Franchise Update Magazine Issue III, 2013 | Page 16

Grow Market Lead FineFood Anatomy of a Brand By Pierre Panos Served Fast Building a genre-bending concept from original ingredients A t Fresh To Order (f2o), guests experience a unique offering—flavors and service inspired by fine dining served at a fast casual pace—and at fast casual prices. We created both the concept and the category niche, which we call “fast-fine.” Our eight locations across Georgia and Tennessee serve flavorful, fresh, and affordable favorites in 10 minutes for around $10 per person. Diners have embraced the new offering, and our restaurants have experienced doubledigit same store sales growth for the past Pierre Panos three years—although, in 2000, when I began contemplating a restaurant concept that fused the speed and inherent benefits of fast casual with the flavors, ingredient quality, and service level of fine dining, f2o seemed like a “crazy idea.” At the time, fast casual concepts were not yet the mainstay of dining that they are today. Most meals under $10 and served under 10 minutes were either a burger and fries or chicken with biscuits. While Wikipedia now lists 65 restaurant concepts in its fast casual category, back in 2000 breakthrough brands such as Chipotle or Panera Bread were just beginning their growth trajectory. Nonetheless, I remained committed to the concept and embarked on 14 Franchiseupdate Iss u e III, 2 0 1 3 an educational journey that would ultimately lead me to become one of the largest franchisees of Papa John’s pizza chain, owner and operator of a fine casual restaurant called Brookwood Grill, and founder and franchisor of my “crazy idea”—Fresh To Order. We are currently staged to double the number of f2o units by 2014 and are planning our expansion throughout the Southeastern, MidAtlantic, and Midwestern states. My educational journey didn’t end with a Ph.D., MBA, or baccalaureate degree. Rather, I learned three valuable lessons, which I’m happy to share with the many emerging franchisees interested in making their mark on the restaurant industry. I. Learn fr