Tigrett seeks to sell pre-packaged Bozo's chain plan

Nation's Restaurant News,  Oct 29, 2007  

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HENDERSON, NEV. -- A licensing agency here hired by Hard Rock Cafe co-founder Isaac Tigrett is seeking to sell the rights to a fully developed and trademarked barbecue chain concept that he patterned after the 84-year-old landmark Bozo's near Memphis, Tenn.

Tigrett, a spiritually oriented entrepreneur who also devised the House of Blues concept and formerly led that chain, has retired to an ashram in India and chose not to develop Bozo's himself after spending $750,000 to prepare the venture's launch, he told Nation's Restaurant News.

However, Hayne Ozier, who bought the original Bozo's barbecue joint from the grandson of founder Thomas Jefferson "Bozo" Williams in 1999, said he has considered selling the restaurant himself after extending his agreement with Tigrett several times and receiving less than $100,000 from him. But Ozier said that arranging to sell Bozo's would cost him"much more than what [Tigrett] has paid so far."

Ozier, who would receive a fixed fee for every new Bozo's that opens under his pact with Tigrett, called his new-and-improved Bozo's concept "magnificent" and hailed Tigrett as "a genius."

Henderson-based Fame Farm this month began seeking to sell for "seven figures" rights to the Bozo's concept, facility design, merchandising plan, copyrights, trademarks and logos established by Tigrett's firm, Roadside Attractions Ltd. The "just-add-water" operation would be ripe for launch in a major market like Las Vegas or Los Angeles, and a $10 million investment would get the potential chain off the ground, Fame Farm chief executive Michael Feder said.

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