Hopdoddy Burger Bar named Jeff Chandler as the company’s new chief executive officer effective immediately. Chandler joins Hopdoddy from Opper-Melang Restaurants, an independently owned, multi-concept restaurant company, in Seattle, where he previously served as CEO, leading the company as they worked to support a dozen units across four western states.
Before Opper-Melang Restaurants, Chandler double-majored in finance and business administration at the University of Washington while pursuing his passion for hospitality. During college, Chandler served as a supervising regional bartender for RAM International, a privately held, multi-concept casual dining and brewing company. After college, Chandler steadily rose to become president and managing operator at RAM, just 12 years after starting at the company. During his rise in leadership, Chandler was responsible for developing strategies and initiating tactics necessary for the company’s significant and successful growth throughout seven western states by strengthening the brands, improving the internal culture, building world-class teams and driving same store sales and improved margins.
Seeing an opportunity to ignite another strong, regional company, Chandler partnered with the founders of Opper-Melang Restaurants, an independently owned, multi-concept restaurant company, as chief executive officer. As CEO, Chandler was responsible for building the foundation for sustainable, significant and rapid growth by investing in people and infrastructure while strengthening operations and improving the outward facing brand pillars.
Today, Chandler’s extensive experience and impressive background has led him to Hopdoddy Burger Bar, where he will now take charge as chief executive officer. His proven track record for building and leading teams that grow stronger while growing larger further strengthens the award-winning brand. Under Jeff’s leadership, Hopdoddy is poised for significant growth.
“We are thrilled to have Jeff at the helm of our growing brand,” says Hopdoddy co-founder Guy Villavaso. “Having grown up in the restaurant industry and leading teams for more than twenty-five years, he is fully equipped to make an immediate, positive impact on the company.”
Since its establishment in 2010 by restaurateurs Larry Foles, Guy Villavaso, Larry Perdido, and Chuck Smith, Hopdoddy has earned praise from many publications. Famous for its all-natural, hormone free burgers, “Hopdoddy” was created to express the perfect union of burgers and beer: handcrafted beer (Hop) + (Doddy), the nickname given to the native cow in Aberdeen, Scotland. In each market, Hopdoddy works alongside local breweries to pair craft beer alongside Hopdoddy’s thoughtfully crafted burgers. Hopdoddy is passionate about using fresh, all-natural ingredients to provide a quality product.
