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Six years ago, when he was 27 years old, Larry Harris began to build a bridge between imitation and authenticity in the quick-serve chicken business.
The bridge he built was constructed on girders of product quality and taste, welded together through simple but exacting operating systems and kept in place by well-trained employees.
Harris' bridge would come to be called Pollo Tropical, now an 18-unit quick-serve restaurant chain, one of many rapidly growing competitors in the non-fried chicken niche that includes Boston Chicken, Kenny Rogers, KFC and, more recently, Chick's Natural, Rollo Pollo Wood Roasted Chicken, Congress Rotisserie and Clucker's Wood Roasted Chicken all marketing themselves as fresh, high-quality meal preparers for families.
What Pollo Tropical does to differentiate itself from the pack is to fashion a menu and cooking techniques that are rooted in the traditional culinary stylings of Spanish-speaking Caribbean islands.
In fact, with the exoeptions of El Pollo Loco--the long-struggling, char-grilled chicken subsidiary of Flagstar--and Beniliana, no publicly traded restaurant company in recent times ever has risked its future growth on one ethnic cuisine that was not Italian or Tex-Mex.
While strangers to the concept might mistakenly consider Pollo Tropical in the Tex-Mex segment, they would be mighty surprised upon reading the menu board.
Based in Miami, Pollo Tropical's main distinction is its use of a traditional South American basting sauce called Mojo--fruit juices, fresh spices and garlic--which the kitchens use to marinate--the chicken for 24 hours before grilling.
Side dishes are such Hispanic classics as yuca, plantains and black beans. Hanis, the 33-year-old founder, chairman, president and chief executive of Pollo Tropical,...