Ted Davenport fits the mold of a jock. He's tall, athletic, played high school and college football, and also was a firefighter.

But bottled up in the former Kaiser High School wide receiver was a budding entrepreneur waiting to burst out. It took a year of boredom as a Honolulu firefighter to make him realize this.

Davenport bought his first Subway sandwich shop at the corner of King and Alakea streets in 1989 as a "side business" while still with the Fire Department. But his interest in running a business soon took off like, well, wildfire.

"I thought I'd just open one store, but I realized there was room to grow the business and I opened a second store. I eventually ended up with 14," said Davenport.

Today, the 46-year-old Davenport is one of the top franchise owners in the state. He holds the Hawai'i master development rights to all Subway shops — he still owns three — and owns the franchise rights to the state's Ruby Tuesday restaurants.

Not bad for a guy who admits to "having no clue" as to what his future would be when he was chasing footballs in high school.

Davenport's career began like that of many other people. He drove a limousine at the Hyatt Regency Waikiki while attending the University of Hawai'i, but liked the business so much that the 22-year-old launched his own limo company, Class Limousine Service.

He eventually sold the business and joined Continental Airlines as a director of passenger service. But he became a father at age 24 and wanted to spend more time with his son, so he took the firefighters exam and wound up at the station in Hawai'i Kai.

Davenport found out after a year that fighting fires and rescuing people weren't exciting enough. He recalled a visit he made to a cousin in North Carolina and a "specialty" sandwich shop called Subway.

"Coming from Hawai'i I never saw something like that. I thought it was the best thing and I ate there for two weeks straight," Davenport said. "When I was in the airlines I would see them popping up in the cities that I was going to and I thought that would be a great thing for Hawai'i because we didn't have just a sandwich shop."

'PHENOMENAL' RUBY

Davenport stayed with the Fire Department for 12 years while he grew his Subway business. He left the department, and sold all but a trio of stores while retaining the state master development rights for the chain. He began to look at other ventures.

Davenport researched 10 casual dining franchises and said he settled on Ruby Tuesday because it's a fresh-cooked, healthy choice concept similar to Subway. In 2002, he opened his first Ruby Tuesday in Mililani, and has since opened restaurants at Ala Moana Center, Windward Mall and the Moanalua Center.

Last year, the four restaurants did about $14 million in sales and he expects that to top $19 million this year. He attributes much of the increase to the Moanalua restaurant, which Davenport said is among the top Ruby Tuesday restaurants with about $5.5 million in sales.

"On Mother's Day in the whole world, we had the 1, 2, 3 and 15th stores in sales. It was phenomenal," he said. There are more than 920 Ruby Tuesday restaurants worldwide.

Davenport said he believes Ruby Tuesday is successful here because of what he considers Hawai'i's lack of affordable, casual-dining restaurants. He said the restaurants also do well because his employees play a major role in running the operation.

He said he has the same philosophy at his Subway stores.

"When you share in business you give everybody a chance to make money," he said. "I want everybody to make money, everybody's going to share in the pie. It helps our growth and your volume base."

EASING CONTROL

He said he also doesn't rule with an iron fist, which he admits to doing early in his career.

"In the beginning, I tried to follow the system mechanically and realized it didn't work. You have to have some gray areas that you can work with," Davenport said. "I think the best thing to do is to let people make mistakes, let people be free to run their stores, and work with people. People are everything, especially in the restaurant business."

Davenport said he's always looking for expansion possibilities, but said a shortage of workers and real estate opportunities here are holding him back. He hopes to open a Ruby Tuesday in Kapolei and Hilo in the next two years, and has plans for two on Maui and one in Kona.

Davenport also has partnered with NFL Pro Bowl linebacker Junior Seau to open restaurants in California, and is working with a partner to build a Ruby Tuesday in Guam. And he does consulting work in Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines and Thailand.

Davenport said he hopes to eventually slow down, but for now, he's satisfied with his workload. "I enjoy the challenge," he said. "To me, challenge is not a problem."

Reach Curtis Lum at culum@honoluluadvertiser.com.