---
title: "Keke's Breakfast Cafe Focuses On Employee Morale with Novel Incentive System"
url: https://burnaze.com/article/29c5aade-ca1e-4ef3-a50c-317c5ccecc1a
source: "1851 Franchise"
original_url: https://1851franchise.com/kekes-breakfast-cafe/kekes-breakfast-cafe-franchise-employee-retention-kitchen-scoreboards-2730526
category: "Bakery & breakfast"
industry: "Restaurants"
segment: "Bakery & breakfast"
published: 2025-10-20T18:13:24.000Z
modified: 2026-10-31T16:42:48.373Z
image: https://newimage.1851franchise.com/cdn-cgi/image/quality=85,format=webp,width=1280,height=720/story/featureImage/1760983306_2730526.png
---

# Keke's Breakfast Cafe Focuses On Employee Morale with Novel Incentive System

**TL;DR:** Keke's Breakfast Cafe franchisees John and Kimberly Ehrhard have implemented a novel incentive system to boost employee morale, which has contributed to the success of their nine Florida-based locations. The Ehrhards' approach includes electronic scoreboards in the kitchen to track metrics and recognize employee achievements.

*originally published in 1851 Franchise on 2025-10-20. [Read the original](https://1851franchise.com/kekes-breakfast-cafe/kekes-breakfast-cafe-franchise-employee-retention-kitchen-scoreboards-2730526).*

## Story

Recent studies indicate that nearly two-thirds of Americans feel some sort of burnout in the workplace. The restaurant industry has been hit hard by the Great Resignation, making a positive work environment essential for attracting and keeping employees.

In curating a workplace culture that recognizes and rewards great work, John and Kimberly Ehrhard are bucking the trend, building and maintaining success in their Florida-based, multi-unit franchise of nine Keke’s Breakfast Cafe locations.

Following nearly three decades spent running a television and film production company, the Ehrhards made a pivot toward entrepreneurship as restaurant franchisees. Today, their Keke’s in Parkland, Florida, stands as the chain’s largest, seating over 200 hungry patrons, with employee morale helping drive that success.

“Our Keke’s have been way more lucrative than we ever thought they would be. It’s pretty amazing when you consider we didn’t have any restaurant background before we did this,” John said. “It’s a great way for us to reward frontline employees for their excellent work, which gives us the opportunity to recognize their accomplishments and reward them with prizes.”

Placing electronic “scoreboards” in their kitchen, the Ehrhards have come up with a novel way to track metrics, building morale while tracking workplace efforts.

The scoreboards populate sales info as well as key performance indicators alongside data like employee birthdays, Google reviews, promotions and more, part of an interactive approach to ensuring employee engagement, with the husband-and-wife team, who also run a technology firm, patenting their kitchen scoreboards.

Founded in 2006, Keke’s was purchased by Denny’s in 2022. Given the green light when it came to introducing the kitchen scoreboard concept, the Ehrhards further experimented by introducing an indoor breakfast counter with seating, a concept that has since found success at other Keke’s locations.

Achieving franchise success is one thing, but maintaining it is another.

Moving forward with their nine Florida-based Keke’s Breakfast cafe locations, the Ehrhards see employee engagement and Denny’s growth of the brand as a viable path forward centered upon potential growth.

“They are doing a great job getting the Keke’s name out there and because of that we’re seeing so much growth now across the country. Our employees really enjoy it because they can see how their cafe is doing,” John said. “I never imagined I’d end up in the restaurant business after 20-plus years in television, but my kids think making pancakes and waffles is way cooler than anything I did at MTV!”

## Entities

- 1851 Franchise (publication)
- QSR (sector)
- restaurant industry (topic)
- franchise success (topic)
- Denny's (company)
- workplace culture (topic)
- Keke's Breakfast Cafe (company)
- employee morale (topic)
- Denny's acquisition of Keke's Breakfast Cafe (deal)
- John Ehrhard (person)
- Kimberly Ehrhard (person)
- incentive system (topic)

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Originally reported by 1851 Franchise (https://1851franchise.com/kekes-breakfast-cafe/kekes-breakfast-cafe-franchise-employee-retention-kitchen-scoreboards-2730526). Summarized by Burnaze (https://burnaze.com/article/29c5aade-ca1e-4ef3-a50c-317c5ccecc1a).