Made from Scratch: The Legendary Success Story of Texas Roadhouse

From the founder and CEO Kent Taylor, the incredible long-shot success story of Texas Roadhouse, where crazy works.

In Long Shot, the late business maverick Kent Taylor tells the legendary story of Texas Roadhouse and in the process reveals his recipe for success: embracing unorthodox--some might say crazy--business practices. Because isn't it a little crazy for a national company to do almost no advertising? Is it lunacy to give away free peanuts and rolls and keep prices low, even as food and labor costs rise, or to keep the menu basically the same since it opened? Does it fly in the face of reason to prohibit coats and ties in headquarters and to have a CEO who dressed like he was part of the landscaping crew?

These business practices might be unconventional, but for Kent Taylor and Texas Roadhouse, they worked. What Kent and his Roadies cooked up is an island of misfits who are cool with being different. They're crazy about having fun, but serious about following meticulous recipes to serve up Hand-Cut Steaks, Fall-Off-The-Bone Ribs, Made-From-Scratch Sides, Ice-Cold Beer, and irresistible Fresh-Baked Bread. It's legendary food and legendary service, the Texas Roadhouse way.

The year 2020 was set to be one of the best in the company's history. When Covid-19 hit, everything changed except Kent's principles. To keep paying people, Kent donated his entire 2020 salary and bonus to frontline employees. While casual dining restaurants overall saw a 60 percent drop in traffic during the pandemic, Texas Roadhouse was back in the black a few weeks after shutdown.

To understand how this company became a staple of American dining and survived a once-in-a-lifetime pandemic, Kent Taylor takes a trip back in time to offer the lessons learned from his pathbreaking life, revealing how a distracted kid from Louisville, Kentucky, created anything worthwhile at all. You'll see how it was a long shot.