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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

Can Catering Work for Customized Dishes?

PizzaRev is dishing up a new recipe for business: catering. With the new service, large groups can pick from the same menu of pizza, salads and desserts that the Studio City-based fast-casual chain has in its stores. But isn’t the company known for its on-the-spot, quick-service creations? Well, yes, but company co-founder Nicholas Eckerman explained that many other fast-casual concepts have expanded into catering – and many of them like Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. have done so rather successfully. PizzaRev is hoping customers will see that its catered offerings are still unique. “We have a set menu for the ease of order and people looking for an easy process, but we also have the option of individualized orders,” Eckerman said. Catering is now available in two locations, El Segundo and midtown Los Angeles. It should be hitting the Valley and remaining locations in the next couple of months. Eckerman expects catering will add 8 percent to revenue. “A catering program usually stems from excess production capacity, sometimes from a need to increase revenue,” said Jerry Prendergast, restaurant consultant with Prendergast & Associates in Culver City. According to Eckerman, PizzaRev is catering because of consumer demand. “We had a lot of large parties asking for delivery or for us to cater an event,” he said. Selling Expertise Microsoft Corp. has long been competing with Apple Inc., and now they’re battling it out in the San Fernando Valley. Microsoft opened an outlet at The Oaks in Thousand Oaks last month, and the Redmond, Wash.-based tech giant will open in Westfield Topanga soon. Microsoft now has a total of five full-line and specialty stores, or kiosks, in the greater Los Angeles area, including the newly opened Oaks kiosk and another at the Glendale Galleria. “We are getting good feedback from our customers who have had an opportunity to experience the store for themselves,” said spokeswoman Anne Yeh, in an email. “They especially appreciate having direct access to Microsoft expertise.” No date has been set for Topanga, but the company said the full-line store will be 1,025 square feet and employ about 25 to 30. The Valley shops are moving into malls that already have Apple stores. Microsoft has kept pretty tight-lipped about its stores’ financial performance, but analyst Norman Young with Morningstar Inc. in Chicago does not believe the stores are currently profitable. He said they are all part of Microsoft’s ultimate goal to build a presence in the mobile device market while getting users to focus on its more profitable products such as Office, Outlook and Skype. “In the short term, we do not expect Microsoft stores to outperform Apple stores,” Young said. “We believe Microsoft is continuing to roll out stores and kiosks, but this is a longer-term strategy that may take a few years.” Polo Presence Another global chain, U.S. Polo Association, was established in 1890, but it is only now making an appearance in the Valley. The New York retailer just opened in the Northridge Fashion Center, and it is slated to open at the Glendale Galleria in mid-August. “Northridge is a great mall,” said U.S. Polo spokesperson Bob Ross. “We have a very extensive outlet business in California, so it’s been an easy transition for us.” Ross said that customer reception of the 3,500-square-foot Northridge store so far has been strong. Retail analyst Neil Stern, senior partner with Chicago’s McMillan Doolittle Retail Consultants, noted that because it is a classic brand, Polo should perform reasonably well financially. “The mall average (for sales) in the U.S. is around $350 to $400 per square foot, so I suspect they are getting close to those numbers,” he said. Dog Days Expansion Gourmet hot dog company Dog Haus, formerly only in Pasadena, opened in Canoga Park in June, and it will open in Burbank and Thousand Oaks by the end of summer. “It’s been an exciting past few months for us, and we are so grateful for the opportunity to bring Dog Haus to these communities throughout Southern California,” said Dog Haus Partner Andre Vener, in a statement. Dog Haus has hired Culinary Director Michael Brown to oversee operations. Brown previously worked as a chef for major companies such as Google Inc. and Nike Inc. Staff Reporter Stephanie Forshee can be reached at (818) 316-3121 or [email protected].

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