Atlanta-based Raving Brands Inc. already has an empire of 500 restaurants -- including Moe's Southwest Grill, Planet Smoothie, Mama Fu's Asian House and Doc Green's Gourmet Salads to name a few -- that do $250 million in annual sales.

Raving Brands soon will launch a barbecue concept (Shane's Rib Shack) and a fresh seafood chain (Bonehead's) as part of its lofty goal to reach $1 billion in gross sales by 2007. The company is opening an average of seven new stores per week, and will soon increase to 10 stores per week.

Raving Brands founder and CEO Martin Sprock also is doing research on two additional restaurant concepts, one with breakfast fare and the other with thin-crust pizza.

As with past restaurant chains he's created or bought, Sprock says his taste buds are usually the inspiration behind new concepts.

"We started with Planet Smoothie and when we got tired of smoothies all the time, we made Moe's. When we had eaten too many tacos and burritos, we made Mama Fu's. Then we wanted something a little lighter, so we made Doc Green's," Sprock said. "I'm a big eater and I like food with big tastes, but it has to be somewhat healthy and it has to be affordable, too."

The new restaurant brands will follow the lead of their predecessors by serving fresh food that's healthier than most fast-food restaurants. The barbecue and seafood chains will be slightly more expensive than other Raving Brands stores with average tickets in the $10 range.

Bonehead's will serve grilled fish and steamed vegetables plus a new dish called piri piri chicken, which is marinated with spices similar to Jamaican jerk seasoning and is hugely popular in Europe. Classics like clam chowder, boiled shrimp and fish and chips will also be sold.

Thanks to vacuum-pack technology that keeps seafood fresh without freezing it, Bonehead's can import fish and other seafood from all over the globe and still serve it fresh at a reasonable price point, said Sean Lupton-Smith, a franchisee who owns several Atlanta Bread Co. restaurants and is a partner in the Bonehead's venture.

"Nobody has done fresh fish successfully yet at this price point, and people still have this perception that seafood is very expensive," Lupton-Smith said. "It doesn't have to be that way. We can get it fresh and cook it the way you want for about $10."

Bonehead's is being designed with a nautical theme, and the menus will make pithy political jabs at both parties -- for example, one dish named after former Vice President Dan Quayle has the word "potato" spelled wrong.

The restaurant's first location will be in Roswell on Holcomb Bridge Road, with a second one planned for Buckhead. A dozen additional franchises are being considered right now, Sprock said.

Raving Brands' new barbecue concept was purchased a couple of months ago from Atlanta native Shane Thompson.

Thompson, a former medical equipment salesman, bought a little shack on Georgia 155 in McDonough a few years ago and served barbecued pork using a recipe from his grandfather, Dewey Brown.

Thompson called the place Shane's Rib Shack, and it soon grew to $1.8 million in sales with a second location in McDonough.

Sprock met Thompson through some mutual acquaintances and convinced him to franchise his restaurant and become a partner in the new venture. Raving Brands charges royalties of 5 percent (compared with most chains that charge 6 percent or 7 percent), and all but one store of each brand are owned by franchisees.

"We bought Shane's Rib Shack because we had to -- we loved the food and we wanted to share it with more customers," Sprock said.

New Shane's Rib Shack stores are being constructed in Locust Grove and on Jonesboro Road outside McDonough. Thompson still uses his grandfather's recipe for rubbing the pork with spices and seasonings, wrapping it and then smoking it for 10 hours. He has a sauce with hints of vinegar and mustard, and he's developing several new sauces for the chain.

"This is the hardest business I've ever been in, but also the most rewarding because people really enjoy and appreciate good food," Thompson said.

With companywide sales of $250 million, Raving Brands is just a few million dollars short of making the Top 100 list of U.S. franchise companies compiled by Chicago firm Technomic Inc.

The quick-casual segment is worth an estimated $20 billion (or about 12 percent) of the $153 billion restaurant industry.

And although fast-food still accounts for half of all restaurant business (or $75 billion), quick-casual is growing at a much stronger pace of 11 percent compared with 5 percent growth for the rest of the industry, according to Technomic.

"Fast casual seems to be just what the customer ordered," said Tom Miner, principal with Technomic. "It's better quality than fast food, it's better for you and the franchisees love it because customers are willing to spend a few extra bucks for it."

Restaurant analyst Scott Van Winkle, vice president with Boston-based Adams, Harkness & Hill Inc., noted that many consumers are working longer hours, which gives them more disposable income and makes them more inclined to get carry-out meals or take their families to quick-casual restaurants.

The obesity epidemic and increased focus on healthier eating has given a boost to the segment, he added, since most of the restaurants don't deep-fry their food and typically use more vegetables or lower-calorie condiments in their cooking.

"Once you get used to nicer sandwiches or upstream meals from these places, it's really hard to go back to plain old hamburgers," Van Winkle said.

Sprock hopes to capitalize on that consumer trend with Bonehead's and Shane's Rib Shack, and possibly the new pizza and breakfast concepts he's considering.

He says he'll keep adding new stores and developing new concepts as long as franchisees and customers want to buy, adding that Raving Brands signed more than 1,000 new franchise deals in 2004.

"We're having fun with it, and we're happy with where we are and what we're doing," Sprock said.

Source: American City Business Journals