Nations Restaurant News - Roma Vets Reimer, Dahl Grow Fast-casual Baker Bros Deli Upstart

DALLAS (Tuesday, November 15, 2005) - Looking to fill a niche between fast-food sandwich chains and full-service dining, two restaurant industry veterans launched three Dallas-area units of Baker Bros American Deli in the north Texas area.

Ken Reimer, formerly chief executive of the Tony Roma’s chain and interim chief at Furr’s cafeterias, and Tom Dahl, former vice president at Tony Roma’s and a former Pizza Hut operator, have teamed up to launch the fast-casual Baker Bros, the first of which opened last December in suburban Plano.

The second opened in February in Dallas, and the third opened in May in suburban Irving. A fourth is about to start construction, Reimer said.

“We saw an interesting niche,” said Reimer, who serves as chief executive of BB Franchising Inc., which is developing the concept with investors from Malaysia, where another Baker Bros has been built.

“We wanted to do something in fast-casual,” he added, “because that helps control labor costs and certainly has a lot of appeal among busy customers.”

Baker Bros units vary from 3,000 to 3,500 square feet, with the company targeting 2,600 to 3,000 square feet as the ideal. The restaurants have between 140 and 145 seats and generate per-person checks averaging $7.50 to $8.50.

Dahl, president of BB Franchising Inc., said he was attracted to join Reimer because of the fast-casual niche Baker Bros would exploit. “You have Subway and Quizno’s and some others doing more of a low-end, fast-food kind of sandwich,” Dahl said, “but when Ken started talking to me about the look and quality, it made a lot of sense.”

Dahl cited other concepts that influenced the development, including Jason’s Deli, Brinker International’s Corner Bakery, Schlotzsky’s Deli and La Madeleine.

“We wanted to keep the operations extremely simple,” Dahl said, to reduce the need for labor in a tight market and to deliver the meals within five to six minutes of the customer’s placing the order. “Speed is critical,” he said. “People are time-crunched.”

Production and equipment needs also were made simple, he said. “We don’t have any walk-in coolers or freezers, so equipment costs are lower.”

Baker Bros is targeting sales of $1 million a year per store. Reimer said the cost of each of the three units has been “significantly less” than $400,000 though he said his business plan put the cost of each unit between $325,000 and $495,000.

Industry analysts have said the fast-casual segment is appealing both to operators, who want to keep labor costs low, and to customers, who are seeking something more than fast food but still in a quick timeframe.

Baker Bros’ menu offers 10 specialty sandwiches ranging form a Chicago corned beef with melted Swiss cheese on a toasted rye roll, $5.79 to Sonoma chicken with cheddar cheese, chipotle salsa, red onion, lettuce and spicy mayonnaise on a toasted whole-wheat roll, $5.99. Six salads, three soups, six baked potato combinations and six pizzas round out the offerings, as well as “build-your-own” deli sandwiches. The highest-priced item is the mushroom Alfredo pizza, $6.99.

Reimer said he settled on the Baker Bros name after a lengthy search. “I went through a lot of them,” he said, “but Baker Bros, frankly, came from my son, who is an eclectic kind of guy in Austin. He threw a couple of names at me, and that just stuck better than anything else.

“One of the strong branding elements that a company can have is the essence of a real person,” he added, citing Colonel Sanders of KFC and Wendy’s Dave Thomas.

“The Baker Brothers’ story is about where they came from-the heartland- and how Mama Baker taught them that you never short-cut, and you give quality because it will come back to you multifold,” Reimer said. The menu even features “Tom” and “Ken” Baker-whose fictional first names are the same as Dahl’s and Reimer’s-who “were raised to appreciate the value of an honest day’s work and a good meal in return.”

Reimer said the Bakers’ fictional store was “turned into the design of the restaurant, which is meant to be a 1950s or ‘60s hardware store-something trustworthy, honest.”

The chief concern in development of the concept, Reimer emphasized, was that hourly labor be kept to a minimum. “We require no chefs or kitchen supervisors,” he said.

While they intend to franchise the Baker Bros concept, the partners said the company owns and operates all current branches.

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