Flying Biscuit Plans Major St. Louis Expansion

ST. CHARLES, MO – September 22, 2026 (StLouisRestaurantReview) A locally operated franchise group is preparing to introduce Atlanta-born Flying Biscuit Café (FBC) to the St. Louis metropolitan area, beginning with a restaurant in St. Charles and potentially laying the groundwork for a much larger regional expansion.

FBC has signed a lease for its first Missouri restaurant at 1016 S. Fifth St. in St. Charles, less than a mile from Interstate 70 and near Lindenwood University. The breakfast and brunch concept is targeting a fourth-quarter 2026 opening, although an exact date has not been announced.

The St. Charles restaurant will be operated by franchise partners Latrell Hayes, Kennon “Kip” Barber and Randy Barnes, according to Flying Biscuit. The company announced that the group entered into a multi-store development agreement covering an initial three Flying Biscuit cafés in the St. Louis market.

The ambitions extend beyond those first three restaurants.

Flying Biscuit says the franchise partners have a longer-term goal of developing as many as 10 locations across the St. Louis metropolitan area.

That makes the St. Charles restaurant potentially much more significant than another national restaurant franchise entering the market. If the development plans move forward as envisioned, Flying Biscuit could eventually establish a sizable new breakfast and brunch presence throughout the St. Louis metro area.

Flying Biscuit will be locally operated

Flying Biscuit itself is not a St. Louis company. The concept originated in Atlanta in 1993, and Flying Biscuit Franchising Inc. is based in Sandy Springs, Georgia.

The St. Charles restaurant, however, is being developed by franchisees with existing ties to the St. Louis region.

Flying Biscuit identifies Hayes, Barber and Barnes as the franchise partners behind the St. Louis expansion. The company says Hayes and Barber already have multi-unit restaurant operating experience through Jersey Mike’s.

That regional connection can also be independently documented. A 2025 Jersey Mike’s franchise disclosure document lists Latrell Hayes in connection with Progressive Ventures LLC at a St. Ann, Missouri, business address and Kennon Barber in connection with GEASS LLC at a St. Charles, Missouri, business address.

Flying Biscuit describes Hayes and Barber as owners and operators of three Jersey Mike’s restaurants.

Because Flying Biscuit’s description of their operating performance comes from the franchisor, St. Louis Restaurant Review is not independently characterizing those restaurants’ financial performance.

What is clear is that Flying Biscuit is entering Missouri through franchise partners who already have restaurant operating experience in the St. Louis region.

First restaurant coming to St. Charles

The group selected 1016 S. Fifth St. for its first Flying Biscuit.

The location puts the restaurant near a primary Interstate 70 entrance into St. Charles, as well as Lindenwood University and the city’s established residential and commercial areas.

Hayes said familiarity with the area played a role in selecting the location.

“This is a part of town we already know well, and it just fit,” Hayes said in Flying Biscuit’s lease announcement.

He cited the restaurant’s location near I-70 and Lindenwood University and said the franchise group hopes Flying Biscuit becomes part of customers’ regular morning routines in St. Charles.

The lease was announced publicly in August.

Flying Biscuit’s official St. Charles webpage now lists the restaurant at 1016 S. Fifth St. and identifies it as “Opening Q4 2026.” Operating hours remain listed as “TBA.”

Consequently, customers should not interpret the fourth-quarter target as a confirmed grand-opening date. Construction, permitting, equipment installation, hiring and other pre-opening work can affect restaurant opening schedules.

St. Charles is first of at least three planned cafés

The more important development for the broader St. Louis restaurant market is the franchise group’s multi-unit agreement.

According to Flying Biscuit, Hayes, Barber and Barnes entered into the agreement in November 2025, committing to develop three cafés initially.

The St. Charles lease represents the first publicly identified location under that agreement.

Locations for the second and third restaurants have not been publicly announced by Flying Biscuit.

The franchisor says the partners’ longer-range objective is to expand to as many as 10 Flying Biscuit cafés across the St. Louis metropolitan area over time.

A goal of 10 restaurants should not be confused with a commitment to build all 10. At this stage, the company describes three cafés as covered by the development agreement and 10 as the group’s longer-term expansion goal.

Nevertheless, the agreement demonstrates that Flying Biscuit’s Missouri entry was designed as a multi-unit expansion rather than a test involving only one restaurant.

Missouri marks a geographic milestone

The St. Charles opening will also represent an important geographic step for the Flying Biscuit brand.

Flying Biscuit describes the Missouri restaurant as its first café outside its core Southern footprint.

When the company originally announced the St. Louis development agreement, it called it its first agreement north of the Mason-Dixon line.

Flying Biscuit reported in its August announcement that it had 43 cafés open and 11 additional restaurants in development, with operations or development activity across several Southern states.

The St. Louis market therefore represents an effort to take a concept built largely in the Southeast and establish it in a Midwestern metropolitan market.

The performance of the St. Charles restaurant and the subsequent St. Louis-area locations could provide an early indication of how well the Southern-inspired breakfast concept translates into markets outside the company’s traditional territory.

What is Flying Biscuit Café?

Flying Biscuit traces its history to 1993, when it opened its first café in Atlanta’s Candler Park neighborhood.

Breakfast remains central to the concept.

Flying Biscuit promotes an all-day breakfast menu featuring Southern-inspired comfort food, along with lunch selections.

Its signature offerings include biscuits served with cranberry apple butter, shrimp and grits, stuffed French toast, omelets, and other breakfast dishes. The menu also includes vegan scrambles, burgers, wraps and other selections.

Many existing Flying Biscuit restaurants also offer brunch-oriented alcoholic beverages, including mimosas and Bloody Marys.

Flying Biscuit says its restaurants bake thousands of biscuits every week, underscoring the product that has remained central to the brand since its beginning more than three decades ago.

The company generally focuses on the breakfast and lunch dayparts rather than remaining open through dinner, an operating model it actively promotes to prospective franchisees.

Flying Biscuit reports $2 million-plus average sales

Flying Biscuit’s expansion strategy is built largely around franchising, and the company publishes financial information intended for prospective franchise operators.

According to Flying Biscuit’s current franchise-development materials, the initial franchise fee is $50,000, while the estimated total investment ranges from approximately $468,000 to $1.17 million.

The franchisor lists a minimum liquid-capital requirement of $200,000.

Flying Biscuit also reports average annual unit volume of $2,036,644 among 30 stabilized restaurants that had been open and operating for at least 24 months.

That figure represents gross sales and comes from Item 19 of Flying Biscuit’s franchise disclosure document dated May 7, 2026.

The number should not be interpreted as a projection for the future St. Charles restaurant. Flying Biscuit specifically cautions prospective franchisees that individual results vary and that no assurance exists that another restaurant will achieve the reported average.

No revenue projections or expected sales figures have been publicly announced for the St. Charles restaurant.

Experienced franchise operators enter breakfast market

The involvement of experienced franchise operators is noteworthy because breakfast and brunch have developed into a competitive restaurant segment across metropolitan St. Louis.

The Flying Biscuit franchisees will enter a market with independent breakfast restaurants, locally based concepts, and national chains.

Their experience with Jersey Mike’s gives at least two group members familiarity with multi-unit restaurant operations, staffing, food service, and franchise systems.

Flying Biscuit emphasized that experience when announcing its agreement with the partners.

The St. Louis development therefore represents an expansion into a different restaurant category for operators with experience in a national franchise system.

Why St. Charles makes sense as the starting point

St. Charles gives the franchise group a combination of highway access, residential population, employment, tourism, and university traffic.

The South Fifth Street corridor connects directly with Interstate 70 and serves as an important gateway between the interstate and historic St. Charles.

Lindenwood University is nearby, while the greater St. Charles area provides a sizable residential customer base.

Flying Biscuit has specifically pointed to I-70 access, Lindenwood University and the franchise group’s familiarity with the neighborhood when discussing the site selection.

Those characteristics are particularly relevant for a concept focused on breakfast and lunch, when convenience, visibility, and morning traffic matter.

The restaurant’s actual performance, however, will ultimately determine whether those site characteristics translate into customer traffic.

A new competitor in St. Louis breakfast and brunch

Flying Biscuit will enter a St. Louis restaurant market where breakfast and brunch have become important dining occasions.

The company will have to introduce a brand that is well established in portions of the Southeast but remains largely unfamiliar to Missouri diners.

That presents both an opportunity and a challenge.

The menu’s Southern identity gives Flying Biscuit a recognizable point of differentiation. Biscuits, grits, shrimp and grits, stuffed French toast, and other comfort-food dishes are central to the company’s marketing.

At the same time, St. Louis diners already have numerous independent breakfast and brunch choices.

Flying Biscuit’s locally based franchise operators will therefore be responsible for translating an established Southern franchise concept into a new Midwestern market.

Expansion could reach across metro St. Louis

Perhaps the biggest unanswered question is where Flying Biscuit will go next.

The company has confirmed the initial three-café development agreement, but it has not publicly announced addresses for restaurants two and three.

It also has not identified the communities it could eventually consider if the franchise group pursues its longer-term goal of as many as 10 restaurants.

For now, the only confirmed St. Louis-area site is St. Charles.

That distinction is important. The three-store agreement establishes a multi-unit development plan, while the possible 10-location footprint remains a longer-term objective rather than 10 announced restaurants.

Additional site announcements will clarify whether the franchisees intend to concentrate initially in St. Charles County or spread development more broadly across the Missouri and Illinois sides of metropolitan St. Louis.

Opening planned for late 2026

Flying Biscuit’s official website continues to identify the St. Charles restaurant as opening during the fourth quarter of 2026.

The restaurant will be located at:

Flying Biscuit Café
1016 South Fifth Street
St. Charles, MO 63301

The company has not announced the restaurant’s final operating hours or a specific opening day.

When it does open, St. Charles will become Flying Biscuit’s first Missouri market and the starting point for what its local franchise partners hope will become a much larger St. Louis-area operation.

For St. Louis diners, that means the first Flying Biscuit is coming to St. Charles.

For the local restaurant industry, the bigger story may be what happens after restaurant No. 1 opens its doors.

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