Schlotzsky’s: Unique sourdough makes sandwiches special

By SCOTT CHERRY World Scene Writer

Published: 5/24/2012  2:28 AM

I remember when Schlotzsky’s opened its first Tulsa store in the late 1970s, it seemed like a hip, funky place, well-suited for young adults and college students from the nearby University of Tulsa.

It was in a small building at 11th Street and Pittsburg Avenue, which today houses a Tacos Don Francisco.

I also thought the Schlotzsky’s original sandwich with the distinctive sourdough bread was unique and wonderful.

I recently visited two Schlotzsky’s locations – one in Broken Arrow to eat and one in Tulsa for an interview and photos – and found that original sandwich still rings my bell.

I ordered a medium ($4.99), plenty big enough for most appetites. It was loaded with smoked ham, Genoa and cotto salamis, melted cheddar, mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses, black olives, red onion, lettuce, tomato, mustard and a light dressing.

While the combination of flavors is pleasing, it really is the thick bread that makes the sandwich special.

I have a co-worker who goes ga-ga over Schlotzsky’s pizzas, so we ordered an 8-inch grilled chicken and pesto ($4.99), made with a thinner version of the sourdough bread.

I found I would prefer a more traditional pizza crust, but the toppings were impressive. They included big chunks of grilled chicken, mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses, basil pesto, green onions, black olives and tomatoes, and the pesto gave it a zingy flavor.

We also had a turkey avocado Cobb salad ($7.99) and a medium hand-carved turkey sandwich ($7.99), one of three special sandwiches that will run until June 1. The others are braised beef and mushrooms with fire-roasted vegetables, and hickory-smoked ham with havarti cheese, bacon and honey Dijon dressing.

Our roasted turkey sandwich also had havarti cheese, along with big slices of fresh avocado. We must have been on a turkey-avocado kick because they were in the salad that also included crisp mixed greens, chopped bacon, diced avocado, goat cheese, diced boiled egg, diced tomatoes, black beans and garlic focaccia croutons, topped off with a good house-made ranch dressing.

Schlotzsky’s has undergone some big changes over the past year or so, beginning with ownership. The Ramsey family sold their Oklahoma restaurants back to the corporation, Fancy Foods, according to Scott Mullen, manager of the 71st Street store. Shane Ramsey still is district manager over nine Tulsa- and Oklahoma City-area restaurants, and his brother, J.J., works in the Austin area, where Schlotzsky’s was founded in 1971.

All of the stores have been remodeled with a brighter, more modern look and have been co-branded with Cinnabon and Carvel ice cream, two other Fancy Foods properties. Cinnabon makes classic cinnamon rolls and pecan rolls.

“We open the drive-through at 8 a.m. for Cinnabon items and beverages,” Mullen said. “And ice cream sales are picking up with the warmer weather. Having the three brands in one spot has been popular.”

Source: Tulsa World

Schlotzsky’s headed for Stillwater

By Ricky O’Bannon

For Bryan & Mia Whitfield, doing what you love means getting into the business of sandwiches.

Stillwater was once home to the sandwich chain Schlotzsky’s, and Bryan said he and his wife fell in love with the brand. Once it closed, that wouldn’t stop the family from driving for an hour or more to satisfy cravings for what he called a very “unique sandwich.”

“We would get the whole family together and drive to the Oklahoma City or Tulsa area for Schlotzsky’s,” Whitfield said.

The couple have lived in Stillwater since 1989 after moving back to the city where they graduated from Oklahoma State University. Earlier this month, the Whitfields signed a franchise agreement with the company to open six Schlotzsky’s stores in Oklahoma, including one in their hometown.

Whitfield said he plans on opening the Stillwater location by the end of 2012 before later opening stores in Owasso, Enid, Lawton, Bartlesville and Ardmore.

The Stillwater location has a tri-branding deal, meaning it will also offer Cinnabon products and Carvel, an ice cream brand that has traditionally been offered on the East Coast.

“That allows us three draws instead of one,” he said. “You’ve got folks who are very passionate about Cinnabon who might be introduced to Schlotzsky’s for the first time and (vice versa).”

Whitfield said the location of the store is still being finalized. The restaurant will employ approximately 45 people in Stillwater.

After word got out about the chain coming back, Whitfield said, he’s heard from a number of people who told him they were happy to see Schlotzsky’s in Stillwater again.

“We weren’t the only ones who had a passion for the sandwich, ” he said. “We’re obviously very excited at the response so far, and we’re very excited to bring this to Stillwater.”

Source: Stillwater NewsPress

Schlotzsky’s-Cinnabon in Moore, OK opens today!

We are open in Moore! We have sandwiches, wraps, salads and Cinnabon! Stop by and enter to win an iPad and a life-size statue of Yoda from Star Wars. Quite the Schlotzsky’s fan, he is!

 

631 SW 19th Street, Moore, OK

 

FOCUS Brands grows tri-branded locations

April 5, 2011 | By Ron Ruggless

While co-branded restaurants have become commonplace over the past decade or so, Focus Brands is going a step further and expanding its Schlotzsky’s/Cinnabon/Carvel tri-branded units.

The triple branding model is not entirely new. Dunkin’ Donuts tri-branded with Baskin Robbins and then-sibling chain Togo, and Kahala Corp. has nestled its Cold Stone Creamery and Great Steak brands with Tim Horton’s. In addition, Tricon Global, which later was renamed as Yum! Brands, in 1998 tested a tri-brand Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and KFC unit in Carrollton, Texas.

Focus Brands, however, has beyond the test phase, with 17 tri-branded units operating and more are on the way.

“The first from-the-ground-up tri-brand was in Midland, Texas,” said Kelly Roddy, president of Austin, Texas-based Schlotzsky’s. The tri-brand units cover the same 2,800-square-foot building that a stand-alone Schlotzsky’s would, he added.

“The real estate costs are the same,” Roddy said. “The obvious reasons are you can get three brands into the same square footage with one manager’s salary, one rent, one utilities. The unit-level economics is great when you are only talking about the additional costs of pieces of equipment.”

The advantage for the operator is getting incremental business in non-peak hours. “You have a dining room that fills up at lunch, gets a little busy at dinner,” Roddy explained. “But you have these snack dayparts where traditional restaurants find themselves pretty empty, in that 2 to 4 [p.m.] range. We find a lot more people coming in to have a cup of coffee or a Cinnabon, or grab an ice cream after lunch or dinner. It fills in the gaps really nice for us.”

Dan Quintana, who created LotzFresher Delis of El Paso, Texas, and plans to open his first of seven stores in the El Paso and New Mexico area in summer, said, “It’s a great opportunity to have three concepts under the same roof.

“It gives me the opportunity to serve my customer better. And a happy customer will keep coming back,” he added.

Quintana plans to position his stores in shopping center end caps, allowing for drive-thrus.

“Because of the Cinnabon inclusion, we probably will open at least the drive-thru early for coffee and Cinnabon,” he said. “Schlotzsky’s doesn’t have an extensive breakfast menu. Some franchisees do serve the limited menu.” Stores generally open at 11 a.m. for lunch, and Quintana foresees the possibility of opening at 7 a.m. or 8 a.m.

Roddy said Schlotzsky’s plans to continue its co-branding with Cinnabon as well. “We have slightly more than 100 Schlotzsky’s-Cinnabon co-brand units,” he said. “By the end of this year, I’m expecting we’ll have, on the low end, 160 co-brands to 190 or 200.” Schlotzsky’s currently has 370 units.

Prospective tri-brand franchisee do have to negotiate three different franchise agreements, Roddy said. “That’s the only real complexity. Otherwise, it’s still one operational unit.

Focus Brands is an affiliate of Roark Capital Croup, the private-equity firm in Atlanta, and also owns the Moe’s Southwest Grill restaurant brand.

Source: Nation’s Restaurant News

Schlotzsky’s goes for triple-brand score in midtown

The company behind seven Oklahoma Schlotzsky’s restaurants opened a tri-branded Schlotzsky’s on the northeast corner of 41st Street and Yale Avenue on March 7, with plans to bring five more stores to the Tulsa market by 2011.

“We’ve been looking for a location in this area since 1996,” said Shane Ramsey, director of operations at the new Schlotzsky’s.

With his family and partners J.J. Ramsey and Tina Harris, Ramsey also heads up RAM-Z LLC, the company that operates the other seven Schlotzsky’s restaurants, including three in the Tulsa area.

The new location reflects the recent rebranding of the deli sandwiches chain, which is often co-branded with the Cinnabon and Carvel concepts, all of which are products of Atlanta-based operator and franchisor FOCUS Brands. These new stores are dubbed the “Lotz Better” Schlotzsky’s locations.

On the menu are 15 sandwiches, all served on round buns that supply the basis for what Ramsey called “bun humor,” a theme in the rebranding of the fast-casual concept that he said brings fun to the atmosphere.

“We were the first Schlotzsky’s to do a million (dollars a year in revenue),” Ramsey said. “In our first year, we did $1.2 million. Now, the plan is to increase volume at this new store to $2 million.”

Breakfast sandwiches, wraps, gourmet pizzas, salads and soups are on the menu, too. Cinnamon rolls from Cinnabon and soft-serve ice cream from Carvel round out the breakfast and dessert options, allowing the new concept to offer all three meals — the only Schlotzsky’s to do so.

Construction on the restaurant, which measures 3,100 SF and offers a 66-seat patio, began late last year. Ramsey said he has already hired 80 for the opening, three times the staff at his other stores.

Schlotzsky’s continues to target markets in the southern, south-central and western U.S., where the company seeks deals with multiunit developers. With 350 locations now in operation worldwide, Schlotzsky’s president Kelly Roddy said in a release that he plans to open as many as twice that number of stores by 2015.

Ramsey said he’s looking to expand his own holdings in the Schlotzsky’s brand by five stores within the next four years.

“We’ve been looking in west Tulsa, Catoosa, Claremore and downtown Tulsa,” Ramsey said.

Hours at the new Schlotzsky’s location in Tulsa are 6 a.m. to midnight, seven days a week.

Source: Tulsa Business

Schlotzsky’s to open new location, plans five more

Schlotzsky’s will open its first rebranded location in Tulsa on March 7. The restaurant is on the corner of 41st Street and Yale Avenue at 4905 E. 41st St., in the Reasors parking lot. Nearly 30 jobs will be added to the local economy as a result.

In addition, plans are in the works to add five additional stores in the region by 2015.

The new restaurant was built with Schlotzsky’s rebranding efforts in mind, which include a new design, deal with Cinnabon and Carvel and new service model where crew members hand-deliver food to the tables.

“With our addictive recipes, upbeat surroundings and funny sayings, we’re adding tremendous flavor to the Tulsa quick-casual dining scene,” said Shane Ramsey, director of operations for the new Schlotzsky’s in Tulsa. “It’s hard not to smile when you walk into our bright new restaurants, smell the dough baking and see how much fun we have with ‘bun humor.’ Tulsa is in for a real treat.”

Schlotzsky’s offers sandwiches, wraps, pizzas, salads and soups, as well as a number of desserts, including Cinnabon and Carvel products.

“With all of the new elements that enhance the Schlotzsky’s experience, we stay true to our roots by offering only the highest quality fresh ingredients and baking our sourdough bread from scratch every day,” said Kelly Roddy, president. “We are truly excited to give Tulsa a taste of the ‘Lotz Better’ Schlotzsky’s.”

Source: Tulsa Business Journal

Some Players Still Sidelined in Lending Game

By Emily Maltby – November 4, 2010

Banks have slowly begun to increase their lending to small companies. But generally, only the strongest of firms – those that tend to be larger, with cash and collateral on hand – are receiving loans and lines of credit.

Many of the top small-business banks issued more new loans to small companies in the third quarter. Wells Fargo & Co., for instance, issued $3.9 billion, up from $3.3 billion in the same quarter last year. Bank of AmericaCorp. extended $5.7 billion to small firms, up from $4.1 billion last year, while J.P. Morgan Chase Co. lent $2.7 billion in its last quarter, up 42% from $1.9 billion.

However, much of the money is going to the “big” small businesses, banks say.

“The larger the business, the better they are doing,” says Kathie Sowa, who handles small-business credit at Bank of America, which last month announced plans to hire 1,000 bankers to work with small-business clients.

Meanwhile, the smallest companies—those with less than $1 million in annual revenue—”are not recovering at the same pace,” she says.

In the first six months of 2010, small businesses that reported the greatest success in winning financing had positive revenue growth, a five-year track record or had used 2008 profits to finance themselves during the credit crunch, according to a survey released last month by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Banks also say they’re paying more attention to the health of a company’s industry.

Regions Financial Inc., for example, is lending primarily to professional practices such as physicians, veterinarians, and accountinglaw and engineering firms, which don’t depend on discretionary consumer spending. The bank has become “aggressive” in “fishing where the fish are,” according to John Asbury, head of business services at Regions in Birmingham, Ala.

That’s placed companies like Efficient Lighting Corp., a Buena Park, Calif., maker of energy-efficient light bulbs and light fixtures, in a sweet spot when it comes to securing credit. The four-year-old company, which powered through the recession thanks to tax incentives and government subsidies directed toward the green industry, expects annual revenue of $4 million this year.

Efficient Lighting secured a $500,000 credit line in March and an SBA-guaranteed real-estate loan for a $3.4 million industrial building in August from Bank of America.

“You need money to grow,” says Vu Thai, the company’s president. “When I got the line, I could increase inventory. And I could bridge time between client payments.”

On the other end, Shane Ramsey, president of seven Schlotzsky’s restaurants in Oklahoma, says he was denied financing by five national and regional banks as he tried to open an eighth franchise in Tulsa.

Mr. Ramsey says banks are being too picky about borrowers’ revenue and industry. While his combined revenue is about $8 million, each of his restaurants generate only around $1.2 million. And size wasn’t the only deterrent, he says. “When we pressed them for a reason, their only excuse was, ‘We’re not lending to the restaurant industry.’”

A few months ago, Mr. Ramsey stopped trying to woo the banks and instead found private investors to help with the start-up costs. He anticipates the restaurant will open in January.

Banks say they are simply being cautious, as finding credit-worthy borrowers —no matter a company’s size or industry—is still a challenge. According to the Federal Reserve data, demand remains strong—59% of business owners tried to get financing in the first half of the year—but applicant quality has weakened.

Marc Bernstein, who heads the small-business division at Wells Fargo, says that the broadest problem in trying to extend credit is that business owners are still trying to pay off debt they accrued prior to the recession.

“I don’t want to hear anybody tell me banks don’t want to make small-business loans,” he says.

“We are really stretching as far as we can prudently stretch to approve as many as we can. We have an obligation to make sure they are repaid.”

Banks say they’re not ignoring the smallest businesses. At Bank of America, Ms. Sowa says the new bankers will be actively recruiting the smallest of businesses—not necessarily to extend credit, but instead to process their deposits and help manage their cash flow. That way, when they become ready for a loan or line of credit, the banking relationship will already be well-established, she says.

Source: The Wall Street Journal

Carvel to Give Away FREE Ice Cream September 23rd!

Come by any time on Thursday for a Junior cup or cone of soft-serve ice cream

AUSTIN, TEXAS  – Schlotzsky’s-Carvel cobrand locations are celebrating you – our wonderful fans – with FREE ice cream September 23^rd!  Come celebrate fall with a Junior cup or cone of our delicious soft-serve ice cream at no charge.  Consider it a scoop of thanks for your year-round support!

EVENT: FREE Junior cup or cone of soft-serve ice cream*

DATE: All day, Thursday, September 23

LOCATIONS: Schlotzsky’s – Carvel cobrand locations in the following cities-

Athens, GA;  Atlanta, GA;  Austin, TX;  Brea, CA;  Cedar Park, TX;  Fort Worth, TX;   Granbury, TX;  Lexington, SC;  Mesa, AZ;  San Antonio, TX;  Tulsa, OK;  Tuscaloosa, AL

*Free Junior cup or cone is 3 oz. size. Not valid with any other offer. Offer good  only on September 23, 2010 at participating Schlotzsky’s-Carvel cobrand locations.

Schlotzsky’s Hits the Road with Route 66 Promotion

Austin, TX (May 31, 2010) – Pack your bags and hit the road this summer with Schlotzsky’s Route 66 promotion, now through August 29. For the first time, we’re putting together a two-part promotion centered around famous stops along the historic Route 66 highway.

Part one of the promo features three sandwiches that will take you through the first leg of the tour, making their way from Chicago, through Tulsa, and on to Albuquerque. Part two will start in the fall and finish out the trip down Route 66, heading through New Mexico and California. But first we have a grand summer adventure planned with our three Route 66 sandwiches, which feature large portions of premium meats.

The first stop along this American highway is the Windy City Pastrami & Swiss, with slices of top-quality pastrami and Swiss cheese with Dijon mustard, served on our dark rye bread.

Next up is the Tulsa Two-Step Angus Beef & Cheddar, featuring Angus roast beef, crispy bacon strips, cheddar cheese and red onions topped with hickory BBQ sauce and served on Schlotzsky’s signature Fresh-from-Scratch^® sourdough buns.

And rounding out this historic trip is the Albuquerque Turkey, with smoked turkey breast and crispy bacon strips, cheddar, mozzarella and Parmesan cheeses layered with fire-roasted vegetables, shredded lettuce and chipotle mayonnaise and served on our kickin’ jalapeño cheese buns.

“This is a very unique promotion for us in that we’re serving three sandwiches, each with various meats and cheeses, which gives us a real variety for the flavor profile,” said President Kelly Roddy.  “With generous portions of high-quality cuts of pastrami, Angus beef and smoked turkey, everyone is sure to find a sandwich they love with the Route 66 promotion.”

Schlotzsky’s targets Oklahoma for Cinnabon-linked expansion

SIX STORES ARE PLANNED IN OKLAHOMA CITY AND ONE IS UNDER WAY IN TULSA

April 30 (The Oklahoman) – Schlotzsky’s is working on a sweet new image.

The fast-casual sandwich chain has recently signed on a new franchisee to open six new stores in Oklahoma City. All the new locations will partner with Cinnabon, a co-branding effort by Focus Brands, which owns both restaurant concepts.

Locations for the new Oklahoma City Schlotzsky’s have yet to be announced, but company president Kelly Roddy said the first is expected to open later this year. Read more.

Source: The Oklahoman