Today we’d like to introduce you to Lucas McMahon.
Hi Lucas, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
My brother bruce and I were talking one day about how it would be cool to start a family business together. Something small, passive, and easy. We were thinking maybe a car wash or a laundry mat. We wanted to do something together that ultimately require little work once it was up and running. We started thinking and talking about maybe the idea of a rental property or flipping a house (cause we saw a pretty good deal) and I decided to ask my dad (Bob) if he had any interest in joining along and going in on this family business my brother and I had been talking about. He said sure and we started looking at a lot more houses.
One day my dad said to my brother and I “Theres this bar thats located at the Chester County Airport that closed a while ago and has not opened back up since 2017 we could look at”. My brother and I are fans of craft beer and good food so the idea was not horrible but none of us have worked in a restaurant before so we were not extremely crazy about the idea at first.
Me, my brother, my dad and wish wife went in to look at this tiny restaurant and next thing we know we had a week to put together this business plan and present to the airport authority. At the time we all had full time jobs so all this work had to be done after our normal working hours and we had some late nights working on this business plan. A week goes by and we present the business plan to the authority. We waited a few weeks to hear back and finally we got a call saying they would love for us to sign the lease at the airport taking over the restaurant space.
We signed the lease and we all got started with coming up with names, ideas, menu style, and much more. My dad has owned a few businesses his entire life and I was also self employeed at the time so him and I were able to spend all day at our new spot 7 days of the week. The rest of the family would come and help do work on the weekends and during the week when they had time. We ended up completely renovating this old space and getting into more and more each day it seemed like. About 4 months go by and we were done renovating and we had done all the work ourself and turned this space into a place we all wanted it to be. Simple, comfortable, airport themed but not over the top. At this point the only issue was we still had never worked in a restaurant.
We opened Jan 12th 2024 and it was such a crazy day. We had people waiting to come in when we opened. Our “soft opening” turned it one of the craziest days of my life. We learned so much that day on what we need to fix and do differently and looking back, it seems like it was one of the longest days of my life.
Over the next two years we have had many many ups and down. Learning so many lessons and meeting so many great customers. I personally went from knowing nothing about a restaurant to how can I learn more everyday. I somehow found a hidden obsession that I can not get enough of.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Overall it has been a great experience. Never working in a restaurant had made some of the experiences a little different and unique but overall a great experience.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about The Hungry Pilot?
The Hungry Pilot is a small bar and grill located at the Chester County Airport. We aim to provide not only great food and drinks but an experience like no other all at an affordable price all families can enjoy. We are located feet away from the run way. So its very common for families to come with younger kids and stay just to watch planes come and go. While we have made the runway a large part of who we are we are most proud of just how much families enjoy sitting at our tables, eating, drinking, watching aircrafts of all sorts and making memories. So many families come and get this unique dinning experience and to me it is just such an awesome thing to be able to offer.
Alright so before we go can you talk to us a bit about how people can work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
We try to support local as much as possible. As a small family owned business any kind of support goes a long way. From sharing a facebook post or just bringing a friend in. We try to work with other local businesses whenever we can. Its very common for us to do a “Dine and Donate” to help raise money for other small organizations in the community. We are always open to ideas on improving the community in anyway we can help!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.thehungrypilot.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hungrypilot_restaurant/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/HungryPilotRestaurant/
