FB Society Is Setting the Table for Growth

The company’s $400 million restaurant concepts don’t share much in common. That’s exactly how CEO Jack Gibbons likes it.

By Will Maddox | February 3, 2025|12:06 pm |Photography courtesy of restaurants

n busy nights at the original Pappasito’s Cantina in Houston in early 1983, Jack Gibbons was doing his best to juggle the responsibilities of being a waiter at the popular Tex-Mex eatery. He worked between classes at the University of Houston at what he thought was just a college job. He was wrong. 

The restaurant industry sparked something in the Pennsylvania native. “I can vividly remember thinking, ‘Oh my god, this is an amazing atmosphere,’” he says. “It had an allure from day one. I knew I could do this for the rest of my life.”

As he circled the tables, worked with hosts and chefs, took orders, delivered food, and connected with diners, Gibbons was laying the foundation to one day lead the largest Dallas restaurant group most people haven’t heard of. As CEO of FB Society, he oversees a company with 41 venues, 4,500 employees, and about $400 million in annual revenue. All told, the group has launched or sold over 20 concepts. 

According to an industry update from Foodservice Equipment Reports, the average restaurant unit count grew by 1.8 percent in 2023. Gibbons says FB Society’s unit count growth came in at 31 percent in 2024. The numbers tell him that his strategy of launching, growing, spinning off, and selling restaurant concepts is working—and poised for even more growth.

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FB Society founder Jack Gibbons says he tries to design restaurants he and his friends would enjoy.Kelly Williams

When guests sit down for a meal at an FB Society venue, they’re likely unaware of the company behind it—which is by design. Gibbons and his team strive to create unique concepts that transport diners to disconnected places. A tour of FB Society’s restaurants might include noshing on elk tacos while dining in an Airstream trailer at Haywire at Legacy in Plano, enjoying spirits and goat cheese fondue at Whiskey Cake in Las Colinas, or ordering up a round of sliders and hand-battered onion rings from a picnic table at Son of a Butcher on Greenville Avenue.


Scale and Sell

Over the years, Jack Gibbons and Randy DeWitt have created and sold hugely successful restaurant brands. 

Twin Peaks

Velvet Taco

Ojos Locos

Gibbons worked for Pappasito’s for 25 years, rising from waiter to senior concept leader at Pappas Restaurants, overseeing 33 Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchens. He learned how to run a great restaurant, grow a brand, and create systems to maximize quality and experience, but something was missing. “At the end of the day, you have to follow their way of doing things,” he says. “I always had an independent streak.”

As he rose through Pappasito’s ranks, Gibbons earned an MBA from the University of Dallas and became friends with Randy DeWitt. At the time, DeWitt was running Rockfish Seafood Grill, a concept he built with the backing of Chili’s parent company, Brinker International. DeWitt was looking for a restaurant exec with seafood experience to take over and run the brand. 

“I asked the recruiter, ‘Who’s the best operator out there?’ The name at the top of the list was the guy running Pappadeaux—Jack Gibbons,” DeWitt says. “We tried to get in touch with him, but Jack wouldn’t return our calls. So, one day, I walked into the Pappadeaux on the Tollway and asked to see him. Jack told me flat out he wasn’t interested in leaving. But we stayed in touch.”

Gibbons says the idea of running Rockfish for Brinker wasn’t initially enticing, but DeWitt eventually pitched a more attractive vision.  

The two discovered a shared desire to create new brands and scale them. DeWitt bought Rockfish back from Brinker, and the duo founded the holding company that would become FB Society. Over the next couple of decades, the two launched, spun off, and sold several concepts that put them among the upper echelon of Dallas restaurateurs (see sidebar).

But before they experienced exponential growth with now-sold concepts like Twin Peaks, Velvet Taco, and Ojos Locos, there was an empty restaurant on opening day. The pair’s first restaurant together was The Ranch at Las Colinas, a massive 14,000-square-foot venue that was different from most other eateries on that stretch of State Highway 114 in Irving. Existing in the space between a casual lunch spot and an upscale steakhouse (FB Society uses “polished casual” to describe most of its concepts), The Ranch was a bit of a gamble. 

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The night before it opened, DeWitt posed a question Gibbons had never considered: what happens if no one shows up? DeWitt’s question ended up being a premonition, and it was crickets on opening day at The Ranch. Ever the optimist, Gibbons didn’t despair. He took a one-day, one-guest-at-a-time approach, surrounded himself with good people and forged ahead. “It has to be successful or else,” Gibbons says. “That drive and determination lit a fire underneath me.”

The years at Pappasito’s had prepared him for the challenge. He knew what worked, was confident in the concept, and believed that it would be just a matter of time before diners discovered it. Sixteen years later, The Ranch will break $15 million in annual revenue while selling more alcohol than any other restaurant in Irving. 

“Jack brings a relentless passion for hospitality and a commitment to high standards that push all of us to be better,” DeWitt says. “He has this operational intensity that’s infectious—it’s what elevates every brand he touches. His creativity is now one of his biggest strengths. He’s not just a great operator; he’s a leader who has shaped our industry in a meaningful way.”

Building Brands

Here’s a look at some of the successful restaurant concepts FB Society has launched in North Texas. 

The Ranch at Las Colinas  (2009)

Whiskey Cake (2010)

Sixty Vines  (2016)

Ida Claire  (2015)

Mexican Sugar (2013)

Haywire (2017)

Son of a Butcher (2020)

The Ranch and Haywire are the duo’s most similar concepts, with Gibbons describing them as siblings who live on a West Texas ranch and the funky desert hamlet of Marfa, respectively. But the company’s other brands are intentionally diverse, with different culinary strategies, alcohol approaches, and décor. “When we create brands, we want them to be so differentiated that even if they share the same parking lot, guests don’t recognize they are created by the same group.”

The diversity also allows the restaurateurs to develop their brands in clusters, to the point where diners can often walk from one FB Society venue to another. Whiskey Cake and Sixty Vines are a literal stone’s throw from each other along the Dallas North Tollway; Mexican Sugar, Sixty Vines, and Haywire are separated by only a couple of blocks in Uptown; and Haywire and Legacy Food Hall share a wall in Plano surrounding Legacy’s Box Garden concert venue. 

Gibbons’s ability to balance operational know-how and creativity is rare, says Sixty Vines CEO Jeff Carcara, who has worked in the past with the groups behind Hillstone and Del Frisco’s. “For someone like Jack, who comes out of that programmed operations environment, it is a big leap of faith to start your own business,” Carcara says. “I’m amazed at how he has developed that side of his game. He’s probably one of the most underrated restaurateurs out there right now.”

In addition to a portfolio of rapidly growing brands, FB Society subsidiary The Food Hall Co. is changing how people eat out in North Texas and beyond. Legacy Hall opened in Plano in 2017 to much fanfare and now houses 24 eateries. Chilangos Tacos and Son of a Butcher launched at the 55,000-square-foot hall and now have several locations around North Texas. 

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FB Society remodeled Char Bar, a historic building on Lower Greenville, for Son of a Butcher.

In 2021, FB Society opened the massive 100,000-square-foot Assembly Food Hall in the heart of Nashville at Fifth + Broadway in Music City. In addition to 30 restaurants, the hall—the largest in the U.S.—includes three stages and the largest rooftop in Nashville that hosts country acts ranging from Diamond Rio to Luke Combs. 

But The Food Hall Co.’s most ambitious project lies ahead. The forthcoming Shaver Hall will be in Amazon’s Hank building on Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan in the former Lord & Taylor department store. At 35,000 square feet, there are plans for two full-size restaurants, 10 food stalls, two full-service bars, a bodega, and live music. Gibbons and company won the project after Amazon released a request for proposal for its office, which is set to open in late 2025 or early 2026. “When you think about the placemaking, population, and density to do something exceptional, Manhattan has to be the top of the list,” he says. 

FB Society isn’t limiting its growth opportunities to restaurants. Gibbons, who is constantly coming up with new ideas inspired by his extensive travels, says he’s working on a food and beverage-focused hotel that will be designed from the ground up. He also has made it his mission to offer financing and guidance to other restaurateurs. He is the only outside investor, for example, in East Dallas’ Truck Yard, an outdoor plaza off Greenville Avenue that has food trucks rather than permanent stalls. “With my experience with different restaurant groups, I can help other founders with my skillset and learn from them at the same time,” he says. 

Through this work, Gibbons is exploring opportunities to acquire concepts in the early stages of growth to help guide them through the expansion process he and his company know well. 

Meantime, FB Society brands are multiplying in North Texas and beyond. Mexican Sugar and Haywire are in various stages of expanding to Houston; Haywire and Sixty Vines are launching in Austin; and Sixty Vines has locations in North Carolina, Florida, and Virginia. FB Society opened 11 restaurants in 2024, bringing the group’s total to 41 around the country. 

Although the growth of FB Society in North Texas has been substantial, its most impactful influence may be directional. In a market where many restaurant concepts prove themselves in Dallas before expanding to the suburbs, FB Society went the other direction and is now teaching urban neighborhoods how the suburbs eat. “We started as just a couple of suburban dads who didn’t want to drive all the way in the city to get a proper cocktail,” Gibbons says.

His authenticity, creativity, and innovation shine through in the ingredients, design, and details of his concepts. And he never stops thinking about possibilities, asking, “What’s the next big idea we think could capture people’s imagination and be scalable?”

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Will Maddox

Will Maddox

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Will is the senior writer for D CEO magazine and the editor of D CEO Healthcare. He’s written about healthcare…

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