Organization
URBAN Restaurants Group began with Augusta blocks and pennies, building the foundation for the original URBAN Brew and BBQ.
From the founding Brew and BBQ, it did not take long for the subsequent restaurants to make their way in the community. Now, St. Petersburg enjoys the company of four restaurants devoted wholeheartedly to bringing made-from-scratch meals to its visitors. Its focus lies mostly on comfort food, making its own mac and cheese, ice cream and everything in between. The restaurants’ many items even encompass beers drafted by the company at the URBAN Comfort location. The group now works towards becoming an employee-owned company by 2020, a goal they state they are perfectly on pace to achieve.
URBAN Restaurants Group began with Augusta blocks and pennies, building the foundation for the original URBAN Brew and BBQ.
From the founding Brew and BBQ, it did not take long for the subsequent restaurants to make their way in the community. Now, St. Petersburg enjoys the company of four restaurants devoted wholeheartedly to bringing made-from-scratch meals to its visitors. Its focus lies mostly on comfort food, making its own mac and cheese, ice cream and everything in between. The restaurants’ many items even encompass beers drafted by the company at the URBAN Comfort location. The group now works towards becoming an employee-owned company by 2020, a goal they state they are perfectly on pace to achieve.
Profile
The URBAN Restaurant Group began its journey with URBAN Brew and BBQ. First established in 2013 by Andy Salyards, the restaurant grew quickly. With the support of the community, a new restaurant was up and running with one major goal in mind: to make every dish from scratch. This quickly transformed into an additional project, repurposing an old gas station to make a restaurant devoted to comfort food and locally brewed craft beers, which opened in 2015. Soon after, URBAN Deli and Drafts emerged between URBAN Brew and BBQ and URBAN Comfort. It started out as storage space, but became its own restaurant when the need arose to make bread and in-house cured meats. Ice cream followed suit not long after, leading to the establishment of the URBAN Creamery. Now, these four restaurants (all located along downtown St. Pete's Central Avenue) comprise the URBAN Restaurants Group, bringing foods of all sorts with a homemade taste to St. Petersburg.
Core values/mission statement
"The way we are going to do it is by adhering to our values which are: Ownership: Be given the opportunity to be an owner, and act like one. Family: Family comes first. Local: Emphasize relationship with customers, employees, vendors, community. Quality: Do things right. Integrity: Do what you say you’re going to do. Ambition: Pursue opportunity. Craft: If we sell it, we make it. Our mission is to be an employee owned scratch food company that grows people and opportunity."
Company Leadership
Founder
Andy Salyards is an ex-merchant marine with a degree in Mechanical Engineering, another in Business, and a bunch of recipes at his disposal. He moved with his family from California when his wife received a new job in Florida. When he needed a job, he made one with the URBAN Brew and BBQ restaurant.
