Mom-and-pop falafel counters are well-loved in big cities. Yet no one has succeeded in taking Mediterranean cuisine to a mass audience.
But Leo Timatyos is aiming to change that with his ChickPita Fresh Mediterranean Grill, a fast-casual concept featuring fare from Greece, Turkey, Lebanon, Israel and Egypt.
CHAIN FACTS CONCEPT NAME: ChickPita Fresh Mediterranean GrillHEADQUARTERS: Los AngelesMARKET SEGMENT: fast casualMENU: Greek, Turkish, Lebanese, Israeli and EgyptianTOTAL NUMBER OF UNITS: Two by end of August, and a third by end of yearSYSTEMWIDE SALES: $700,000-$850,000LEADERSHIP: Leo Timatyos, operations partnerYEAR FOUNDED: 2007
There are now two units in Southern California. The first, in Laguna Niguel, opened in 2007, and the second, in Orange County, opened in August. Plans call for a third unit to open in Las Vegas by year-end, Timatyos said.
Timatyos said he views ChickPita as having the potential to bring Mediterranean food to a broad audience in much the way Chipotle took its Mexican fare nationwide. Denver-based Chipotle, which opened its first unit in 1993, currently has about 900 restaurants.
Helping with ChickPita’s growth is Americans’ interest in both healthful fare and bolder ethnic cuisines, Timatyos said. At ChickPita, diners choose from a cross-section of the foods that unite the eastern rim of the Mediterranean Sea, including shawarma, a Middle Eastern wrap filled with different rotisserie-grilled meats; gyros; falafel; kebabs; hummus; and other regional culinary staples.
Menu items are priced under $10, with wraps ranging in price from $5.79 to $7.99 and salads falling between $8.29 and $9.99. Entrées, which include a side salad, rice and pita, range from $8.79 to $9.99.
“People are looking for restaurant food with fast-food prices,” said Timatyos, ChickPita’s operations partner and director of franchise sales, pointing to the ongoing economic downturn.
“People still want great quality food, but they don’t want to spend a lot of money,” he said, “and they don’t want to tip.”
Timatyos, whose father is Lebanese, lived in Chicago for 25 years and worked in fine dining before founding ChickPita. He saw the success of countless fusion restaurants and thought that the different varieties of Mediterranean cuisine could be united into a restaurant that is as familiar to urban diners as it is unrepresented in their mass-market food choices.
ChickPita features an exhibition kitchen where food is cooked and prepared in front of customers. Shawarma meat can be seen turning on spits, and the smell of savory sauces permeates the air.
Just as with made-to-order sandwich or burrito concepts, ChickPita is all about choices. Diners choose from an array of offerings, such as plain hummus or that with olives, giving food a Greek spin. Along with numerous condiments and vegetables, there is also an avocado spread, a ChickPita innovation that nods to the Southern California roots of the concept.
Mediterranean cuisine is also healthful, Timatyos said, pointing to brawny kebabs and delicate tabbouleh, all of which are packed with flavor. Even though a falafel sandwich packs loads of garlic and spices into a ball of fried, mashed chickpeas, it still beats a burger in terms of dietary considerations, he noted. ChickPita targets customers’ aspirations to wellness and vivacity with the slogan, “Eat Healthy, Live Longer.”
Though ChickPita has only two locations with a third arriving later this year, Timatyos said he intends to grow his burgeoning chain to a national scale. The recession is currently hampering those plans, he admitted, noting that he is nonetheless pleased with how well the concept has fared to this point.
ChickPita’s startup costs are estimated between $180,000 and $350,000, depending on the size and location, he said. The concept is currently breaking even, he said. The original location in Laguna Niguel is thriving, while the second Orange County restaurant just opened its doors in August and is being watched. He puts systemwide sales at more than $700,000.
Timatyos is hopeful that economic recovery will bode well for ChickPita, however. He points to the successful development of a similar niche by Daphne’s Greek Cafe, a Greek fast-casual concept that has grown to more than 80 restaurants since 1991.
When Timatyos saw that consumers were embracing Daphne’s, he realized that the growing enthusiasm for Near Eastern dishes could mean mainstream palatability for a broader menu.
While the fare is inspired by ancient traditions, ChickPita is looking to spread the word about its offerings with a sleek, modern marketing weapon: new media.
ChickPita’s website invites visitors to follow the brand on Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, UrbanSpoon, Yelp, Yahoo! Local or MyFox. ChickPita also offers coupons through Twitter and a 15-percent discount when orders are placed through the company’s website.
And while Americans are more familiar with Middle Eastern food than ever before, ChickPita is prepared to serve an ambassadorial role. For the timid diner who is unfamiliar with ChickPita’s dishes, the website offers the ChickPedia: an encyclopedia with entries on typical offerings like shawarma, gyros and shish kebab as well as less common dishes like tzatziki, tahini and dolmades. ChickPita imparts a bit of the history of potentially unfamiliar and exotic dishes as well as some help with pronunciation.
Teaming tech-savvy originality with a consumer-friendly model and cuisine that has consistently thrived in small-scale urban restaurants, Timatyos says he is confident that ChickPita will emerge from the break-even stakes of the current recession with a fair chance of long-term success.
“Mediterranean food has no competition among today’s franchises,” Timatyos said. “It compliments every shopping center. Mom-and-pops are everywhere, but fast-casual Mediterranean is nowhere.”
