Consumers may be cutting back on restaurant visits, but they still love their mini golf.
So contends Greg Bartoli, founder and CEO of PopStroke, one of a number of golf-themed experiential dining concepts that has ambitious plans for growth.
PopStroke is co-owned by Bartoli with golf champion Tiger Woods. The golf equipment brand TaylorMade is a minority investor. The Florida-based chain is preparing to open its 19th location (Austin, Texas) and 20th location (Nashville, Tennessee) in the next two months.
Within the next 24 months, Bartoli expects to open another 15 units, then adding 12 to 15 each year, starting in 2028. All PopStroke locations are company-owned.
This growth is planned despite the economic headwinds that appear to be impacting most other restaurant concepts (except, of course, Chili’s).
Bartoli paints PopStroke as fundamentally a dining concept, with a “brand-within-a-brand” food-and-beverage program built around the Bar Tenders Eatery.
Not surprisingly, there are chicken tenders in various forms, including salads and wraps, as well as burgers, tacos and sides, like parmesan truffle fries. The eatery includes an ice cream parlor with shakes—including boozy shakes— and dirty sodas. Diners can come enjoy the restaurant without paying the $25 to $35 for a golf day pass.
Bartoli, a former investment banker with J.P. Morgan, said PopStroke appeals to families during the day, but at night the atmosphere shifts to a young adult crowd, with music, sports on TV, and other games.
“It’s a very lively bar atmosphere with young professionals, Millennials, Gen Z and so on. And I think that is what has allowed this brand over the last five years to explode as quickly as it has,” said Bartoli.
PopStroke units take up about four acres with a course designed for all skills levels. | Photo courtesy of PopStroke.
Bartoli also owns about 30 restaurants, mostly in Florida, including Dune Dog Restaurants and The Burger Shack. He said PopStroke was born in late 2019.
At the time, he owned another golf concept called Lighthouse Cove in Jupiter, Florida, with a scratch kitchen and ice cream parlor, which he started to grow.
PopStroke became a derivative of that idea, and, for the first few years, there was just one location in Port Lucie, Florida.
But growth really picked up over the past three years as demand for more experiential and social dining came back after the pandemic shutdown. The chain now has nine units in Florida and six in Texas, as well as locations in Nevada and Arizona, and, soon, Tennessee.
Bartoli contends PopStroke is different from competitors in the golf-themed experiential dining space, most notably the more-than 100-unit Topgolf and its spinoff, the nearly 20-unit Puttshack. There’s also Five Iron Golf, which won an investment last year from Danny Meyer’s Enlightened Hospitality Investments.
Topgolf is owned by Callaway Brands, which has been planning a spinoff of the concept for some time, though the resignation of the CEO recently has put those plans on hold. Same-store sales for Topgolf were down 6% in the second quarter, though more value positioning has helped improve traffic, the company said in its earnings report.
(The founders of Topgolf and Puttshack, Steve and Dave Jolliffe, are now working on another tech-enhanced concept called Poolhouse.)
Bartoli contends that those competing brands are more “mature” and have less room for growth. And the food there is somewhat of an “afterthought.”
PopStroke, meanwhile, appeals to a broader audience, he said.
Here, there is no putting balls through the clown’s mouth or a moving windmill, though there are bumpers to keep balls on the course.
“It’s a more refined putting experience that is designed by professional golf architects,” said Bartoli. “It’s more of a 2025 spin on this very dynamic atmosphere.”
That means music and jumbotron TVs for watching sports. The putting courses are generally about four acres, but there are bars throughout, or guests can order on the app and drinks can be delivered wherever they are on the course, using digital beacons.
Bartoli declined to say what percentage of sales comes from the food-and-beverage side, or share any details about sales for the chain.
But he said comparable sales are growing, and Bartoli predicts PopStroke will see about 5 million visitors over the next 12 months.
The tough economic climate is primarily impacting lower-income consumers, Bartoli said, where PopStroke appeals to a higher-income diner, more in line with a Capital Grille or Yard House demographic that hasn’t been hit as hard.
“I also think that the macro environment is actually getting better, not worse,” he said.
In the experiential dining world, “there will be winners and losers,” said Bartoli. Some brands will disappear.
But, he added, “I just think the younger generation likes to go out, eat and have an experience while they’re there. So I think this entertainment sector is going to continue to expand dramatically over the next 20 years.”