD milkshakes a novelty or can a place like this fill a void in the food scene for a long time?
These things probably have like a day’s worth of calories in them, so right off the bat, anyone wanting a lighter dessert might opt to go to Goodberrys, Two Roosters or even McDonalds/ChickFilA/ShakeShack for a shake. But maybe insane milkshakes are an untapped market. Maybe there is a revenue stream for catering weddings/parties.
IDK. But I know a former colleague of mine dropped their 9-5 to open a Tom and Chee (Shark Tank Grilled Cheese Franchise) and after some early success it ended up going under. Not bc of them, but bc the Grilled Cheese market just wasn’t really there.
The thing that they didn’t have that ‘The Yard - Raleigh’ people have, is that they can get their product in front of 100k+ people with a single IG post.
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