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

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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