Tough Competition: Just Fresh Kitchen Café
On Donnie Deutch I just saw an interview with the new CEO of Just Fresh Kitchen Café, Dana Sinkler, who previously was a chef at a four-star NY restaurant and coincidentally founded and sold for $25 million the Terra Vegetable Chip. Dana was previously a franchisee and has spent the past year revamping the menu launching the Kitchen Cafe concept, characterizing it as an innovator in Fine Casual Dining. 
The new Kitchen Cafe menu looks ideal for my increasingly healthy-focused palate (South Beach Diet / Body for Life style diet foods - salmon, shrimp filled omelettes, marinated chicken, veggies…you get the point). And, it takes the focus off the cookie-bread centered menus. Last I read there were 73 franchises under contract, mostly the Carolinas and Georgia.
The restaurant claims to provide a fresh, great-tasting food and the atmosphere of a table service restaurant with the speed and pricing of a quick service restaurant – all in a setting that’s friendly to the senses and the environment.
Why would I spend time writing about this place? Because it shows what can be done when the franchisor-owners are willing to take a risk and let a successful entrepreneur and chef take the lead. This brand was suffering the past 10 years but now the new Kitchen Cafe concept extention seems to have the right menu, management and financial backing to expand at will, raising the bar above Panera Bread on gourmet fresh food and fine dining food in a fast casual atmosphere. See below for examples of what the brand and food looks like.
I would like to know how quickly they serve. If it takes too long, like 15 minutes for salmon, then it may just be too long for people to wait. Panera just put a salmon filet salmon on the menu and it seems to be relatively popular. The salmon must be lower margin too versus an egg omlette.
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