When Fat Patty’s first opened in 2007 in Huntington, West Virginia, it was designed to cater to the appetites of hungry Marshall University students. The original location sits right across the street from MU’s stadium, positioned for football fans to fuel up before or after the game. “It was an instant hit, people loved it,” says Sean Oatney, chief development officer of the neighborhood burger bar concept.
Once the brand became staple-status, another unit opened in 2011, followed by a third in 2013. ARC Group purchased Fat Patty’s from original founder Clint Artrip in 2017 for $12.3 million. Fat Patty’s was corporately run until 2022, when a franchise group purchased all five locations.
With a “quarter of a century of franchising experience,” says Oatney, he focuses on franchise development, growth, and sales. The chain boasted an AUV of more than $2 million across its five legacy stores, according to 2023 franchisee performance in the December 2024 FDD).
Oatney opened his own signage and graphics business in 1996, and continued to work at other brands in advertising and franchising until he joined ARC Group in the fall of 2024, which currently oversees Fat Patty’s, Tilted Kilt, and Dick’s Wings and Grill. “I think [opening that company] gave me a great connection to franchisees because I’ve actually run my own business, and gone through all the struggles and stuff,” he says.
Traditionally, ARC Group was an operator for its three house brands, but did not sell franchises. Oatney was brought on to connect with the team and drive the latter. So far, Fat Patty’s has two stores opening this year with about 10 more on the horizon.
The brand’s five legacy restaurants are nestled within the eastern Kentucky and southern West Virginia corridor. These locations are all about a 45-minute drive from one another, which has helped to broaden awareness.
In August, a new northern New Jersey-based franchisee opened the Eastern-most Fat Patty’s, right on the Atlantic Ocean in Toms River. “They were actually an existing franchisee of Dick’s Wings and Grill, and they believed so much in Fat Patty’s that they actually sold their Dick’s in Georgia and went all in the Toms River location,” Oatney says.
“In the beginning of the brand, there was a focus on being within the small demographics of the Kentucky and West Virginia markets. Our focus now is kind of the opposite of that,” Oatney says. The other location slated to open soon is in West Allis, Wisconsin, a suburb of Milwaukee. In comparison to the legacy stores, this unit will exist in a space with a larger demographic, higher median incomes, and a higher-density population.
As the brand expands, he says Fat Patty’s will be using a hub-and-spoke model for future markets, with locations built near a central store. “We are already looking at Cherry Hill and other areas in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and then over in Wisconsin as well,” Oatney says. “For the other locations, we’re in talks right now to do a three-unit deal in Northern Kentucky and another to do a three-unit deal in Tampa.”
Additionally, the brand is making deals near Lake Ontario in upstate New York, and Columbus, Ohio. Fat Patty’s is also actively searching for franchise operators within North Carolina, specifically in Charlotte and the Raleigh-Durham area.
“I think that most people are excited about the brand,” Oatney says. “They’ve never had the food, so it’s more of what’s presented on our website and then having a menu that not only is robust when you talk about our burgers, with 18 different signature burgers and then our monthly ‘Fat’s Feature’ burger, but then having something that is fresh and innovative that keeps our guests coming back.”
Fat Patty’s menu includes hot appetizers like fried green tomatoes and potato skin boats to start guests off before a half-pound burger hits the table. The burger menu ranges from a fried pickle and bacon-topped option to a bourbon bacon jam and beer-cheese burger to the Cowboy Patty with shaved sirloin and sautéed mushrooms. The brand also offers wings, chicken tenders, soups, salads, pizzas, and non-burger sandwiches (including a French Dip and a Philly Cheesesteak), while an annual menu refresh changes up the options and adds in new flavor combinations.
When operating a hub-and-spoke model, opening a single unit in a non-established region can pose challenges for any brand. For Fat Patty’s, Oatney gives credit to marketing. In recent months, the third highest-ranked Google search related to the brand was, “When is Toms River opening?”
Oatney also notes Fat Patty’s found success in converting second-generation spaces. “You now have a great opportunity to save hundreds of thousands of dollars for that investor, because you already have refrigeration, grease traps, hoods, ventilation, and it would cost a lot to build that all from scratch,” he says. For example, the Toms River unit used to house a Mellow Mushroom. While pizza is on the menu in the legacy stores, the leftover pizza ovens from Mellow Mushroom allowed the brand to add 12 different New York-style options.
The Fat Patty’s culinary team adds regional items to the menu based on each specific location. Other highlights for Toms River are the mahi-mahi burger and surf-and-turf burger. “As we open up locations, we’ll probably have a Wisconsin cheese curd burger,” he says. “Then those will show up as LTOs at other locations.” Franchisees also help curate and choose the “Fat’s Features LTOs.”
Another selling point for the brand is its “cheeky and fun atmosphere,” Oatney says. Servers wear shirts with slogans like, “Nice buns, hun!” and “Our meats bring the heat!” Each location also has a section called The Yard with soft-tip darts, high-top tables, sand shuffleboard, and digital golf. The Yard was introduced in the fifth location of Morehead, Kentucky, where the Yard is called ‘the Eagle’s Nest’ for the Morehead State University Eagles. He also says that the Toms River location will have a “dartboard alley,” AKA a lineup of digital dartboards.
“We wanted to be a place that not only was family-friendly, but community-centric, so that people could come in from all walks of life, whether you’re coming in after church to get a burger and salad, to someone that’s going out to have a date night with cocktails and darts,” Oatney says. “We’ve got tons of TVs, but we’re not a sports bar. We’re just a place where we want people to hang out, and we live on the quality of the food. I think our chef-inspired profiles and the taste and the flavor of the burgers, there’s nothing like it.”
