[ad_1]
On the subject of working a restaurant, taking part in on diners’ sense of nostalgia is all the time a very good wager. Currently we’ve been seeing any such advertising and marketing principally play out within the quick meals sphere, as discontinued items and promotional characters make their approach again to a menu close to you. However now, Eater reports {that a} as soon as fashionable sit-down restaurant is aiming to persuade us that its retro-chic delicacies is ideal for any night time of the week. That restaurant is The Melting Pot, and it needs to ensure you know its signature fondue is nice for sharing amongst pals or splitting together with your date.
The Melting Pot is aiming large in 2024
The Melting Pot was established in 1975 in Maitland, Florida, and since then it has centered on one factor: fondue. In the event you haven’t considered both this restaurant chain or fondue in a very long time, you’re not alone—I haven’t been out for fondue in many years. For me, the idea has all the time felt like a eating fad from earlier than I used to be born, a little bit of kitschy enjoyable however an total restricted gimmick.
However the evolution of eating traits isn’t the one motive The Melting Pot is combating for relevance in a contemporary restaurant panorama. If there was any kind of firm that acquired hit exhausting in the course of the pandemic, certainly it’s one designed for teams to collect in a confined area round a shared pot of cheese, which they will linger over and, in the event that they’re impolite, double-dip into.
In 2020, the corporate had simply began an initiative known as Melting Pot Evolution, a deliberate $30 million funding that may see redesigned eating rooms and an up to date menu. Then the pandemic started. Fondue isn’t precisely the perfect takeout meals, and the chain took a catastrophic hit in gross sales. However the firm caught to the scheduled renovations, and after these had been full, diners got here again in droves as soon as eating restrictions had been eased.
The Melting Pot nonetheless needs to be a spot for celebratory dinners and romantic dates alike, however it’s additionally been branching out into consumer packaged goods (in partnership with Omaha Steaks) so folks can attempt fondue at their very own eating room tables. The chain can also be providing hefty financial incentives to new and present franchisees that plan to open a brand new area.
If a franchisee commits to a brand new Melting Pot location and executes a lease inside a nine-month interval, they’ll solely pay $5,000 out of the standard $50,000 franchisee payment per unit (paid again as a rebate upon lease signing). If a franchisee manages to execute the lease inside six months, they’ll additionally pay a smaller royalty fee of three% to The Melting Pot for its first yr in operation.
This deal isn’t fairly as dramatic as, say, Boston Market’s current franchise strategy, however it definitely does point out some fairly excessive hopes for this yr and a powerful want to get fondue into extra markets. And who is aware of? With new menu objects, a more energizing look, and at-home kits accessible for buy on the grocery retailer, fondue would possibly simply enter (or re-enter) the typical diner’s common restaurant rotation.
[ad_2]
Source link