Jim Frye is founding father of the Italian Oven Café, a spin-off of kinds from his unique Italian Oven idea. The Italian Oven went public within the Nineties, however floundered shortly thereafter. Now Frye is resurrecting the idea in an abbreviated kind, following the lead of ideas like Starbucks and Panera Bread. At present, there are two Italian Oven Café shops in operation: one in Pittsburgh and one in West Palm Seaside, Florida, the place the corporate is newly primarily based.
PT: What served as inspiration for bringing again and tweaking the Italian Oven idea?
JF: Again in 2001, I used to be watching with nice curiosity what Starbucks and Panera Bread have been doing. They have been providing an reasonably priced different to informal eating that was a bit nicer than quick meals and a bit extra informal than full-service eating. I had been plotting my comeback with The Italian Oven and began fleshing out the concept of turning The Italian Oven restaurant into a quick informal restaurant.
PT: What particularly appealed to you by way of providing a smaller restaurant in any such enterprise mannequin?
JF: I may see the place we may construct a smaller retailer that was less expensive to construct and cheaper to run by way of having no desk service and having a smaller workers. However we’ve nonetheless stored a wood-fired oven because the centerpiece of the menu.
PT: What are your progress plans?
JF: The concept was to create a model that we may tackle the street and develop and promote franchises. We’ve had in extra of 100 franchise inquiries since we opened our retailer in West Palm Seaside. A few of these are simply folks coming in to kick the tires, however most likely 10-15 p.c of these have a really severe curiosity in constructing an Italian Oven Café someplace. That’s one of many causes we selected West Palm Seaside for this prototype retailer — folks go to right here from everywhere in the world, significantly through the peak season.
PT: Pace of service is essential in any such idea. How are you doing in that regard up to now?
JF: Inside seven to 9 minutes, folks get their meals. That’s the typical transaction time, together with the period of time it takes them to position their order. A meals runner brings the meals out to them on the desk. We put a very good meal in entrance of them in a short time, and we use nicer napkins and dinnerware and nicer supplies. Since there isn’t any desk service, there’s no tipping. Folks respect it an awesome deal. We get nice frequency from our key constituents.
PT: What’s your common visitor verify?
JF: It’s just a bit over $10.
Jim Frye is founding father of the Italian Oven Café, a spin-off of kinds from his unique Italian Oven idea. The Italian Oven went public within the Nineties, however floundered shortly thereafter. Now Frye is resurrecting the idea in an abbreviated kind, following the lead of ideas like Starbucks and Panera Bread. At present, there are two Italian Oven Café shops in operation: one in Pittsburgh and one in West Palm Seaside, Florida, the place the corporate is newly primarily based.
PT: What served as inspiration for bringing again and tweaking the Italian Oven idea?
JF: Again in 2001, I used to be watching with nice curiosity what Starbucks and Panera Bread have been doing. They have been providing an reasonably priced different to informal eating that was a bit nicer than quick meals and a bit extra informal than full-service eating. I had been plotting my comeback with The Italian Oven and began fleshing out the concept of turning The Italian Oven restaurant into a quick informal restaurant.
PT: What particularly appealed to you by way of providing a smaller restaurant in any such enterprise mannequin?
JF: I may see the place we may construct a smaller retailer that was less expensive to construct and cheaper to run by way of having no desk service and having a smaller workers. However we’ve nonetheless stored a wood-fired oven because the centerpiece of the menu.
PT: What are your progress plans?
JF: The concept was to create a model that we may tackle the street and develop and promote franchises. We’ve had in extra of 100 franchise inquiries since we opened our retailer in West Palm Seaside. A few of these are simply folks coming in to kick the tires, however most likely 10-15 p.c of these have a really severe curiosity in constructing an Italian Oven Café someplace. That’s one of many causes we selected West Palm Seaside for this prototype retailer — folks go to right here from everywhere in the world, significantly through the peak season.
PT: Pace of service is essential in any such idea. How are you doing in that regard up to now?
JF: Inside seven to 9 minutes, folks get their meals. That’s the typical transaction time, together with the period of time it takes them to position their order. A meals runner brings the meals out to them on the desk. We put a very good meal in entrance of them in a short time, and we use nicer napkins and dinnerware and nicer supplies. Since there isn’t any desk service, there’s no tipping. Folks respect it an awesome deal. We get nice frequency from our key constituents.
PT: What’s your common visitor verify?
JF: It’s just a bit over $10.
