Sean Thomas, CEO and co-founder of Fresh Stack, a casual fast-food restaurant in Kildeer, said the idea for the restaurant started long before its 2020 opening, and being community-focused is important to the mission and values of the restaurant.

Located at 20413 N. Rand Road in Kildeer and in Lincoln Park at 1559 N. Kingsbury St., Chicago, Fresh Stack was founded as a partnership between Sean Thomas, the grandson of Dave Thomas of Wendy's, and Top-Chef Fabio Viviani. In a video posted on YouTube, Thomas said the restaurant is a fast-casual concept serving up elevated versions of American classics, including hamburgers, fries, chicken sandwiches and milkshakes.

"At Fresh Stack, we’re here to serve our guests with high-quality, fresh meats, local produce, fresh-baked buns, and GMO-free dairy. Come give us a try today," Fresh Stack's website states.

Illinois Business Daily had the opportunity to interview Thomas about the business and himself.

"We started Fresh Stack, the first the early part of 2020, sort of right at the beginning of the pandemic," Thomas said. "The idea for Fresh Start really started back in late 2018, where my business partner, Fabio Viviani, and everybody really started building the foundation for the concept, the menu, the direction, which we wanted to take this concept and evolve our growth strategy in terms of which markets we might go to first and expand to. It's been a couple of years of actual conceptualization, but opened it officially in 2020. And then most recently we opened our second location, which is a partnership with most markets that we have in the city. We're like writers from the American dimension, but we opened our second location partners in Whole Food Markets in Lincoln Park in June. Very often we partner with local markets because of just alignment of values and quality and so on and so forth. So for that, a couple of months ago and we're just about to open our third Fresh Stack in the Oak Brook area. So that one could be opening here in the next couple weeks."

Thomas went over a little of his personal history of working for Wendy's and how it led to him having the idea of starting his own restaurant. 

"The idea of Fresh Start really started probably when I got my first job at one of my family's franchises. All I did was work the cashier, mop floors and things like that. It really became a conceptualization for me that idea for Fresh Stack when I was 13. I knew I wanted to always get into the restaurant thing, eventually for my own restaurant. So I'd say, like the spirit of Fresh Start was presented to me when I got my first job. I spent the years kind of specializing in developing where I wanted to take my career out of the restaurant business. Then I met Fabio Viviani back in 2010 or so and really blossomed into that great friendship with my close friend, as well as a fine chef. I come from a fast-food background, that casual background. It's more of a full-service, fine-dining background. So we felt like there was an opportunity for us to have that same casual, counter-service experience with more full-service quality. That's where Fabio came in with a culinary expertise to just elevate the menu."

Thomas said one of Fresh Stack's best sellers is the Double, which he also says is his personal favorite as a "burger lover by nature."

"I try and wish to carry on my grandfather's and my family's legacy," Thomas said. "He was obviously a very big believer and one of the first ones in the fast-food industry to be offering fresh food. At the time when he started, when there are a lot of frozen products out there and he saw an opportunity to serve fresh, fresh meat, not frozen products. It is just an extension of his philosophy that we're trying to grow here, Fresh Stack, but a little bit more elevated. We're not necessarily playing in the exact same category as fast food. We're a little higher price point, but we think the quality really, really justifies."

Fast-food casual is "fast food" in terms of quicker service and order readiness than a more formal dine-in restaurant, but has a higher quality. It is "a style of fast food involving healthier, fresher and more varied dishes than traditional fast food, served in more attractive surroundings," according to The Free Dictionary.

When asked what made them choose Kildeer to open the first Fresh Stack, Thomas said, "We spent a long time canvasing all the land from the southwest suburbs all the way up to the western suburbs. We circled back on Kildeer quite a few times and it really has the familiarity to my hometown. So I grew up in a suburb in Ohio a lot like Kildeer and Palatine. That just really reminded me a lot of where I grew up. Not being a native of Chicago, I wasn't necessarily loyal to one suburb over the next. But just that emotional connection to the area in terms of familiarity was really what drew me there. Once we started to get to know some of the folks that lived in Kildeer, some of the local officials, it was for us where we really knew we'd like to be."

According to Thomas, being a part of the community is important to Fresh Stack, which is why the restaurant localized menu items, welcomes feedback from the community on menu items within reason, has hired a lot of high school students, particularly high school athletes, and began an intern program and supports local high school sports through sponsoring high school football coverage for Kildeer and Palatine.

Thomas said Fresh Stack does plan to continue growing with new locations, like the one in Oak Brook set to open in the next couple of weeks, but plans to do so carefully as to make sure new locations are in communities they can be a part of, and that meet with the restaurant's mission and values. 

"It's really got to check the box," Thomas said. "You can't just have, you know, a need for another burger joint in this community. We see ourselves wanting to be around for a long time because the community, and we are similar in our core business mission and values."

Thomas added that customers can look forward to the current Kildeer location undergoing a transformation within the restaurant. Thomas explained that they overtook what was formerly another restaurant, and with that, inherited a bar area they decided to conceptualize. The new concept will be "centered around ice cream and it's going to be like an ice cream bar."

"We have a partnership with a Wisconsin company that's providing ice cream called Chocolate Shoppe Ice Cream," Thomas said. "So they have really great product, really fresh ice cream. We're really excited about getting the ice cream bar up and going."

No date for the finishing of the conceptualization has been announced.