Dave Shula is stepping back into the president's chair at Shula's Restaurant Group, the family-owned hospitality company he led for nearly two decades before a six-year return to college football coaching. The move positions the 37-year-old brand for a fresh expansion push across its six-concept, more than 30-location portfolio.
Growth on the Horizon
The immediate pipeline includes an opening of Shula's American Kitchen at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel and Executive Meeting Center Palm Beach Gardens this winter, followed by the brand's first foray into Thomasville, Georgia, in 2027. The company says additional markets are under active evaluation nationwide, signaling a deliberate push to broaden the franchise footprint beyond its Florida and hotel-corridor strongholds. For franchise operators and prospective partners, more details are available at shulas.com/franchise.
Beyond real estate, Dave Shula is tasked with team building and talent development at the corporate level, and with reinforcing what the company calls "the Shula culture" across every franchised location. That culture, he says, traces directly to his father's directive when he first joined the company in 1997. "He told me, 'I didn't get into the restaurant business to do anything but enhance the reputation I built as a football coach,'" Dave Shula said. "That sets the bar high and continues to guide how we operate today."
A Legacy Built on Standards
Coach Don Shula founded Shula's Steak House in 1989, translating the same principles — preparation, discipline, accountability, and integrity — that guided his Miami Dolphins to the NFL's only perfect season (17-0 in 1972) into a hospitality operation. That single steakhouse has since grown into a multi-concept group spanning Shula's Steak House, Shula's American Kitchen, 347 Grille by Coach Shula, Shula Burger, Shula's Bar & Grill, and PRIME, A Shula's Steak House.
Dave Shula's own résumé blends professional sports and the hospitality industry in an unusual way. After playing for the Baltimore Colts in 1981 and coaching under his father with the Miami Dolphins, he served as offensive coordinator for the Dallas Cowboys before leading the Cincinnati Bengals as head coach from 1992 to 1996. He joined the restaurant business in 1997, spending more than two decades as president and national ambassador before returning to football as wide receivers coach at Dartmouth College — his alma mater — from 2018 through 2023.
What It Means for Operators
For the broader restaurant franchise community, a returning founder-adjacent executive with deep brand equity and a clearly defined cultural mandate can carry real weight in franchisee relations and recruitment — particularly for a group where the family name appears on every door. The Shula model, which leans heavily on hotel partnerships and licensed concepts, reflects a broader hospitality industry trend of legacy brands leveraging flag relationships to drive low-capital expansion into new markets.
With the Thomasville opening representing an entry into a smaller secondary market, the group appears willing to test formats and geographies beyond major metros — a strategy worth watching for operators tracking where heritage steakhouse brands find their next growth lanes.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
