Barry McGowan doesn’t believe in saving on labor. He believes in investing in it. And while many restaurant CEOs talk about growth in terms of market strategies, spreadsheets, and various prototypes, McGowan talks about joy. In fact, he said the word “joy” about 16 times in our conversation.
As CEO of Fogo de Chão—the 46-year old internationally renowned restaurant concept from Brazil known for its elevated churrasco dining experience—McGowan has cultivated a culture at the rising concept rooted in people-first leadership that goes beyond the poster of core values on the wall. It can be seen and felt in the restaurants by guests, simply by the way team members move with a sense of empowerment, greet and serve guests with true hospitality, and treat every shift like a shared celebration—not just of food, but of connection.
That philosophy has driven the NextGen Casual concept—which began in Porto Alegre, Brazil, as a humble churrascaria steakhouse known for its unique tableside serving style—to its rapid yet deliberate growth over the years. Fogo crossed the 100th restaurant milestone last year worldwide, including 80 U.S. locations. But this isn’t just another expansion story. It’s the blueprint for how a modern restaurant brand can scale its culture as it grows without sacrificing its soul.
Part of the brand’s success can certainly be attributed to the economic value of its all-you-can-eat approach, but it goes beyond just bang for your buck. Part of Fogo’s allure also comes from its unique service format. Instead of servers, Gauchos slice pieces of meat off the skewers tableside, a serving style now known as rodízio. The brand’s signature flame-grilled meats are cooked to guests’ preferred temperature, a format which allows consumers to be in full control. Plus, customers can flip a card on their table to “green” which means “more please,” or red for “no thanks” to have more time to savor their cuts.
Though at first glance one might compare Fogo de Chão to other upscale steak chains like Ruth’s Chris or LongHorn Steakhouse, they don’t consider themselves to be in the steakhouse category. “We are a southern Brazilian brand growing in America and every major capital city in the world. We’re not trying to be like anybody else; we are the category leader in this space. We’re defining it, and we keep innovating and we keep evolving,” says McGowan, who joined the brand as president 12 years ago.
Each Fogo location is uniquely designed and built to reflect its local community while honoring its Brazilian heritage, but the heart of the brand—its culture of joy, generosity, and hospitality—remains the golden thread tying everything together.
“The one thing I speak to most that our industry has lost sight to—and I think it’s because we transformed into different models and the race for growth was all about units—we forget the joy of our industry, the joy of this business,” McGowan says.
He continues, “While I’m here, my mission field, I would say, is working in the restaurant industry because we hire those that a lot of people never hire. We take people, a lot of people who may be food insecure, who had a tough road to go in. We give people chances. We train them up, we feed them, we eat together. We become a family. We’re all unique and different, very diverse, and we get along, but the red thread between it all is we all find joy in serving others, and that’s where the heart of our industry is.”
This is exemplified at every step of the restaurant level, where team members receive a free meal for every shift they work. They can grab whatever they want from The Market Table—inspired by the open-air markets in Brazil—which features fresh and seasonal items like giant asparagus, fresh buffalo mozzarella cheese, sun dried tomatoes, fresh cut and steamed broccoli, micro greens, natural and plant-based proteins, and more, plus it’s 100 percent gluten free.
Fogo also gathers team members together for family meals before or after shifts. The ritual goes beyond satisfying hunger—it also builds bonds, reinforces a shared purpose, and sends a powerful message about the brand’s values.
“We feel it’s important. It’s a great way to sit down and reinforce our culture,” McGowan notes. “When you’re sitting down and eating together, you’re talking about life, you’re getting to know each other, then you get up, you set the table, and then you’re serving others. It’s just fundamental and foundational to our culture, and we mean that.”
One at a Time
Another perfect example of Fogo’s people-first investment culture? New locations aren’t built until enough people are hired to support it.
“We scale our team first, and then we find a site,” McGowan says. “We’ve been incrementally doing that for 12 years, and people look up and go, ‘Oh, you guys are growing so big.’ And it’s like, well, really, for a 45-year-old brand, we’re pretty small. But we’ve just been deliberate about opening one restaurant at a time.”
That discipline and methodical, intentional approach is rooted in the company’s legacy and soul, from the early days in Brazil to its gradual growth in the U.S. The brand has always favored depth over speed. McGowan notes that every new restaurant opening is backed by a three-year pipeline of talent.
Even going back to the days of COVID, when everyone was fearful and layoffs were rampant, Fogo not only stood its ground—it used the opportunity to hire even more talent and fully staff its sales team. “We’re like, all right, this is going to end someday, so let’s be smart. Let’s hire talent,” he recalls.
The decision paid off. Fogo came out of the pandemic stronger than most, and has been 140 to 146 percent staffed since the start of 2019. With this model, Fogo has been able to grow 10 to 15 percent per year for the past 10 years.
Today, each restaurant might be able to operate with just 70 to 80 people—but the company will hire 130 and 150 to provide flexibility for part-time team members, and to make sure they’re never overworked and have time to take vacation. “Our goal is to hire and retain, because we can’t grow our business if we don’t have people,” he says.
Then, when the time is right, leadership gives people a path and journey to become a general manager, area manager, area director, regional manager, and so on, “because we’re growing one restaurant at a time, and we have the human capital to sustain that. We still follow that principle. We maintain [being] overstaffed, and we do that also because we can minimize overtime.”
Because of this genuine commitment to training, promoting, and elevating from within, Fogo has a fiercely loyal and long-tenured team. Selma Oliveira, the first general manager Fogo hired in the U.S. 27 years ago, now serves as Chief Cultural Officer. Two regional directors have been with the company for more than 30 years, and there are countless other examples.
Fogo also gives its crew the flexibility to travel and work in different restaurant locations for short periods of time or, if they need help in a certain location, will provide incentives to move to a different market. “The human capital, the talent pool, is the most important determinant of our future growth,” McGowan reiterates.
To scale a restaurant concept sustainably, McGowan believes “You need great talent, you need people who believe in it, you need people who are aligned in values with you and believe in the culture. Scaling culture is the first priority we take, because my job as CEO is to think about it for the next 45 years. We have succession from my role all the way down to the tip of the spear so that we don’t lose sight of that, we don’t let anyone else determine that outcome. We’ve got to earn it every day from the guests, but we’ve got to keep investing so that we keep our team aligned, the culture aligned.”
This purpose-driven approach rooted in sustainability, compassion, and long-term impact is one of the key reasons the brand has not only endured, but continues to thrive.
A Renaissance in Hospitality and Value
In an environment where economic caution colors nearly every consumer decision, Fogo de Chão isn’t retreating—it’s doubling down on optimism and, you guessed it, joy.
“The consumer is anxious,” McGowan says. “The sentiment is cautious.” But rather than pull back, Fogo’s strategy is to meet guests with a powerful emotional counterweight: hospitality that feels personal, indulgent, and worth the trip.
“While the consumer is fearful, we lean into joy, because when you’re going to come out, it’s got to be worth it. People, if they are anxious, they’re coming out to get away from that. Our job is to let them experience life in that moment,” he says. “And by the way, if they don’t have a lot of money, then within our menu and the occasion, let’s give them a five-star guest experience—even if they have a $10 Picanha burger at a bar. Let’s treat them like they’re the very best and most important person in the room, because that’s why they’re going out.”
This sentiment also drives how Fogo prices and builds its menus. While peers have leaned heavily into taking price on the menu in recent years, Fogo maintains an average annual price increase of just 2.5 percent over the past decade—far below the industry norm. “We’re not overtaking price,” McGowan says. “On average, our peers have taken 6 to 8, some to 10 percent.”
Instead, the brand offsets inflation by adding value—whether it’s through nutrient-dense seasonal ingredients like dragon fruit and prickly pear or small upgrades that surprise and delight.
When the brand had to raise prices about six years ago, McGowan was worried. “We said, what more can we give? So we added grilled cheese and Malagueta. I said, just add and include that in the experience,” he recalls.
For McGowan, value is also about the hospitality experience. “Value has always been important for the consumer. Part of that value that I think is missing in our community, in our industry, is when you pull and you save labor, and you simplify so much that you take away the experience of what you’re trying to give, then your price value is out of balance, and that’s what we’re very cognizant of,” he says. “Everything we do has to be relevant.”
He adds, “If you came to my house, I wouldn’t say, ‘let me grab you the cheapest prosciutto and my cheapest wine.’ I’d pull out my best bottle of wine and grab great prosciutto and some great Grana Padano cheese and say, ‘let’s sit down and enjoy our company.’ That’s the idea.”
This idea also feeds into why Fogo doesn’t rely on discounts, coupons, or gimmicks. Instead, it crafts what McGowan calls “LTEs”—Limited Time Experiences. “Everybody has LTOs. I correct people all the time and say, look, we don’t do LTOs, we do LTEs,” he says.
“The guest understands a discount, but the key is, what’s the compelling reason to go out? Is it just the price?” McGowan explains. If so, the minute you stop offering the discount, consumers will flock to the next concept that has the best deal; it’s not a sustainable model. “I think this is where the industry is learning, and I think I go back to a price and balance for the consumer, you have to fight for share … We’re just not going after the price piece. Our prices are higher, but I go back to, for the price of a center-cut filet in a fine-dining restaurant, you can have the best of Brazil for a lot less.”
He points to examples of the successful comeback at Chili’s—the topic of our cover story last month in May—to the way brands like Texas Roadhouse have continued to win by getting culture right. “Look at the renaissance happening at Chili’s, look at the Chiliheads and how they’re on fire right now. Look at Texas Roadhouse—the Roadies just know what they’re doing every day. We have people in front of us every day that do it. You’ve got smaller regional brands that do it all the time. Fogo de Chão is just an international brand that’s now doing that in America,” he says.
McGowan adds, “When we open restaurants in the U.S., what I’m really most proud of is we make the news in São Paulo, Brazil and Rio [de Janeiro], because the Brazilian culture loves what we’re doing. We’re their favorite brand, and we know we act like ambassadors for them, so they take great pride in how Fogo does in America and around the world, because it means something to them. They know what this dining experience is about, and culturally what it means to bring family around this type of environment. We feel very guarded about that, and our partners at Bain Capital have been nothing but incredibly supportive.”
In August 2023, Fogo de Chão announced it would be acquired by private equity firm Bain Capital, effectively shelving any immediate plans for an IPO. The company had previously filed to go public in November 2021, but never moved forward. It would have marked Fogo’s second stint on the stock market—the first began in June 2015 with a valuation of approximately $545 million. That chapter ended in February 2018 when Rhône Capital acquired the brand in an all-cash deal worth $560 million.
“So credit to Bain Capital that they understood the culture, they understand the value of that,” McGowan says. “We always start that [culture] conversation, and we have a lot of conversations around how we can continue to make that better.”
Ultimately, McGowan and his team aren’t chasing quick wins. They’re building something meant to last. That kind of vision, backed by daily execution, is what separates Fogo. “There’s no short game here. It’s a long game. You’ve got to execute, and you need people who are like-minded, and you’ve got to have culture that’s really sound,” he says.
The long-game mentality also applies to McGowan in his broader career. “I love our industry. I’m never going to retire; I’m always going to be in it. I’m always going to be an investor and advocate for it. Because what we do for every community, every restaurant that opens and employs people makes a difference,” he adds. “We’re going through a renaissance, and it’ll only accelerate if our whole industry stands up and says, ‘this is what we’ve got to do first every day.’ It means it’ll be more competitive, but it’ll be a better industry and more sustainable if we keep leaning into what’s most important.”
