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 the moment, 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 based mostly.
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 had been doing. They had been providing an inexpensive different to informal eating that was slightly nicer than quick meals and slightly 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 this sort of enterprise mannequin?
JF: I might see the place we might construct a smaller retailer that was more cost effective to construct and cheaper to run by way of having no desk service and having a smaller workers. However we’ve nonetheless saved a wood-fired oven because the centerpiece of the menu.
PT: What are your development plans?
JF: The thought was to create a model that we might tackle the highway 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 % 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 all around the world, significantly in the course of the peak season.
PT: Pace of service is essential in this sort of idea. How are you doing in that regard thus far?
JF: Inside seven to 9 minutes, folks get their meals. That’s the common transaction time, together with the period of time it takes them to put 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. Individuals admire it an important deal. We get nice frequency from our key constituents.
PT: What’s your common visitor test?
JF: It’s just a bit over $10.
