CHICAGO, March 19, 2026 - Before Texas Roadhouse founder and CEO Kent Taylor died in 2021, he scribbled a name on a legal pad atop his desk: J-e-r-r-y M-o-r-g-a-n. He tore off the strip of paper and set it aside, in effect answering the question he knew every employee of the company would be asking after he passed: Who would succeed him as leader of Roadie Nation?
“That was the day he gave me the job,” Morgan, now the CEO of Roadhouse, recounted to a rapt audience at COEX. But he didn’t fully accept the position, at least in his head and heart, until about a month after Taylor’s death.
“I wrote a letter to the company and I accepted the responsibility of being the leader of Roadie Nation,” he continued. “I made them promises. I wrote them down and I signed that piece of paper. I promised they would get my all in being that leader.
“And we started healing. We started healing as a company. Kent’s vision became our vision.”
The story of Morgan’s succession of Taylor as Roadhouse CEO is well-known. But the additional details he aired during a keynote address at the conference provided new insights into why Roadhouse did not miss a step after its legendary founder died by suicide.
“Nobody is ready to handle something like that,” said Morgan. “People were saying I was drinking water out of a firehose. There was a lot coming at me.”
But he’d seen enough of the unique culture Taylor had stamped on his charge to know what would keep Roadhouse a front runner in casual dining, a market where most of the traditional powers were gasping.
“A lot of people would say Texas Roadhouse is Kent Taylor,” Morgan told the COEX audience. “But if you talked to Kent, he knew he was a component of its success, that Roadie Nation — all of our employees, all of our partners who have ownership in the business — were what made it work.”
As someone who had run stores—including the first Texas Roadhouse actually in Texas—he could stand up in front of the shocked workforce and speak Roadhouse-ese as fluently as any staff member. Roadhouse remains a dominant brand in a market segment that boasts few still-growing concepts.
He made a strong case to COEX attendees that he’s continued to exalt the members of Roadie Nation — “all 100,000 of ‘em” — as the steakhouse brand’s secret sauce.
That means being in stores as much as he can be.
“We do five stops in each region where we go out into the restaurants in the morning and talk to 30 or 40 operators huddled around the bar, just talking business,” Morgan told Phil Kafarakis, CEO of IFMA The Food Away from Home Association, during their mainstage fireside chat. “We tell them where the company’s at and hear what’s on their mind. We do some Q&A with the executives and have great conversations about the consumer, the business, and the challenges we’re dealing with.”
The approach has yielded phenomenal financial results, with a 126% increase in revenues between 2020 and ‘24. The chain's same-store sales growth has been among the highest in the business, and the Roadhouse brand has grown by about 20 stores per year.
The company is also expanding its two secondary concepts at a steady clip. Bubba’s 33, a full-service operation like Roadhouse, specializes in pizza, burgers, and beer. Its third venture is Jaggers, a drive-thru burgers-and-chicken sandwiches place.
The company’s ongoing success earned Morgan this year’s Silver Plate award in the Chain Casual Dining category from IFMA The Food Away from Home Association. He’ll be honored along with the year’s top operators in eight other industry segments during a gala celebration on May 16 in Chicago. More information is available here .
As Managing Editor for IFMA The Food Away from Home Association, Romeo is responsible for generating the group's news and feature content. He brings more than 40 years of experience in covering restaurants to the position.