NO. 3 LARGE COMPANY
3-TIME WINNER
SPECIAL AWARD: Best Managers
You gotta love a restaurant company that makes its managers take a three-day weekend once a month during the summer.
That’s a mandate from Brent Tipps, the owner and founder of BoomerJack’s Grill and Bar.
So what’s the deal?
“When I grew up through the restaurant business, I don’t think I ever had a weekend off, much less a three-day weekend,” says the 52-year-old CEO, who scooped ice cream at Baskin & Robbins nearly four decades ago.
“I want our people to be home with their families or just be able to do nothing. We don’t want anybody working 50 to 55 hours,” he says. “It’s something cool that nobody else does. We’re trying to make work fun so they like it.”
And they do.
After a three-year hiatus from our Top 100 list, BoomerJack’s returned in a big way, landing in the No. 3 spot among the largest companies.
The Bedford-based restaurant chain offers family-friendly, casual dining with TV screens in all directions at its 14 Dallas-Fort Worth locations that employ 752 local workers.
Softball tournaments, spa days, Texas Rangers outings, bowling matches, group art outings and daily and weekly contests are some of the ways the company reinvigorates itself.
Tipps says his servant management style is aimed at empowering his people. “Our people listen to us and take care of our needs.”
The company works with employees when “life happens” and goes to great lengths to ensure family and work life balance.
When Tipps founded his restaurant chain in 2001, he chose BoomerJack’s from thousands of names because he wanted something that played well with all demographics — both staff and guests.
“I wanted it to be more of a sports bar,” Tipps says. “I wasn’t building a breastaurant. And it worked.
“If you go into our places, we have a really good mix of men and women, old and young.”
But Tipps doesn’t mind using bit of good-natured humor about women’s anatomy when it comes to a worthy cause.
After walking through the journey of breast cancer with his mother and mother-in-law, Tipps and BoomerJack’s Charities launched Tee Off for Tatas Golf in 2009, an annual tournament to raise money for the Joan Katz Breast Center.
It sells out every year.
