Dave Patrick, an Air Force veteran and former American Airlines pilot, recently launched a Teriyaki Madness franchise in St. Johns. This Asian-fusion quick-service restaurant is known for its fresh, high-quality ingredients, bringing bold flavors to the Northeast Florida community.
Tell me about your military career and your time as a pilot for American Airlines.
I’m originally from Kentucky. I got into the Air Force right after college. My entire military career spanned about 31 years, almost 32. I went through pilot training right away and since then I’ve flown a variety of airplanes, from fighters (fighter jets) to heavies (heavy aircrafts), all kinds of things. In addition to that, I was hired by American Airlines as soon as I came off active duty, and I flew concurrently for both the Reserves as well as American Airlines for about 36 years. I just retired from American Airlines a few weeks ago.
What brought you to the Northeast Florida area?
Being an airline pilot, I could live wherever I wanted. We had a place in St. Augustine for years that we would come visit. My wife and boys and I would come down here in the summer and I would just commute to work out of Jacksonville. We were living in Southern Illinois at the time, right near Scott Air Force Base, and we knew we didn’t want to stay in Illinois. My wife and I had twins, and I knew I wanted to move somewhere before they started school. So, we moved down here about six years ago. My boys are 11 now and it’s been nice. It’s a really good place for kids.
Before you moved to Florida, you also owned two restaurant franchise locations in Illinois. Tell me more about what that was like.
I was at Scott Air Force Base and a buddy there wanted me to try a sandwich from this shop called Jimmy John’s because he was interested in opening a new location. I’d never had Jimmy John’s before, and we got subs, and I thought that it was without a doubt the best sub I’d ever had. My philosophy is that you’ve got to love what you sell, and I loved those subs.
So, I asked him if he wanted to open a shop together, he said yes, and we ended up opening two of them. After a while I was the only owner, but then I was sent to Iraq for six months while on active duty, and I knew there was no way I could run the two shops from Iraq. I had to sell them, but luckily they went to somebody who already had five Jimmy John’s shops under his belt, so it worked out pretty well.
And now you own a new restaurant here in Florida, Teriyaki Madness.
I wanted to open another Jimmy John’s, but I wanted a drive-through, and we just couldn’t make that work. I opened another quick-service restaurant instead, Teriyaki Madness. It’s located in St. Johns, right at the cross of Racetrack Road and U.S. 1. There were already sandwich shops, chicken places, burgers, fish — all kinds of options in every one of those categories. Have you ever seen another fast casual teriyaki besides, maybe, Panda Express? No. So I thought, why not open something different? Besides, have you ever talked to anybody that doesn’t like teriyaki? There is no such creature, and my business partner agreed with me.
How has your military career and aviation experience shaped your approach to owning a business?
Pilots operate by a checklist. I live and die by checklists, it’s just impossible to memorize everything you have to do. You can memorize flows and then check the checklist to make sure that you got everything completed, but between both of these franchises, I’ve had to operate by some type of checklist. If everybody follows the checklist, and you hold everyone accountable by putting their initials when something’s done on a checklist, then it will operate like it should because you can go back and be sure.
The discipline that I’ve had to learn being in the military, even more so being a pilot, has taught me to make good decisions. And I’m not saying that I always do, but my experience has definitely helped in planning things and being thorough.
