The year of the horse is shaping up to be a productive one for Pasadena’s fast-casual restaurant Dog Haus Worldwide, as it gallops into the international market with an ambitious opening pipeline across North America.
The restaurant chain, known for its popular hot dogs and burgers, is poised to open 50 brick-and-mortar locations primarily in the Midwest, plus multi-unit deals in Florida, Ohio and Arkansas, after debuting in Tennessee in 2025.
Dog Haus is also expanding over the national border for the first time, with three stores slated to open in Mexico later this year, piggybacking on its highly popular pop-up in Saudi Arabia in 2024.
Dog Haus Chief Executive Michael Montagano shared that as the company closed a successful 15-year run last year, it is time to realize the biergarten’s “full potential” outside of its primary base in California.
Despite macroeconomic headwinds that dragged discretionary spending and increased operating costs in the restaurant industry, Montagano said Dog Haus is confident in its foundation to sustain future growth.
“A business should grow like a tree, in that most trees grow down at the same pace that they grow up, so their roots should match their height. If a business does that, then it can sustain really any storm,” Montagano said. “And I realized that this business had grown down … its foundation had far outpaced its growth up.”
Already operating 60 stores across 12 states, Dog Haus aims to roll into all 50 U.S. states and Mexico with 300 locations slated in the next three years. It also plans to expand into Puerto Rico in the spring, and locally, a new location in the San Fernando Valley will open just this week.
A five-year plan
The expansion strategy took shape two and a half years ago, when Montagano became the first chief executive of the restaurant chain, led by founding partners Hagop Giragossian, Quasim Riaz and André Vener.
Montagano described it as a “four-point plan” over the course of five years that began with business fundamentals: driving down building costs by purchasing and renovating existing bars and restaurants while simplifying the menu and operations in the kitchen to reach a higher profit margin.
Having reduced building costs per location, Dog Haus then turned its attention to celebrity partnerships to take the brand across the nation.
One of its growth strategies involves capitalizing on its signature edginess to convert Gen Z gourmets with influencers.
While brands have traditionally collaborated with celebrities asambassadors, the biergarten is giving them a seat at the executive table.
Controversial YouTuber and boxer Jake Paul, for instance, became a franchisee and a board member in 2024 with a 25-store deal that spans across Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico, reported Restaurant Dive. His fight promoter Nakisa Bidarian also became a director on the board.
“We entered into a partnership with Jake Paul that has a very loud megaphone, and is obviously a brilliant promoter,” Montagano said. “He’s the pioneer, really, of social media … he can help us shape how we’re thinking about attracting a Gen Z audience into our brand and continuing in our 15th year.”
That partnership included new menu items inspired by Paul’s brand, including “El Gallo” wings and the “El Gallo” tenders, drawing from Paul’s nickname. The first week of the partnership pulled in more than 1 billion impressions on social media channels, which was more than the total number the brand had drawn in the 14 years before.
Another collaboration with viral Chef Josh Elkin to roll out a limited-time menu has boosted sales by 50% in that category. Montagano shared that the limited-time offer collaborations with celebrities are likely to continue – and teased another nation-scale partnership with a L.A.-based comedy star in the coming months.
The success in collaborations paved the way for Dog Haus to attract national franchisees to lead the brand, Montagano said.
Dog Haus has divided the U.S. map into 15 segments, each with a leading area director or master franchisee to oversee the operation.
The company will see 15 openings this year, and 2027 is expected to be a “monster year,” when the area director program takes off.
Montagano said that the goal is to tap into local markets with regional collaborations while maintaining Dog Haus’ trademark “warm feeling” as a community hub.
“It’s really encapsulating what the local culture is and pairing that with what the doghouse culture is, and giving our customers a consistent experience,” said Montagano.
“When they go (from) Dog Haus to Dog Haus, they should know that they will get the same experience everywhere, but that it will be tailored in a way that it feels like home in their community. It’s their local watering hole; it’s their local hangout.”
So far, the plan has worked. When Montagano joined in 2023, each restaurant reported about $1.6 million a year in sales. That number approached $1.9 million in 2025.
“This year we’ll eclipse $2 million,” Montagano said. “We’re in 12 states, but we’d love to be in 50.”
Model for success
Underpinning its massive expansion is an initiative to disrupt the existing franchise model, according to Montagano.
He pointed out that franchisors traditionally focus on sales while franchisees focus on operations; the latter take on most of the risks – including rent, employment, banking – with their own neck on the line.
Going forward, Dog Haus will extend its partnership model with influencers to other franchisees, whose interests will now be aligned with the franchisors once they have a stake in decision-making.
“So, I have historically thought that the franchise model is inherently broken, and it’s broken because you have misaligned interests, in some cases, between franchisors and franchisees,” said Montagano. “(Our) disruption is letting the franchisees buy into the larger Dog Haus pie.”
Dog Haus will rely on its expert franchisees to navigate changing industry landscapes and divergent local tastes, Montagano said.
The beer menu, for example, will be different. While each Dog Haus location will have seven best-selling beers across the nation, the rest of the 24 beers on tap will be at the discretion of the local operators, with limited guidelines from the headquarters.
“We’ll stay very true to kind of the core menu, but we’re always agile, whether it’s our beverage program or whether it’s some culinary adjustments to make sure we’re catering to the local taste profile,” said Montagano.
As Dog Haus welcomed influential franchisees to sustain the ambitious growth, Montagano shared plans to hire two franchisees from the syndicate to join as chief officers next month.
“We wanted to create the most attractive partnership that mutually aligns interest with the best franchisees in the country,” said Montagano. “Instead of this ivory tower of franchisors and a lot of the operating exposure being at the franchisee level, let’s us mutually align interest.”
