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E&S in the kitchens at this expanding fast-casual chain must be durable to handle the growing volume of freshly prepared grilled foods, pizzas and salads ordered daily.
At its inception, The Loop Pizza Grill was a risky venture. In 1980, Mike and Terry Schneider were deep in debt and needed an alternative to filing for bankruptcy after an expansion of Applejacks, their Jacksonville, FIa., restaurant and entertainment nightclub, failed. In order to pay off the bank loans they had taken for the expansion, they decided to stay in the business they knew and open a less specialized restaurant concept that appealed to a broader customer base.
"We borrowed money from a friend and transferred the Applejacks' equipment and furniture to a site in the trendy San Marco section near downtown Jacksonville," Mike Schneider says. "We named the 60-seat, fast-casual concept after the downtown business district in Terry's hometown of Chicago. Some six months later, the new restaurant received a very kind newspaper review. That day, customers were lined up to get in and from that point we have continued to evolve and keep the concept fresh and current."
Schneider spent the first six years behind the counter learning the business before expansion began in the late 1980s. Each of the next eight years saw a new Loop open in a different suburb. "In 1992, we decided that growing by expansion internalIy was cost-prohibitive, labor-intensive and time-consuming, so we decided to franchise," Schneider says. "But, we had varying success, so we took a time-out to assess our support to sytems, and then began expanding again."
Today, The Loop Pizza Grill chain consists of five company-owned and 1 6 franchised units. Another 85 units are under construction and/or development and will open during the next five years in the Southeast. A typical unit is 4,200-square-feet with 1 20 seats and interior décor described on the web site as "funky, upbeat, relaxed and casual."
At this writing, new Loop restaurant prototypes are currently under development. "Like our current restaurants, the future units will include a comfortable front-of-the-house ambiance in either an edgy urban, a softer suburban or culturally appropriate...