The Sackett brothers – Matt, Robb and Todd – along with business partner and long-time friend Billy White, have been quietly building a franchise empire in Lexington for the last 15 years.
Together, they own nine Jimmy John’s locations in the area as well as Uncle Maddio’s, the new fast-casual pizza joint at 630 Euclid Ave., with plans for two more in place.
The Uncle Maddio’s concept would make Cosmo Kramer proud: A create-your-own model allows customers to build their own pie from a choice of three crusts, six sauces and an array of meat, vegetable and cheese toppings, with a promise that the pizza will be baked and ready a mere 6 minutes after ordering. In addition to pizza, customers can enjoy soups, salads, folded sandwiches, beer and wine.
Grand opening weekend festivities in late February included free pizza, giveaways and kid-friendly events. All totaled, the Euclid location gave away $22,000 worth of pizza, which marked a new franchise record previously held by a branch in Tallahassee, Florida.
“We had lines from our front door around the building for 10 hours straight,” said Todd Sackett. “I couldn’t feel my feet after three days.”
During staff training, approximately 200 pizzas per day were given to homeless shelters and the Ronald McDonald house, which weren’t factored into that record-setting milestone.
Billy White and the Sackett brothers are all originally from Bloomington, Illinois. White and Robb Sackett went to junior high and high school together and eventually became roommates at the University of Illinois. White, Robb and Todd Sackett all worked in Chicago for a number of years while Matt Sackett, the youngest, worked as a bartender in Champaign, Illinois.
Meanwhile, Jimmy John Liautaud, the creator of Jimmy John’s, was starting to grow his business in Illinois.
In the late 1990s, Matt, Billy and Robb met with Liautaud and found out that a store on Limestone Street in Lexington was seeking new ownership. They decided to purchase the store (store No. 75 out of the current 3,019), and Matt moved to Lexington to run it.
They signed an area development agreement with the company and opened a second location on Tiverton Way in 2003, which is when Todd Sackett moved to Lexington to help out. In his first year running the Tiverton store, he was named Jimmy John’s general manager of the year.
“That’s about the time that we made the decision that this could be a real business,” said White, who does marketing for their stores. “You can build something, and it’s not an IRA, it’s not your retirement. This can be our future, can be our children’s future. We are going to work at this forever, but this is something that no one can take away from us.”
While many companies will spread their ownership in a single city out to different owners, franchises like Jimmy John’s and Uncle Maddio’s like to have the same owners develop an area on their own.
White says that the 25-30 Subway restaurants in the Lexington area are run by about 15 different owners. This isn’t something that would typically happen with Jimmy John’s or Uncle Maddio’s – if another owner wanted to open one of these stores in Lexington, White and the Sacketts would have first refusal rights.
“We like that about Jimmy John’s,” said White. “We’re family, we own everything, we’re committed to the community, and not that those people aren’t, but there’s something there that doesn’t fit with our model where you have multiple owners fighting multiple battles.”
The decision to open up an Uncle Maddio’s wasn’t difficult for them, and after a trip to the Atlanta headquarters in September 2015 to try the food, they were sold. White was drawn to the fresh and from-scratch approach to ingredients. Todd Sackett referred to the systems and procedures of popular chains and how following them exactly is a recipe for success.
“We knew Jimmy John’s was going to be successful if you just follow the plan,” he said. “He’s got it laid out for you. It’s hard work, and Maddio’s is pretty much the same way: If you follow the recipes exactly and prep everything like you’re supposed to, things kind of fall into place. The food speaks for itself.”
White and the Sacketts used to have 11 Jimmy John’s locations, but they decided to sell their two stores in Richmond so they could focus on one community.
“They were good stores for us, but it’s just time to concentrate on Lexington,” said White. “We’ve made the decision that Lexington is a hell of a place for us and that’s where we want to be.”
Billy and Todd Sackett believe their success in Lexington is owed not just to the strength of the product, but also to Lexington itself, and they plan on continuing to grow both franchises in the area. When they joined Uncle Maddio’s, they signed a three-store deal for Lexington, though they aren’t in a rush to open up the second location just yet.
“We have plenty of work to do right here,” said White. “We’ve been very good Jimmy John’s operators for 15 years and we want the same to happen here, and so far it has.”
The night of the grand opening, White was out front talking to customers and being the self-described “mouth that roared,” while Todd Sackett ran things in the back. According to Sackett, White often ventured to the kitchen, baffl ed by the turnout and unable to contain his excitement, watching families gather in the booths and pizza after pizza make their way through the oven.
“He kept looking at me, going, ‘This is a real restaurant, man,’” said Sackett. “We’ve got ourselves a real restaurant.”