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Updated August 2006
UNIT DESIGN:
DRIVING AMBITION
By Janice Cha
A souped-up proto helps Quaker Steak & Lube rev its
expansion engines and “wing” its way into new markets.
Classic sports cars mounted above dining
tables. A vintage motorcycle slowly rotating in the air. Car
parts pressed into duty as décor and serving pieces. And
even, at one location, a retired 18-wheel tractor-trailer
parked atop the building’s reinforced roof.
Meet Quaker Steak & Lube, the
turbo-charged restaurant concept that’s pulling in motor
sport fans of all stripes—and their families—with equal
ease, thanks to a winning combo of menu (think wings),
over-the-top décor and continuous promotions.
Quaker Steak & Lube Franchising Corp. has
its pedal to expansion metal. The 20-unit, Sharon, Pa.-based
chain expects to open eight restaurants this year, followed
by eight more locations in 2007, and 10 the year after that.
This isn’t just another themed eatery,
though. These restaurants are generating some big bucks. A
typical “Lube” can makeup to $4.5 million in annual sales.
Systemwide, the chain generated $49 million in sales in ’05,
and is on track for $73 million in sales in ’06.
And there’s more to come. “We plan to
develop more than 60 franchised and company-owned locations,
and create a restaurant system with more than $260 million
in annual sales by the end of 2010,” says Lube Holdings
Chairman Michael Stack, who’s charged with overseeing the
chain’s franchise growth along with Development V.P. Andy
Gunkler.
QS&L restaurants currently operate in
seven states: home ground Pennsylvania, plus Florida, North
Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, West Virginia and Wisconsin.
Upcoming markets include Indiana and South Carolina.
Fueling the high-octane growth is a new
right-sized prototype, the first of which started
construction in April ’05 in Charleston, W.V. Two more
prototypes have since opened in State College, Pa., and
Milford, Ohio. More on the prototype later.
Meanwhile, 32 Years Ago...
Quaker Steak & Lube hasn’t just rolled up out of
nowhere. The concept got its start in 1974, created by a
couple of car buff friends who also ran restaurants. George
“Jig” Warren and Gary “Moe” Meszaros bought a vacant
automobile service station in Sharon, which they proceeded
to convert into an innovative cook-your-own steak
restaurant.
A couple years later, Moe and Jig added
Buffalo-style chicken wings to the menu, and sales started
to blaze. Today, Lube restaurants serve more than 40 million
wings annually, offer 16 bottled sauces for retail sale and
have nailed down a reputation for over-the-top motor-themed
atmosphere.
The Quaker Steak design has horsepower to
match the fiery sauces. From the outside, the buildings,
with their vintage globe-topped gasoline pumps and a name
that mimics a well-known motor oil, have persuaded more than
a few folks that a new service station has come to town. But
a 20-foot-tall yellow neon arrow saying “EAT,” plus the
diner-style neon trim and glowing glass block windows above
the entrance spell out the true intentions.
Inside, the space is divided into three
dining rooms, two of which are anchored by full-sized bars,
with a third full bar serving the patio dining area. There’s
also a retail sales area, a game room and a Wingo Window for
drive-through order pick-ups.
“The whole idea [of The Lube design] is to
have great, unique food in a fun, motor-themed package,”
Stack says.
Right-Sized At Last
All QS&L restaurants have the same components, but the
new 8,700-sq.-ft. prototype, which costs more than $1.2
million to build, is the layout that packages them into the
best-bang-for-buck footprint. The building design was
created by Walker Development, of Overland Park, Kan.; the
kitchen layout is the work of S.S. Kemp, Cleveland; and the
interior was handled by Juerg Schmid and Kathy Diamond, of
Kathy Diamond & Assoc. in Scottsdale, Ariz.
Reaching the magic square-foot number has
been a two-year process. An earlier restaurant, at 10,800
sq. ft. and with a 1,000-sq.-ft. loft and 350 indoor seats,
proved “too big and costly a building to develop,” Stack
says. Next they opened a smaller 8,200-sq.-ft. unit with 270
indoor seats in Charlotte, N.C., but soon felt cramped both
by the interior and parking. Going forward, all new
restaurants will follow the 8,700 sq. ft./300 indoor seats
and large patio design.
High-Octane Upgrades
The prototype includes plenty of efficiency tweaks, from
draft beer supplies for the three bars to kitchen expeditor
table to fryers.
On the bar front, the draft beer was
consolidated into one mega walk-in cooler with a network of
under-floor beer lines supplying the three bars. The beer
kegs are hooked up in series, so when one runs dry, the next
one kicks in. Also, the central ice machine was centrally
positioned to serve the three bars.
In the kitchen, order-filling speed gets a
boost by eliminating the double expeditor table/double
handling arrangement of larger Lubes, in which food would
first be placed on the chef’s counter, then moved to a
second table for plate assembly. The new prototype allows
all assembly to take place at the chef’s line.
Vertical space gets a full workout in the
prototype, too. Most of the kitchen walls tend to be filled
with shelves, racks or hooks to maximize storage space. The
prototype places coolers closer to the kitchen prep area for
convenient access, rather than near the back door as with
existing units.
Fried, Sealed and Delivered
The thing that keeps customers coming back, of course,
is the food. And since wings dominate the menu, it’s the
fryers that rule the kitchen equipment line-up.
In order to keep up with wing demand—which
averages 240 lbs. per hour, but leaps to 380 lbs. per hour
on all-you-can eat nights—kitchen designers opted for
high-efficiency fryers with a temperature-compensating
computer and faster recovery rates than their predecessors.
The new fryers allowed planners to reduce the number of
machines to five for wings and three for sides, compared to
the previous 10-plus machines for wings alone.
“The new fryers can hold up to the
production loads,” says Facilities Director Paul Lindemann.
Cooked chicken wings go into a temporary
holding station, a custom-made cabinet heated on top, bottom
and sides. The depth is shallow enough that cooks don’t
over-produce.
Then there’s the big frying oil question:
how to keep eight fryers filled with fresh shortening and
dispose of it afterwards. Under the old system, shortening
arrived in 35-lb. containers, two per fryer. An employee had
to physically pour it in. Used oil was drained and carried
out to the oil dumpster, where “you’d hope the employee was
a good aim,” Lindemann says.
Now, that unpopular task has been fully
automated. Behind the scenes are two 7’ high, 1,400-lb.
capacity tanks, one for fresh oil, the other for used. Pumps
push fresh shortening through lines running through the
ceilings into the fryers. Used oil is pumped back into a
holding tank. Both tanks have exterior hook-ups for the
vendor truck filling and disposal. The system has resulted
in “significant savings in labor and food costs,” Lindemann
says.
And Still More Equipment...
Burgers and quesadillas are cooked on two 4’ flat-top gas
grills. Nearby, a 4’ charbroiler is used for chicken, steaks
and ribs. A cutout shelf in front of the charbroiler holds
pans of toppings and keeps them hot at the same time.
Refrigerated storage below holds meats and vegetables until
needed. Other key pieces of kitchen equipment include a
slicer, a roast-and-hold oven, convection and microwave
ovens, a hot holding cabinet and a conveyor oven.
Because of the huge volume of chicken
wings processed daily, Lube kitchens have boosted food
safety in a couple of ways. One is a 7’ x 12’ dedicated
walk-in called the Chicken Cooler, which holds the 8,000-lb.
weekly chicken deliveries. The other is a custom-made
drainage sink located across from the wing fryers, fitted
with baskets in order to drain liquid that collects in the
Cryovac-sealed wing packages. A spray hose attachment makes
for easier clean-up.
Speaking of clean-up, the dishroom boasts
an energy-efficient 44” conveyor-style high-temperature
warewasher.
The warewasher uses 0.89 gallons per rack,
compared to the dishwashers at other Lubes, rated at 1.29
and 1.49 gallons per rack.
“Because of the building size and rising
material costs, anything we can do to reduce energy costs,
we have to take a look at,” Lindemann adds.
One popular feature that debuted 16 years
ago is the Wingo Window, in which customers can call ahead,
place an order and are given a specific time to drive by and
pick up their food.
“We have a few days each year—such as
Super Bowl Sunday—where the Wingo Window can generate more
than $10,000 a day at some restaurants,” Stack says.
In the new prototype, the Wingo Window has
been moved to the prep area so there will always be someone
available to service customers—without hiring a dedicated
staff person. In existing Lubes, by contrast, the pick-up
window and prep area are completely separate.
Cool Gear Revs Customers
Quaker Steak & Lube restaurants
practically vibrate with cool motor memorabilia. A lot of it
comes from the franchisees’ own collections. Other items
come from car and motorcycle manufacturers, local dealers
and even post-NASCAR season sales.
Motor parts are used in functional bar
design as well as decor. The Lube in Madison, Wis., for
example, runs its beer taps out of a custom manufactured
truck muffler enhanced with a laser-cut Corsa Performance
logo. Another Lube runs taps out of motorcycle gas tanks.
There are also footrests made of Corsa mufflers, menu
holders formed from exhaust system parts; the hostess
station created from the front of a car; and even an
appetizer featuring onion rings looped around a short
antenna. Kids meals are served in a fold-up cardboard
racecar.
It’s all part of the restaurant’s
philosophy. As Stack always tells folks, “It’s more fun to
eat in a saloon than to drink in a restaurant.” And that’s
the way it is at Quaker Steak & Lube.
QUAKER STATE STATS
MENU/SEGMENT:
Casual dining
NUMBER OF UNITS: 20 in
seven states
PROTOTYPE: 8,700 sq.
ft.; 300 seats + 100 patio seats
FF&E PACKAGE: $470,000
EXPANSION PLANS: 8
units in 2006; 8 in ’07
BUILDING DESIGN:
Walker Development, Overland Park, Kan.
KITCHEN DESIGN: S.S.
Kemp, Cleveland
BRANDING & INTERIOR DESIGN:
Juerg Schmid, Kathy Diamond, Phoenix
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