Little Ola’s Expanding to Mueller

According to recent reporting in Austin Business Journal, MaieB Hospitality will be opening a new Little Ola’s at 1905 Aldrich St. in the Mueller neighborhood.

“What we have now is one proven concept, albeit in a pretty challenging location,” said MaieB Hospitality CEO Ben Fordham to ABJ . “It was a kind of means to an end (at the initial location) in Wells Branch. What we have enabled us to do in the two-and-a-half years of operating there is really fine-tune that concept and understand what it needs to look like to be successful going forward.”

Local readers may recall that MaieB Hospitality opened its Redbud Ice House burger concept earlier this year.

“It’s so far been a year of two halves,” Fordham said. “We’ve achieved some really encouraging growth. We tightened up in lots of areas … really to enable us to make this next step with Little Ola’s, to be able to grow that we needed to tighten things up and get into a place that felt really good and overall we’ve done a lot of that. … We’re still in a bit of kind of sticker shock as to the challenge of the summer, (but) we’re coming out that.”

While the budding brand’s 10-year plan calls for a Texas expansion, Little Ola’s is aiming to become a national brand.

“The fast-casual counter service model is built for growth (and) it’s built for a volume,” said Fordham, which is why the business chose to focus on Little Ola’s expansion. “If you can execute with our high standards of culinary and service and with the right financial metrics, then it should grow.”

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