A number of industry veterans try new brands in this week's roundup of news relating to growth chain franchisees and franchisors.
Corner Bakery signs Denny’s zees to 22-unit deal
Corner Bakery has franchised 22 units in New England to Denny’s franchisees Glenn and Tina Beattie. The deal calls for the husband and wife team to open the stores in Rhode Island and Connecticut over the next eight years.
Twin Peaks’ new operators are no boobs
The Twin Peaks breastaurant chain is strutting into Indiana after tucking franchise deals for 19 new restaurants into its brassiere.
The new franchisees include Lee Cohn, the veteran restaurateur whose Big Four restaurants has hatched such concepts as Ed Debevic’s, a hot collaboration (in the 1980s) with concept Midas Rich Melman.
The pack of operators also includes veterans of McAlister’s Deli (Kyle Brechtel), Brinker International’s concepts (Kyle Crochet), and Buffalo Wild Wings (Andrew Bayless).
Wing Zone has new look, drive-thru format
Roark Capital’s Wing Zone chain has lifted the napkin off two new designs for the chicken-wings chain. All 100 or so stores in the system will be upgraded within a year to what the franchisor calls the Flavorholic look.
Those inline “traditional” stores will retain their limited seating, with the operations geared toward a high percentage of takeout business. The footprint usually ranges from 1,000 to 1,500 square feet. The stores usually cost $200,000 to $300,000.
But franchisees can also now opt for a 1,200-square-foot standalone drive-thru, which will typically be located on the pad of big-box retailers, the announcement explained. It pegged the cost at $450,000.
Breakfast-lunch specialist Sunnystreet Café inks deal
Sunnystreet Café, a 14-unit breakfast-lunch concept based in Colubmus, Ohio, has signed franchising vet Robert Andersen to serve as its area developer for Texas.
Andersen, who’s helped to develop such chains as Mooyah and Twin Peaks, is charged with developing 40 units in the Lone Star state.
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