ROBERT MCCRARY: ONE LIFE TO LIVE, AND HE CHOSE RESTAURANTS

By Dave Yochum. The Crazy Pig is not a crazy idea for restaurant entrepreneur Robert McCrary, the man behind The Egg in Davidson and a second location in Birkdale.

The new restaurant and tap room will go in the former Fuel Pizza in Davidson.

Originally a gas station, the cozy building will need about $150,000 in renovation before he begins serving  BBQ and local beers in February or March.

As an entrepreneur, the Huntersville resident says one of the most difficult challenges he faced was opening and running a second restaurant. Now he’s on his third and it’s a new concept to boot.

Birkdale, which opened 18 months ago, is in about 1,800 square feet with 10 employees, while Davidson, which opened in 2007 has about 20-25 employees depending on the season.

The 2,850 square foot Davidson location does about $800,000 a year and Birkdale is doing about $300,000 a year.

Now it’s time to grow.

Biggest challenge: “I have opened all three restaurants by myself so there are a lot of challenges. Money of course is a big one, time management is always a challenge…would love to have big money investors/partners since I am contacted constantly about bringing my concept to a new location. I would love to grow but it is physically impossible and I just don’t have unlimited capital.” The Davidson Egg closed at 3 p.m. before he took over the concessions for Our Town Cinema. “So since the kitchen stays open til 8, we decided to keep the restaurant open til 8 also,” he said. It meant more managers, more staff—not an easy undertaking in a tightening labor market.

Top trend: “My concept is one of the newest trends still left to grow…breakfast concepts are still an untapped market. However the hot trend right now is the craft beer houses that are popping up everywhere, hence why we are opening up a BBQ taphouse.”

McCrary, who worked in restaurants while acting in TV soaps “Santa Barbara” and “One Life to Live,” said the new location is a great space with a lot of character, “so we do not want to rush to get it opened. We want to do it right.”