Feb. 1, 2021

Jordan Hartshorn grew up at McDonald’s.

But not like how you probably did.

He was 12 when he began helping out in the dining rooms.

Allowed to work only six hours weekly, his time fell on weekends over the lunch hour.

“The customers were probably my best trainers – our regulars and senior customers,” he said.

“They taught me how to hold a cup, how to refill cups. They weren’t shy about getting on me.”

Between seventh and eighth grades in Aberdeen, he moved on to cleaning the bathrooms.

“I was raised under the arches and have ketchup in my blood,” said Hartshorn, whose father began on a crew at McDonald’s in the early 1970s.

“I always felt this sense that McDonald’s was my home.”

Fast-forward to his 40th birthday this past Dec. 1, and McDonald’s was there for another life milestone: Hartshorn became the new franchisee for all the Sioux Falls locations.

As family friend and longtime franchisee Rick Lessnau retired, Hartshorn’s homecoming became complete.

“I’ve always loved Sioux Falls,” he said. “My wife is from Sioux Falls, and it’s an amazing community. There’s always been something that has drawn me to the town of Sioux Falls, even when I was growing up in Aberdeen. Everyone has each other’s back, and especially over the pandemic, it’s been evident how strong this community is.”

The move brings his Hart2Hart Inc. franchise entity to 17 locations in three states, including seven in Sioux Falls.

“Rick had 50-plus years in the company, and you just couldn’t ask for better stores to be handed off,” Hartshorn said. “He’s just such a great operator and handed off the baton perfect.”

Path to ownership

It’s understandable why McDonald’s would feel like home to Hartshorn. His parents met while working at the restaurant. His dad, Michael, was a supervisor for stores across northeast South Dakota while he was growing up.

His dad ultimately began as a franchisee for Brookings, Pierre and Watertown, while Hartshorn moved to Colorado for college.

After going to school for sociology and criminal justice, he spent a summer working at a doggie day care with the plan of attending a parole officer academy.

He ended up becoming general manager, getting his first exposure to the business world. Within a year, the location added a grooming business and grew to six employees.

“I was wondering and working a lot of hours starting this business from the ground up and thinking, should I put all this effort and energy into the family business,” he said.

“So I finally made a decision and talked to my father and said I think I’m going to come back and start working for the business.”

His father agreed, but the only spot open was a swing manager. So Hartshorn took it and waited for other opportunities to open. He became an assistant manager in Brookings and then a general manager in Pierre.

“I was out of the game for six years, so relearning the systems and processes, and just kind of waited,” he said. “It was a six- or seven-year journey working my way by up to becoming an operator.”

That’s a multiyear process with McDonald’s and a rigorous one, he said.

“The microscope was on me pretty hard. They look at your people, operations, profit, what you do in the community, what you do one a regional scale and the teams you’re leading.”

He became a franchisee in 2017 and is the majority partner in Hart2Hart, with his father also in ownership.

“We had an opportunity to buy five additional restaurants, so that was my first time when I was recognized. Even though I had an equity stake in Pierre, I wasn’t recognized as an operator,” he said.

“So when these stores came up for sale and we acquired them – four stores in Iowa and one in Minnesota – that was my first real stake in stores that were mine.”

He later added two in Sioux Falls from Lessnau in 2019 before acquiring the rest last year.

“Rick talked to us late fall and said, ‘I think I’m ready,’ and we said, ‘I think we’re ready too,’ and all the stars aligned.”

They plan to have a central office in Sioux Falls, as Hart2Hart has grown to nearly 1,000 employees.

“Our employees are just really good workers, reliable, and we have a lot of real good talent in the Sioux Falls market, so that’s been exciting to explore,” he said.

“We were always a four-store operation until 2017, and you look back and it’s ‘holy cow.’ And we have so much gratitude to the team. They have helped up through this expansion, and we have so much talent and work ethic. To get us to this point is just amazing. We wouldn’t be there without them.”

What’s next

The coming year will bring some renovations to existing Sioux Falls McDonald’s restaurants. The location at 57th Street and Louise Avenue will be remodeled inside, adding new decor and ordering kiosks.

The East 26th Street store will go from an “old-school model where the awning protrudes out” to a newer design with new landscaping and a side-by-side drive-thru.

The children’s play area, which is one of the last in the area, will stay, he added.

McDonald’s also owns land in the area of 85th Street and Minnesota Avenue for its next location, but the design likely will be a COVID-driven version of whatever the restaurant of the future could become.

With drive-thru lanes driving business, dining rooms closed and delivery taking off, it’s hard to have a clear picture of what will be needed going forward, Hartshorn said.

“I think the company is really taking a look,” he said. “What we’ve asked with McDonald’s is can we have another year to really find out what are the customers’ needs going to be in the future and how do we accommodate that best.”

He’d like to help test whatever that new concept for a restaurant is, he added.

“I think we’re the perfect demographic; we’re not too big or small,” he said. “What I think we’ll do at the end of the year is see what it is that’s accelerated in our industry with a service platform, and hopefully we’re able to capitalize on it and have fun.”

In the immediate future, McDonald’s will be continuing to evolve its menu.

Bakery items are a fairly new addition, including apple fritters, blueberry muffins and cinnamon rolls.

“Those have been very popular, and you can get them all day,” Hartshorn said. “We’ve had a lot of offices buy them in bulk by the half-dozen or dozen.”

Next up will be three new chicken sandwiches, appearing on the menu later this month:

• A crispy chicken sandwich topped with crinkle-cut pickles on a toasted, buttered potato roll.
• A spicy chicken sandwich with spicy pepper sauce and crinkle-cut pickles on a toasted, buttered potato roll.
• And a deluxe chicken sandwich that adds shredded lettuce, Roma tomatoes and mayo.

“Chicken outsells beef, so it’s just something exciting,” he said. “We did spicy nuggets this summer, and we broke supply because it was so popular, and we couldn’t keep them in stock. That’s rare for McDonald’s, so by popular demand they’re coming back.”

His own tastes, though, run more to the signature fare – with a twist.

“I’m a classic guy … so I get the two cheeseburger meal, the No. 9, but only ketchup. And I take the fries and smash them in the middle of the burger and eat them that way. I’ll dabble in all the other stuff, but that’s my go-to,” he said.

“And I eat it two or three times a week. I’m like a connoisseur.”