Demos’ Restaurants

Located in Tennessee, Demos’ Restaurants is a faith-based string of restaurants that first and foremost seek to glorify God.  On their website, they explain how they seek to sell an experience, but most importantly they are an “independent, family-owned business whose purpose is to glorify God by serving [their] customers and [their] employees.”

While not as large as some of the other businesses we talk about, Demos’ Restaurants is nonetheless as committed to their mission as larger companies like In-n-Out.  It began in 1989 when Jim Demos and his wife Doris sold their previous restaurant to work on a new idea.  The resulting restaurant became a family business and their children grew up working in this environment and interacting with customers.

Their son, Peter, eventually became President and CEO of Demos Brands.  In an interview, he said that he grew up going to church, but he never liked Christians.  After he responded to an altar call in 2013, his life changed.  He said that he realized that his businesses were not his, but rather God’s.  In response to this, he completely reshaped his business to be Christ-centered.

Today, Demos’ Restaurants tries to show God’s love through the actions of management and employees.  In 2019, they realized that many workers did not have cars and would walk sometimes 4-5 miles to get to work.  To try and fix this, the company set out to acquire 20 bikes to donate to employees that needed them.  In response, Peter said that he wants people “to see Christ reflected in what we do.”  As the bikes were given, each was prayed over and Peter made sure to share the gospel as his company was giving away the bikes.  In another interview, he added that he talks about the parable of the talents. We can sit there and talk about all the nice, good stuff we do [like giving away bikes], but if we don’t share the gospel? Jesus calls that wicked. So we make sure that in our business, we try to [share the gospel] through boldness.”

In operation, Peter has instituted monthly reviews where employees can offer feedback and submit prayer requests.  His main focuses in business are to listen, but above all – to be a good steward of the talents God has given him.  For Peter, serving quality food in a friendly environment is just one of those ways.