When Buffalo Wild Wings franchisee Bobby Pancake received a call from the White House on his cell phone, he didn’t recognize the number so he let it go into voice mail.
Upon returning the call, however, he swiftly discovered that he and Steve Wheat, his partner in High 5 LLC, a six-unit franchisee of Buffalo Wild Wings based in Bear, Del., would get to meet with President Barack Obama the next day to discuss the state of restaurants and other small businesses.
Pancake, who called the June 11 meeting “an absolutely great experience,” said he and Wheat were invited to Washington after being awarded the U.S. Small Business Administration’s National Entrepreneurial Success Award in May.
The annual award is presented to a successful business that received SBA assistance during its initial growth phase. The two partners founded High 5 in 2004 with several SBA guaranteed loans used to finance the first three of the company’s current six locations. Today, High 5 generates sales of $13.2 million and employs more than 400.
Previously, both Pancake and Wheat had held corporate positions for the Minneapolis-based Buffalo Wild Wings Grill and Bar — Pancake as director of operations for company locations and Wheat as local store marketing manager.
Terry Haney, the general manager of the Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant in Dover, Del., accompanied Pancake and Wheat to the White House.
Pancake, who admitted that he did not vote for Obama in the 2008 election, said the three restaurateurs met with the president for 20 minutes together with two owners of a technology company in Rockville, Md.
Posts
