5 Details About Buena Papa Fry Bar From Shark Tank
Restaurant chain Buena Papa Fry Bar founders James and Johanna Windon are among the business owners competing for a deal on Season 15, Episode 4 of "Shark Tank." Burgeoning restaurant chains have found plenty of success in the series' past, like "Shark Tank" Season 10's Fat Shack. Whereas Fat Shack's owners entered the studio with 11 locations to their name in 2019, they have since more than doubled that number.
Buena Papa Fry Bar's menu is comprised almost entirely of loaded fries. The Colombiano, for example, consists of a french fry base topped with refried beans, fried pork belly, chorizo, guacamole, and pico de gallo. Meanwhile, a dish titled The Americano resembles a loaded baked potato, with toppings including cheddar cheese, bacon, sour cream, and chives.
On "Shark Tank," the Windons are hoping for the type of investment that will help their signature loaded fries to reach an audience as large as Fat Shack's. Here are five details about Buena Papa Fry Company that "Shark Tank" viewers interested in learning more about the company should know.
The idea for Buena Papa Fry Bar originated during lockdown
A brief history of the business on the official Buena Papa Fry Bar website recounts how James and Johanna Windon came up with their signature loaded fries during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic lockdown.
One night the married couple decided to make a dish called Bandeja Paisa from Johanna's home country of Colombia for dinner. Missing from their pantry, however, was rice, which typically accompanies the various proteins that otherwise make up Bandeja Paisa. Instead of scrapping the recipe altogether, however, they cooked a version using fries instead of rice, reasoning that both are ultimately just carbs. That night's dinner morphed into the Colombiano, Buena Papa Fry Bar's flagship menu item.
In a Spectrum News profile, James revealed that the restaurant's name came from a phrase Johanna's mother uses to mean "good person" — "papá" literally means "father" in Spanish, but her mom is apparently referring to people in a colloquial sense in this case. Of course, the restaurant's name contains something of a double meaning. "That's an awesome name for the potato company because papa also means potato," James said.
The first Buena Papa Fry Bar location opened in 2021
It didn't take long for James and Johanna Windon to spin their accidental dinnertime invention into a brick-and-mortar business. The restaurant's first location opened on August 26, 2021 in Raleigh, North Carolina's Morgan Street Food Hall. This is a modern food hall akin to Los Angeles' Grand Central Market, located in Raleigh's downtown and housing a total of 22 local food and drink businesses.
As for the Windons' business experience prior to opening their first restaurant, James started out working in the entertainment industry. Then at some point he and Johanna decided to open a cleaning business together, which they had to shutter during lockdown. The decision to expand the Bandeja Paisa french fry dish into a restaurant concept, then, was partially a response to the fact that the Windons' latest business venture had recently closed.
In order to fill out their first restaurant's menu, James started researching signature dishes from countries other than Colombia in order to adapt their ingredients to new loaded fry recipes. Through this process he came up with menu items like the Greek-inspired El Griego. "You get to introduce new culture, new language, new foods," he told Nation's Restaurant News about Buena Papa's international offerings. "When you walk into one of our places, you're going to feel like you're on vacation."
Reviewers online frequently describe its large portion sizes
Buena Papa Fry Bar's original Morgan Street Food Hall location has a 4.3 star rating on Yelp from just over 30 reviews. In positive assessments of the restaurant, reviewers have frequently highlighted its large portion sizes. For example, user Rachel H. — whose bio reads "french fry queen" — found that Buena Papa Fry Bar tops its fries with more ingredients than they initially expected and recommended that two people share a single order. Meanwhile, user Surelyne L. recounted sharing a single Colombiano with two other people. "It was so good but even 3 people couldn't finish this!!" they wrote.
User Jillian S. provided a similar assessment. "Large portions. I chose the regular size. Yes I did eat it all in one sitting, but it can easily be two meals," they wrote in a five-star review.
Even in a Tripadvisor review of the Morgan Street Food Hall from user eval682 brought up Buena Papa Fry Bar's portion sizes. "Kids especially loved Buena Papa Fry Bar — portions were enormous," they wrote.
Buena Papa Fry Bar was named the official loaded fry of the Carolina Hurricanes
Also local to the city where Buena Papa Fry Bar got its start are the Carolina Hurricanes, who compete in the National Hockey League. In October 2022, James and Johanna Windon opened their third location in the PNC Arena where the Hurricanes compete. This deal earned them the right to call the business the official loaded fry of the Carolina Hurricanes. The PNC Arena location ended up selling out of all of its inventory during its first night in the venue.
In a thread about the arena's best food on the Carolina Hurricanes subreddit, user v4vendetta77 proposed that Buena Papa Fry Bar provides the overall best value. In response, user pentaxshooter mentioned its large portion sizes. "I end up splitting them with someone usually cause at a certain point I'm tired of eating fries," they commented.
Buena Papa Fry Bar started franchising in 2023
On "Shark Tank," James and Johanna Windon are seeking an investment from the panel of Sharks in hopes of expanding their restaurant chain's footprint. Buena Papa Fry Bar is a relatively new franchise, and only just started to undergo nationwide expansion in early 2023, less than a year before appearing on "Shark Tank."
Buena Papa Fry Bar secured four new locations in March 2023. This news came 60 days after the introduction of a franchising program, meaning that its nationwide expansion explicitly kicked off at some point during January 2023. That said, the bulk of its locations are within the borders of its home state of North Carolina. Its sole restaurant in another state is located in Miami, Florida. The business also hopes to expand into additional cities like Austin, Atlanta, Chicago, and New York City.
The Miami spot's opening featured the invention of a couple of dishes unique to that location — El Miami, El Cubano, and El Japones. These first two dishes, of course, are inspired by the city's Cuban culture, whereas the third incorporates Japanese ingredients. Presumably, future locations can likewise introduce menu items reflecting local demographics.
What happened to Buena Papa on Shark Tank?
James and Johanna Windon enter the "Shark Tank" seeking $400,000 in exchange for just 7% of Buena Papa Fry Bar, imputing a valuation of about $5.75 million. Despite $2 million in sales and consistent expansion, the Windons are eager to forge a strategic partnership with a shark so they move forward at a faster pace.
As always, some delicious samples help sway the panel toward their cause — yet two red flags unfortunately send the sharks swimming away. For Lori Greiner, the issue is the couple's desire to accelerate their pace. As multiple sharks point out, there's nothing intrinsically disadvantageous about just reinvesting their net profits (around $200,000 per year) to expand the business gradually. Mark Cuban, meanwhile, takes issue with their attempts to franchise the business. As he says, this essentially splits their attention between two very difficult ventures: running a restaurant and guiding a franchise. Both Greiner and Cuban go out.
Kevin O'Leary goes out as well, though it's only because he no longer eats fried food due to health concerns and wouldn't be able to use his personal brand to sell the product. Barbara Corcoran, meanwhile, is wholly unconvinced the Windons even need a partner.
Robert Herjavec, the final shark left in the tank, loves the business, its direction, and its founders — in his words, "The only thing I hate is the valuation!" As he sees it, Buena Papa is only worth $2 million now, so he makes an immovable offer of $400,000 for 20%. After some largely unsuccessfully negotiating, Johanna is finally able to whittle down Herjavec by 1% — thus, the Windons exit with a deal of $400,000 in exchange for 19% of Buena Papa.