These Midlands locations are being scouted for Louisiana-based restaurants

The franchise owner of Walk-On’s Bistreaux & Bar in Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina was in the area last week, scouting possible locations in the Columbia area.

Jason and Amy Sadowski are narrowing down the sites for the Cajun-inspired restaurants that they hope to have up and running by late summer/early fall of 2018. Jason Sadowski said in a phone interview that he has committed to two locations in Columbia, two in Charleston and one each in Greenville and Myrtle Beach. He and his wife and representatives from Walk-On’s have looked along Two Notch in the northeast part of Richland County, as well as over in Irmo and Lexington.

Sadowski says that he would start out initially with two restaurants, possibly expanding to three or four in the Columbia area in a few years.

“We’re also looking at locations near the University of South Carolina,” he says, or possibly near the Whole Foods Market along Fort Jackson Blvd or Garners Ferry Rd.

Sadowski grew up in the franchise business. His parents owed a string of McDonald’s restaurants in the Dallas area and Sadowski worked for one of the restaurants while attending Southern Methodist University.

He and Amy took over the franchise when his parents retired in 2012.

In 2017, the Sadowskis sold their McDonald’s franchise and began looking for something new. Walk-On’s — a Louisiana-based chain of family-friendly restaurants specializing in Cajun-inspired sandwiches, soups and salads — is the opportunity that the Sadowskis decided to pursue.

“It’s not just the food that sets Walk-On’s apart,” says Sadowski, but the entire experience and positive attitude of the corporation and its employees.

The Sadowskis have three young children and Jason says it is the family inclusive feeling that each restaurant projects that drew him to the business. “It’s rare to find the combination of appeal, experience, good food, caring staff and high energy” that he says he found at Walk-On’s.

To create a true game day experience for patrons, each Walk-On’s Bistreaux & Bar will have 70-80 big screen televisions —“there won’t be a bad seat in the house,” says Sadowski — for sporting events.

This story was originally published December 11, 2017 at 4:28 PM with the headline "These Midlands locations are being scouted for Louisiana-based restaurants."