Despite uncertainty, those who can are making moves to scale or flex their operations.
Here, the highlights of a few locals making such moves, including a hive of activity along 17th Street in Costa Mesa:
Taco Bell Goes Mobile
Taco Bell Corp. once again caused waves more recently, but this time it wasn’t over the latest menu changes.
The Irvine-based fast-food chain said it plans to introduce the Taco Bell Go Mobile restaurant concept in the first quarter. It will be smaller in size at 1,325 square feet than the typical Taco Bell averaging 2,500 square feet, but big on tech.
CEO Mark King alluded to the rollout when he told the Business Journal coyly in May, “We’ll be announcing news about this sooner than you think,” in referencing how the pandemic’s accelerated the chain’s work on the digital front.
You may recall King forecasted “ordering ahead and curbside to continue to increase, and the strength of our business model is our drive-thru service, which will continue to be the biggest piece of our business.”
Taco Bell Go Mobile, to that end, will feature two drive-thru lanes with one dedicated to customers who ordered ahead on the app; employees using tablets to take drive-thru orders; curbside pickup; and the app syncing with the kitchen so that customers are sent notifications upon arrival on the fastest way to get their food.
Planting Costa Mesa Flags
The ownership group behind Juice It Up and Mountain Mike’s Pizza LLC are putting stakes in the ground with new flagships that also serve as R&D labs for their respective brands.
Pizza chain Mountain Mike’s, which was acquired by Chris Britt and Ed St. Geme three years ago, in July opened a new location along 17th Street in Costa Mesa that’s also boasting a new look. The 2,740-square-foot restaurant has patio space, modular seating for private events, TVs and upgraded interior design work.
Britt and St. Geme, who went in on a partnership under SJB Brands LLC to acquire Juice It Up in 2018, later celebrated the 17th Street opening of the flagship Juice It Up this month.
The location, about a block away from the pizza restaurant, is a big deal for the chain with a new design template touting a revamped logo and menu, mobile order counter, an Instagram-worthy wall for snapping photos and plenty of seating.
The concept has lots to celebrate with its 25th anniversary this year and the promotion in July of Susan Taylor from vice president of operations to brand president.
StretchLab Expands
The boutique fitness boom isn’t showing fatigue.
Irvine-based multi-brand portfolio operator Xponential Fitness LLC’s StretchLab is a good example (see page 1 for more).
One need only read the numbers for proof of this. Franchisees have opened a dozen locations during the pandemic, including the most recent in the Harvard Place Shopping Center in Irvine. The location is operated by Irvine resident Kelly Hartman.
Locally, the brand counts eight studios (one on 17th Street), with five more in the OC pipeline.
Gourmet To Go
So a chef and a software guy walk into a room …. This isn’t too far off from the story for Fork & Knife, a new restaurant from Chef Jonathan Blackford and former Aliso Viejo-based Quest Software CEO and President Doug Garn.
Quest sold to Dell in 2012 for $2.4 billion, giving Garn plenty of time to turn his attention to some fun side projects, including becoming a co-owner in A Restaurant in Newport Beach, where Blackford had served as executive chef.
Fork & Knife marks Blackford’s first restaurant launch. His wife, Kristi, will be handling the restaurant’s design and all non-food items.
The concept’s highly flexible, adapting to the pandemic rather than shelving its debut for better days.
There will be no dining room and it will instead focus on offering to-go family meals and grab-and-go items.
Blackford said, Fork & Knife upon its launch “speaks to current dining habits and what the public wants right now.”
Fork & Knife is on 17th Street in Costa Mesa and set for an October opening.
