Growth Chains: PDQGrowth Chains: PDQ

Alan Snel

The quick-service chicken segment may be packed with such heavy hitters as Chick-fil-A and Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen, but Bob Basham and Nick Reader say their new chicken concept’s focus on freshness will help it stand out in the competitive field.


Outback Steakhouse co-founder Basham and Reader, chief executive of Tampa, Fla.-based MVP Holdings, said they aim to blend the speed and efficiency of a quick-service restaurant with the quality and atmosphere of the casual-dining experience. 


Headquarters: Tampa, Fla.

Market segment: 
quick-service

Menu: chicken sandwiches, tenders, salads, fries and shakes

No. of units: first unit 
scheduled to open this month

Average check: $6.85

Method of growth: 
internal financing

Leadership: Bob Basham and Nick Reader, principal owners; Steve Erickson, president; John DeNapoli, vice president of operations
Year founded: 2011

Target Markets: Tampa, Fla.; Raleigh and Charlotte, N.C.
Website: www.eatpdq.com

The result is PDQ — an acronym for both “Pretty Darn Quick” and “People Dedicated to Quality” — which debuts in Tampa, Fla., this month. 


“We envisioned ourselves as QSR with a drive-thru, [but] with a casual-dining experience,” said Reader. “We will have an open kitchen. People will see the breading of the chicken. There are no walls. People will see no frozen foods or microwaves to zap foods.” 


Reader said he expects four more PDQ units to open in the Tampa Bay market and in the North Carolina cities of Charlotte and Raleigh in the next year. 


PDQ will focus on freshness and made-from-scratch foods, he added. Lettuce will be purchased from local farms, and salads will be made to order. Dipping sauces will be made fresh daily, and potatoes will be sliced into fries in the restaurants. 


Yet despite those upscale touches, the price point and speed of service at PDQ will be firmly rooted in the quick-service range. Chicken sandwiches will cost $3.95, while the sandwich or salad combo price point will be $6.95. PDQ will have a drive-thru, but no speaker system; orders will be taken face-to-face at the window.


According to Nancy Kruse, president of The Kruse Company and an NRN columnist, highlighting the quality of ingredients as well as sourcing and preparation methods is a smart move for quick-service and fast-casual chains.


In a speech at NRN’s annual Menu Trends & Directions conference recently, she cited a general trend toward quality foods and made-from-scratch preparation in the quick-service and fast-casual segments, noting the hand-scooped shakes and hand-breaded chicken at Carl’s Jr., as well as fresh-cut fries at In-N-Out Burger, Five Guys Burgers and Fries and Chick-fil-A. 


To emphasize the casual-dining feel, PDQ hired a Los Angeles designer and enlisted Steve Erickson, a former Outback senior vice president of operations, as PDQ president. The team chose several visual cues to reinforce an upscale QSR experience, including three forms of lighting, recycled woods and decorative touches such as old produce crates to conjure the image of fresh food. Costs to build and decorate the 3,500-square-foot Tampa restaurant were about $1 million.


Sales for the Tampa restaurant are projected to be $2 million in the first year, Reader said.


Nick Vojnovic, former president of the company that owns sports-pub chain Beef ‘O’ Brady’s and former chair of the Florida Restaurant Association, said Basham’s industry knowledge will serve PDQ well as it pursues its vision of upscale fast food.


“He’s going to do it right,” said Vojnovic, who is also a partner in the quick-service Little Greek concept in Tampa Bay. “He’s creating a high-end QSR niche. I passed the restaurant site last week and it looks great.”


The PDQ concept grew out of two years of research and sampling of chicken sandwiches from around the country. In the process, Basham and Reader became impressed with two-unit Tenders Fresh Food of Cornelius, N.C., which, like PDQ, features a small menu of made-from-scratch chicken dishes. MVP Holdings purchased the two Tenders locations, which will remain under that name and keep their existing decor even as PDQ grows.


Long-term growth for PDQ, which will be funded by MVP Holdings, will center on Tampa, Charlotte and Raleigh, but PDQ may eventually expand beyond those markets, Reader said. n



Contact Alan Snel at [email protected].