On Monday, May 12^th, we kick off one of the most exciting promotions our company has ever done.  In line with the season, we are calling it our “Triple Play Special”.  Our guests will be able to choose a Beverage + Starter + Entrée at a starting price of $10.99.  This is huge!  N/A beverages are included while a 12oz. Ram Flagship Beer or an el Jimador Margarita can be purchased for a special price.  Starters include one’s choice of Armadillo Eggs (3), Mozzarella Sticks (4) or Boneless Wings (5).  For the $10.99 price point the entrees include Ram Tacos (2), Rule the Roost Chicken Sandwich & Fries or the Original Villa Plaza Burger & Fries.  For $14.99 entrée choices are Mac & Cheese with Grilled or Blackened Chicken, Chicken Tenders (3) & Fries or Beer Battered Fish (2) & Chips.  A Center-Cut 6oz. Sirloin or Grilled Chimichurri Chicken entrée can be enjoyed for $16.99.  This promotion will initially run through June 15th and will be supported by a full array of broadcasts from our marketing team.  This will be HUGE and give our guests tons of Reasons to Return.

                May 11^th is Mother’s Day.  This is a special day for us which gives us the opportunity to make many, many folks Smile.  To celebrate we are offering our mom’s a delectable slice of Strawberry Cheesecake with an entrée purchase on May 11^th.  This promotion will be marketed companywide via email, our social platforms and a table flyer.  Make ‘em Smile!

                Happy Cinco De Mayo.  There is no better way to celebrate than to drown one’s thirst with our frosty, refreshing, liquid gold Mexican-Style Lager – Cincopatas.  I am imagining myself on the beach looking at the waves just thinking about this tasty treat.  Sit back and find your paradise. 

                Speaking of Cinco De Mayo and Cincopatas, our upcoming Cincopatas Mug Club Dinners will certainly make our Mug Clubbers Smile.  The culinary team has outdone themselves again with the Pork Chile Verde Enchiladas they will be cooking.  A perfect fit for the season that pairs exceptionally well.

                Happy May birthday to: Dan Brunner, John Laudenglos, Jennifer Hunt, Barbara Winnick, Kevin Mobley, Eileen Robins, Brooke Queen and Evan Puckett. 

                This month we recognize, and thank, the following team members who celebrate significant anniversaries with their Ramily: Lisa Carafa (20 years), Joshua Labberton (20 years), John Laudenglos (15 years), Janell Monteleone (6 years), Floro Palacios Gomez (13 years), Jessica Mendez-Martinez (6 years), Christopher Jarvis (10 years) and Stephen Torres (7 years).  Thank you.

We can only thrive when we have a goal – a passionate purpose which bears upon the public interest.

~ Margaret E. Kuhn

I absolutely love great pizza.  The Ram has great pizza.  When we made the decision to bring back pizza to our menus, a few years ago, the goals were to make a unique, craveable, tasty pizza that our guests would love and we could have fun with.  I feel like not only have we accomplished what we set out to do, but we are continuing to build upon our success and grow our pizza brand.

In terms of the pizza itself, our desire for the base was a unique, crispy thin crust.  With those attributes, our type of crust is often referred to as a “cracker crust”.  To help achieve this profile, and induce our unique brand, we include Big Horn Hefeweizen beer and Big Red IPA spent grain in the recipe.  In addition to adding a unique flavor profile, our beer makes the dough “livelier” and helps add the crispiness we expect. 

When creating the recipe, we tested eight different cheese blends before choosing the low-moisture, whole milk mozzarella mix we use today.  We also tested six different sauce combinations using Italian style Stanislaus tomatoes which harkened back to the founders’ original sauce recipe from 1971.  Only the best quality toppings are placed on our pies such as cup-and-char pepperoni (appropriately named because….. it cups & chars) to Italian sausage.

Speed was a major consideration when developing our pizza recipe. So, choosing which oven to purchase to cook our pies in was critical.  Hence the TurboChef ovens which grace your kitchens and cook a full-size pie in three minutes on average and a kid’s pizza in two minutes and forty seconds.  Game on, that speed will Make ‘em Smile!

A couple more notes on our pizza.   You will notice that our metal pizza pans are dimpled.  This is to provide air circulation to the crust which keeps it crispy longer.  Pizza is a great to-go item.  It travels well and is tasty the next day.  To add a final touch of character we endeavor to have fun with our pizza box art and change the design regularly. 

We have featured a number of LTO pizzas such as: Breakfast Pizza, Chicken Bacon Ranch Pizza, Buffalo Chicken Pizza, Hot Honey, Margherita Pizza and the Cheeseburger Pizza twice now.  The second time around for the Cheeseburger Pizza has been quite a success as it has become our best-seller overall in addition to our best-selling LTO pizza ever.  It is a strong bet that the Cheeseburger Pizza will transition to our main menu.  Aside from being a superior quality pie, I think we attribute our pizza success to factors as Graciously Hospitable sales teams, top-notch marketing and being on top of culinary trends.

So, what should the next LTO pizza be when BurgerRama ends?  Please forward your ideas to the culinary team as soon as possible.  Give them a high-five too for the awesome pizza they make.

            Happy Birthday to:  Joshua Tucker and Kristie Webb.

            A heartfelt “thank you “ to the following team members who celebrate significant anniversaries with their Ramily in April:  Scott Hull (9 years), Katherine Rosenthal (11 years), Darla Shamel (8 years), Collin McNees (14 years), Lindsey Liles (6 years), Taylor Hopper (6 years), Ramiro Mendiola Hernandez (12 years), Ricky Wilson (9 years), Carlos Gutierrez (11 years) and Alfonso Ruiz Garcia (13 years).  Thank you for Making ‘em Smile! 

“Ram Pizza make me belly happy!”

~ Jeff Iverson

March!  Happy March Ramily.  We love March at the Ram.  Here comes NCAA Madness.  Major League Baseball’s first pitch is March 27th.  Cold as Rice taps at the beginning of the month on the tail of Clearwater Kolsch.  Our 17th annual BURGERAMA extravaganza kicks off March 12^th.  Yum! Yum! Yum!  For starters we are going to feature Loaded Bacon Cheeseburger Fries – very tasty.  Making a spectacular return is our Bacon Cheeseburger Pizza – a perennial top guest favorite and top seller.  Four burgers make the BURGERAMA feature menu this year.  First off, we have the Pork Hatch Green Chile Stew Burger – our award-winning, perfectly spicy green chili stew smothering an open-faced burger.  We will also be serving our award-winning Green Chile Stew ala carte.  Capitalizing on current trends and taste profiles brings us the Chimichurri Wagyu Burger – a fire-grilled A-5 wagyu burger grilled with Chef Brandon’s flavorful chimichurri sauce topped with cheddar and an arugula tossed in a pepper vinaigrette with a dash of aioli to finish.  Next, we have the Bacon Jam Cheeseburger – candied onions and applewood bacon jam make this one shine.  Finally, straight from Instagram we have our Oklahoma Style Smashed Burger – with slivers of onions smashed into the burger patty to impart great flavor. 

I want to take a moment and speak directly to our developing leaders and chefs.  As you grow and experience the facets of the hospitality business we want to hear from you.  We want to hear your ideas on how to best grow sales and guest counts.  We want you to tell us how the Ram can best cultivate loyal guests.  We want you to vocalize about how we can become more efficient.  How can we get every Ram team member to drop rocks and boulders on our each and every guest?  Let your store leader hear you.  Tell your chef.  Tell Marty Hillis.  Tell James Cassidy.  Tell Nick Kannar.  Tell Mark Patterson.  Tell Brandon Escovedo.  Tell Banger Smith.  Tell Austin Iverson.  Tell me.  Looking forward to hearing from you all.   Remember, the only bad idea is the one that is unsaid.  Leaders, please help the Ram foster a great atmosphere of inclusion that encourages and facilitates helpful communication.  Game On!

Viral!  A big shout out to our social media team on the reel they posted on Friday February 21^st.  That was the video of two mugs of beer being poured with the caption that read, “The number of beers you drink is nothing compared to the number of beers you don’t drink.  Let’s keep things in perspective.”  As of March 1^st, that post had over two million / 2,000,000 views and 48,600 likes.  Posts like that make people smile.  Posts like that give our audiences reasons to visit the Ram.  Game On!  Please forward your ideas for fun, engaging posts to Gabbie Torgerson gtorgerson@theram.com or Austin Iverson ajiverson@theram.com.  Also, please encourage all of your fellow team members, guests and friends to follow, share and like The Ram on Facebook, Instagram and X.  Game On!

More on our marketing and social media game plan: In August 2024, we achieved our highest number of impressions and engagements across all social media platforms, with 836,182 impressions and 12,628 engagements.  We have analyzed our content from that time to identify what resonated most with our audience so we can replicate that success and grow strategically.  What we learned is that our audience engages most with content captured during our events (e.g., Pig Roast, Mug Club Parties), funny reels, and—most importantly—smiling faces, whether they are team members or guests.

A reel the marketing team posted last Friday, February 21st, went viral on Instagram, reaching 2 million views and 48.4K likes as mentioned above.  This post would be best categorized as a “funny reel”. While social media algorithms can be unpredictable, the marketing team’s charge is to analyze trends and apply these insights to maximize reach of all posts. The more people see and recognize the Ram, the more likely they are to visit, which ultimately drives sales and guest counts.

How the Team Can Help:

One of the biggest things that makes our content successful is Ram’s team members! Our audience loves seeing the faces behind the restaurant, and your energy and personality make a huge difference. Whether it’s jumping in for a quick behind-the-scenes clip, participating in a fun reel, or simply smiling in event footage, your presence helps create engaging content that connects with our followers. If you ever have a fun idea or something cool happening during a shift, let Gabbie and Austin know so we can capture it! The more we showcase our amazing teams behind our restaurants, the more people will want to come and be part of the experience.

Strategy Moving Forward:

To build on this momentum, we plan to prioritize content that consistently performs well: event-based footage, funny and relatable reels, and posts that highlight smiling faces. Maintaining a consistent posting schedule will be key, along with experimenting with new trends to keep engagement high. We also want to encourage more user-generated content by prompting guests to tag us in their posts, which we can then reshare to build community engagement and credibility. Additionally, we will explore cross-platform strategies, ensuring that high-performing Instagram content is also shared on TikTok and Facebook to maximize reach. By continually tracking engagement metrics and adjusting based on performance, we can refine our approach and keep growing our audience—ultimately driving more traffic to the restaurant.

A very Happy Birthday to: Kirill Lidin, Lisa Morgan, Earl Jess and Dr. Seuss.  Smile!  We will also say a belated Happy Birthday to the Ram, which turned 54 on February 26^th.

I would like to recognize the following team members who celebrate significant anniversaries with their Ramily this month:  Holly Kalii (7 years), Jessica Yazzie (6 years), Laura Torres Aguirre (12 years), Diane Williams (15 years) and Amy Westerhausen (17 years).  Thank you very much.  

“Excellence is not a spectator sport.  Everyone is involved.”

~ General Electric

Happy February Ramily.

It has been a big start to the year for the Mug Club! Memberships are strong and our parties are hopping. Rave reviews have been coming in for both the Udder Chaos and Meatloaf. Let’s keep growing our club and carry this momentum into the rest of the year. More festivities are ahead!

Here in Lakewood, we’re celebrating our 54th Anniversary on February 26th. On that day, we’ll be offering a $1.95 burger dubbed “The Original Villa Plaza Burger” served with Ram Chips all day long. Or until we run out of burgers… Last year’s Anniversary event was a smashing success with a line out the door at 11:30 AM that stretched the length of the parking lot. We’re looking forward to another big day at the Lakewood Ram.

A big Thank You to all for promoting Child’s Play this holiday season. During December, we raised over $8,000 for this great cause that provides toys, games, and books to a network of almost 200 children’s hospitals around the world. In 2025, we have our sights set on supporting more local organizations and causes near and dear to us.

With the New Year, brought new opportunities! Lots has changed in our Happy Hour Program vs. January 2024.

Most notably, last year we had our All-Day Taco Tuesday for $4. That was replaced in May with our All-Day Happy Hour coming back to the Happy Hour Proposition. That, combined with a few changes to our value propositions, and pricing, (which I might add, our Happy Hour Menu remained virtually intact for 2 years since we started the $4-$5-$6 program) and was due for a change.

Comparing January 2025 vs. 2024, Happy Hour has grown in popularity, averaging (albeit small) an average increase of 23 items sold per day over January 2024, or a slight increase of 1.18%. Where we have seen the greatest impact, is the strategic move away from Taco Tuesday, back to Tuesday All-Day Happy Hour, and pricing we took on most items on the Happy Hour Menu, also in January 2025.

This strategy, moving into January 2025, has resulted in a 15% increase in Gross Sales (over January 2024), or in dollar terms, +$35K for the Company.

We will continue to strengthen our Happy Hour Value Proposition as we move forward in 2025!

We’re kicking off the year with a bang, and we have our amazing team to thank! January was another fantastic month on social media—our community is growing, and we love seeing tags and check-ins from our guests. We’re excited to share even more mouthwatering food photos, promotions, and behind-the-scenes brewery content. If you’re not already following us, now’s the time to join the fun! Follow @theramrestaurant on Instagram!

February is a big month, and we’re keeping the excitement going with our Kids Eat for $1.99 special, available Sunday – Thursday. Whether guests are stopping by for a family dinner or an afternoon lunch, they can bring the little ones and enjoy this budget-friendly deal. With delicious meals made just for kids, it’s the perfect excuse to skip cooking and enjoy a night out together.

And of course, we can’t forget about our Super Bowl promotions! Be sure to inform guests about our Triple Option Burger Specials, starting at $9.99 for dine-in this Sunday, 2/9! They can enjoy our RAM Classic Cheeseburger along with old fan favorites like the Tumbleweed Burger, All American Burger, and The King Felix Burger. Guests can order a ¼-pound burger + RAM Fries + Fountain Drink for $9.99 (Single) or $11.99 (Double). They can also pair their burger with a 12 oz. Award-Winning Buttface Amber Ale for a few dollars more.

For take-out, we’re offering any Signature Beer-Crust Pizza + a Growler for just $20—a perfect game-day combo! Plenty of great options for our guests—cheers to February!

Happy February birthday to: Rosemarie Hoapili, Gary Conibear, and Megan Miller.

A special “thank you” to the following team members who celebrate significant anniversaries with their Ramily this month:  Laura Davalos Anguiano (9 years) and Hannah Weathers (11 years).

“Coming together is a beginning; keeping together is progress; working together is success.”

~Edward Everett Hale

Welcome to RAM Academy! RAM Academy is your new #1 resource for all things RAM training, news, marketing campaigns, food & drink LTOs, beer releases, charitable initiatives, and more! Here you’ll find all of your favorite training documents, as well as our RAM calendar to see all that we have planned for the days ahead. The Academy page will always be updated with the latest in training and everything else RAM-related, so when in doubt, head to RAM Academy!