In Fast-casual Dining, Let Taco And Fajita Battles Begin

Moe's Southwest Grill opens in Wilsonville, entering a metro area with Baja Fresh, Chipotle Grill and others

WILSONVILLE (Thursday, May 19, 2005) - Don Lepine, operations manager at Moe's Southwest Grill, has one rhetorical question: Is Portland ready for the Homewrecker?

Lepine's not talking about divorce rates. He's talking about beans, cheese, salsa, sour cream and guacamole. According to Lepine, the Homewrecker burrito is the most popular item on the menu at Moe's, and it soon may be a common meal for Portland's lunchtime crowds.

Moe's restaurants are planned for 20 locations in Oregon in the coming years. At least 12 will be in the Portland metro area, including Tanasbourne, Washington Square and downtown. The first Portland-area Moe's opened in late April in Wilsonville's Argyle Square development.

Wilsonville was chosen in part because it doesn't have any competing fast-casual chains such as Chipotle Grill or Baja Fresh.

"We thought Moe's would go very well there," said Michael Goodman, chief executive officer of Atlanta-based Wraps of the Northwest, which owns the franchise rights for Moe's from northern California to western Canada.

The nearby professional and retail buildings also were a draw, promising business from workers during the week and shoppers during the weekend.

Goodman also is CEO of Northwest Wings, which owns Oregon's Hooters restaurants.

"Hooters is a much bigger investment per store and somewhat more limited in the people interested in coming in," Goodman said. "Only about 20 percent are women and families. It's primarily men between the ages of 21 and 50."

With Moe's broader appeal, Wraps of the Northwest can develop more properties, he said.

Moe's menu is typical Southwestern fare, with some Southern additions such as sweet tea. Menu items have outlandish names gleaned from odd corners of popular culture. There's the Ugly Naked Guy, a taco named for an indecent neighbor character on the television show "Friends," and a Southwestern salad named the Close Talker, referring to a "Seinfeld" episode.

Moe's prices range from $2.29 for a single taco to $7.99 for a fajita. In an effort to appeal to a health-conscious consumer, the chain does not use frozen ingredients or microwaves, Lepine said.

The many Moe's restaurants in Portland's future reflect a new dining trend called "fast-casual," which is a hybrid between casual dining, like Applebee's, and fast food, like McDonalds. Fast-casual restaurants don't offer table service, but they do offer slightly more expensive, higher-quality, sometimes healthier food and a better atmosphere than a fast-food restaurant.

Fast-casual sales have grown an average of 12.5 percent every year since 2001, according to a 2004 report by Mintel, a Chicago-based market research company. The fast-casual market is worth $7 billion and is projected to grow to $100 billion by 2015, according to NPD Foodworld, another Illinois-based research company.

The Mintel report also cited some problems for the fast-casual market. The general target age group is 25 to 54, but some chains don't offer child-friendly food, and waiting in line can be cumbersome for parents. Most of the chains lack beer and wine licenses, which has an effect on the adult dinner market, the report said.

Moe's formula seems to answer the report's cautions: It offers a children's menu and frozen margaritas.

The franchise has 200 locations nationally and is among the fastest growing new franchises in the United States, according to Entrepreneur Magazine. In Wilsonville, Moe's sales have exceeded expectations, Lepine said.

On a recent lunch hour, Terry Scott and Sam Dawson, employees at Xerox in Wilsonville, munched Homewrecker burritos. Though most of the menu references were lost on them, they compared the food and atmosphere to Baja Fresh and said they planned to come back.

"If you go to a place where you have to sit and wait, it can get to you," Scott said. "And this is a lot more healthy than fast food."

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