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. Presently, there are two Italian Oven Café shops in operation: one in Pittsburgh and one in West Palm Seashore, 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 have been doing. They have been providing an reasonably priced various to informal eating that was a bit of nicer than quick meals and a bit of 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 such a 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 employees. However we’ve nonetheless stored 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 may 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 Seashore. A few of these are simply individuals coming in to kick the tires, however in all probability 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 Seashore for this prototype retailer — individuals go to right here from everywhere in the world, notably throughout the peak season.
PT: Pace of service is essential in such a idea. How are you doing in that regard thus far?
JF: Inside seven to 9 minutes, individuals get their meals. That’s the typical 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 an excellent meal in entrance of them in a short time, and we use nicer napkins and dinnerware and nicer supplies. Since there is no such thing as a desk service, there’s no tipping. Individuals respect it a terrific deal. We get nice frequency from our key constituents.
PT: What’s your common visitor examine?
JF: It’s just a bit over $10.
