Doug Strickland, owner of Eno and wineshop Barrelman, sold the two concepts in August to Atlanta Hawks center Zaza Pachulia. Strickland and his wife opened Eno in 1999. The new chef is Eli Kirshtein who was a contestant on the show “Top Chef.”

Strickland is now consulting for restaurants and wine collectors.  Looking at the longer term, he plans to get into the food and beverage import/export business.

September 14 and 15, 2009 at the Hyatt Regency Wasington on Capitol Hill.

Cowtippers in Midtown Atlanta recently renovated their kitchen. Open since 1993, the restaurant completely gutted and rebuilt with new infrastructure and equipment installed. The team installed a new floor, counters, coolers and freezers, and also expanded the bar by 10 seats, added a new backdrop with shelving mirrors, and added a soffet for liquor bottle storage.In addition, the restaurant introduced a new menu focusing on high quality, creative and affordable burgers. Cowtippers is owned by Metrotainment Cafes, Inc.

September 13 at Nuevo Laredo Cantina. For more information, call 404-350-9800.

September 11-13, 2009, Orlando, FL, www.flrestaurantandlodgingshow.com.

September, 2009

Not too long ago, D and A Farm in Zebulon, GA, was the go-to place to get highly prized, pasture-raised chicken right here in Georgia.

Dave and Amy Bentoski processed about 3,000 birds a year – not a mountain of birds, but enough to satisfy his farmers’ market customers, who paid around $3.50 a pound, and his wholesale customers who paid around $2.70 or $2.80 a pound.

Georgia is the No. 1 producer of conventional chicken broilers in the country, so there’s plenty of chicken producers out there. But, like other meats, the locavore and free-range organic movement has made pasture- raised poultry a very hot commodity.

Many health-conscience consumers want to avoid the growth supplements that allow conventional producers to raise a chick to a slaughter-size chicken in half the time it takes Mother Nature to do it.

Likewise, many taste-conscience chefs want to serve a bird whose meaty muscles were actually used.

For a while, D and A Farm was one of the few games in town that sold such birds.

That’s a great position to be in, especially if you’re a first generation farm that grew from a front yard garden into a 10-acre certified organic operation in a mere three years, while building up one of the state’s largest community-supported agriculture (CSA) subscription bases in the state.

“We couldn’t even come close to satisfying the demand that was out there,” Dave Bentoski says. “We can raise, conservatively, demand-wise we could quadruple or even quintuple our annual production to 12,000 to 15,000 birds a year, and I don’t think we’d still come close to satisfying demand.”

But last spring, D and A Farm sold its last batch of pasture chickens. Georgia agriculture policies forced Bentoski to drive to Bowling Green, KY, which is a seven-hour trip one way, for processing.

“So, we made the determination to stop doing chickens, as much as we didn’t want to and as much as our customers didn’t want us to,” said Bentoski. “It’s just not sustainable for us anymore.”

Sources for sustainably raised vegetables and red meat – beef, pork and lamb – are readily available to restaurants and consumers and have fueled the increase in sustainable and organic farms, farmers’ markets and CSA programs.

Poultry raised on pasture is a sustainable means of producing chicken, one that does not lend itself to the large-scale volumes typified by conventional producers.

As an add-on product, for small-scale sustainable and organic farms, pasturing uses relatively little farm labor or infrastructure for a high-value product, thereby increasing farm incomes and improving rural economies.

Just as important, chicken manure is an important and valuable byproduct that increases the farm’s soil fertility and improves vegetable production.

Without it, Bentoski has to make some hard adjustments.

“I no longer have the benefit of their [chicken] droppings, and they were great at pecking up everywhere and helping to breakdown pests,” he says. “I’m definitely having to look at my fertility practices again. It’s something I have to account for now in my planning – how do I replace that manure that the chickens put down?”

The heart of the issue here is what roadblocks exist that make it difficult to raise a product for which there is such high demand?

Consumers have been conditioned to expect cheap chicken, but the relatively low price of conventional chicken is made possible by huge economics of scale; conventional processing facilities, for example, can slaughter 400 birds per minute.

The only legal solution currently available to Georgia’s farmers is to transport their chickens to an out-of-state USDA-inspected processing facility, and bring them back into the state for sale. The closest facilities are located in South Carolina and Kentucky. Most farmers find this distance too far to drive due to the cost of fuel and the stress the long trip causes their livestock.

In fact, there are a number of roadblocks for small-scale farmers who want to raise quality chickens in natural ways, most stemming from raw economics and bizarre bureaucratic policies.

Here’s the main problem: Decades ago, the USDA created rules for the safe handling and processing of poultry processing, one of which required an inspector be on site at the processing plant.

But the USDA rule also allowed for exemptions for smaller farmers, allowing them to slaughter and process on farm up to 20,000 birds a year.

However, when the state of Georgia chose to adopt the USDA rules, it struck the smallfarm exemption.

The odd thing about that move is almost half of the country’s states accept the small farm exemption.

“One of the jobs at the Georgia Department of Agriculture is to guarantee food safety, and I understand that,” Bentoski says. “But that argument falls on deaf ears because there’s 20-something other states where it’s perfectly legal to use that [USDA] exemption and process on farm, up to 20,000 birds a year.”

To address the many challenges that stand in the way of a thriving pasture-poultry industry, the Pastured Poultry Working Group formed in 2008 for producers interested in raising pastured poultry to elevate their collective profile with regulators as they work to create processing solutions for small-scale producers.

“Creating a processing solution that’s economically viable and also fits within regulatory guidelines is the current challenge,” says Suzanne Welander, founder of the Pastured Poultry Working Group.

“In addition to overhauling state policy, we also need small business owners to develop the type of facilities that can fill this void,” says Georgia Organics Executive Director Alice Rolls. “It’s an obvious economic development opportunity for an investor to kick-start an industry for which we know the demand is incredibly high. Imagine what a Georgia-based processor dedicated to local, sustainable pasture poultry producers would do for local economies across the state.”

Plus, the economic development tools that state and local governments use to lure manufacturing, processing and other industries to Georgia, such as tax breaks, tax credits and lease backs, could easily be used to enable the formation of a public-private partnership that would lead to the construction of a processing center.

Not only that, but those same economic development tools could be used to incentive the spread of pasture poultry farms – a critical need since pasture poultry farming has been discouraged by state policies.

For now, the state is stuck in a classic “the chicken or the egg” conundrum.

September, 2009

By Debby Cannon, Ph.D., CHE, Director, Cecil B. Day School of Hospitality, Robinson College of Business, Georgia State University

Today’s manager oversees a workforce of multiple generations, which can present interesting opportunities in adapting one’s management style. Flexibility is certainly a valuable asset in this age-diverse environment as well as an understanding that “one style does not fit all” in today’s business world. This article will briefly describe predominate generational characteristics as well as implications for the workplace. Key people, events or trends are indicated for each generation because these factors contributed to the value system, including work values, for that particular age group.

Now close to their mid-60s and older, the mature generation was born before 1946. This generation grew up with the “golden age of radio,” Tarzan, the Lone Ranger, Joe DiMaggio and World War II. They were close enough to the Great Depression that they felt it – directly or indirectly – through parents and other family members. This generation contains many who have retired but also is comprised of a large percentage emerging from retirement to work again or who are delaying retirement for a variety of reasons, including financial need.

The mature generation tends to respect authority and hard work. Rules are to be adhered to, according to this generation, and they tend to avoid challenging the system. Delayed gratification is not a form of torture for the matures, since many believe patience is its own reward. This generation has played a formative role in the success of many businesses, including those in the restaurant industry. Their technological skills may be more limited than younger generations, but these employees tend to be known for their reliability, dependability, knowledge and awareness of the organization’s history.

The largest employee generation, the baby boomers, now range in age from the mid-40s to early 60s. This generation’s formative influences ranged from Captain Kangaroo to the Vietnam War. If this generation had a slogan it might be “Live to work.” Generally optimistic, baby boomers are team oriented and tend to be focused on health and wellbeing. From a consumer standpoint, as this generation ages, terms such as the “senior menu” and “senior citizen discounts” will not be accepted kindly. The baby boomers perceive themselves to be ageless, and retirement, if it occurs at all, will probably involve career changes and not absence of work.

As employees, this generation will probably be in the workforce longer than they ever imagined because of the recent losses in long-term investments. The baby boomers as well as the matures tend to be characterized by long-term commitment to their employers. Passage through the “paying your dues” phases of their careers is proudly detailed to younger employees and sometimes “worn” as a badge of honor.

Generation X, ranging from mid-40s to late 20s in age, grew up with more technology in their homes and schools than previous generations. Microwaves, VCRs and computers were a way of life along with The Brady Bunch and The Simpsons as regular television choices. Gen X employees tend to think globally, are self-reliant and pragmatic. Preferring informality, they value diversity and expect to find fun in the workplace. Their timeframe tends to vary significantly in terms of expecting faster results, including career advancement. Whereas their predecessors followed the career ladder, Generation X and younger employees prefer the “career escalator,” sometimes to the chagrin of older supervisors and managers.

The Millennial Generation, who grew up with cell phones, the Internet, virtual pets and the Spice Girls, now range in age from 12 to 25. As a demographic group, the millennial generation is the most diverse group of our time. With this diversity often comes the ability to speak at least two languages and, in many cases, multiple languages. It also includes a global perspective of having lived or traveled outside of the United States.

This generation brings to the workplace advanced technological abilities. After all, this is the generation that, on average, learns four to five new software programs each year. Millennials rely on the immediacy of technology because that is all they have known. Through technology, this is the generation that will most probably advance our industry beyond what anyone could even imagine today. The potential of this generation, in adding its creative, global techno-savvy abilities to restaurants and foodservice companies, is immense.

The reality for the restaurant and foodservice industry is that all of the described generations are important for business success. Although work values differ, opportunities exist for bringing out the best in each generation. The millennials and Gen X employees will not have the long-term commitment of the older generations. They are eager to learn, wanting to expand their knowledge and skill base as quickly as possible, so they can move on to the next exciting and challenging opportunity. Encompassing many of our industry’s executives and leaders, the mature and baby boom generations have the opportunity to share their knowledge and skills with the younger generations. These mentoring and coaching roles can be extremely rewarding in “giving back” to the industry.

The desire for learning and growing among the younger work set is combined with their expectation to also contribute right away and to have freedom in making decisions. The typical millennial employee and younger Generation X worker want to have clear and consistent expectations in advance and, once given, want to hit the ground running. Their desire for rapid autonomy can be challenging for employers in thinking of useful ways for them to “spread their wings.” Special projects can often offer opportunities to make good use of the younger workers’ talents (technology, language skills, global experiences) that can benefit the restaurant and energize the employee.

Many of the younger workers in today’s society have never fully experienced the feeling of community – even within their family structure. Bringing together different generations – those focused on developing others and those centered on preparing for their own future career opportunities – can provide beneficial support for all ages and for the restaurant’s operation.

September, 2009

By Michelle Duke

“A chef who cares enough about the food to guard its character with psychotic tendencies,” says Liam’s Restaurant’s website. A fitting description for Chef Scott Foster, whose enthusiasm for the artistry of food resonates in the keen focus he places on finding the finest sustainably sourced ingredients for Liam’s Restaurant’s seasonal menu.

Chef Foster’s passion for food has led him to Thomasville’s historic downtown district, where he and his wife, Rhonda, have operated Liam’s Restaurant since 2002.

Digging Up a Passion for Food

The road to Thomasville started like many in the industry, with a job washing dishes at a southwest Florida resort when he was 18.

“I went to work there, and I was simply amazed by watching the chefs – just the energy and the whole feel of the restaurant itself was just completely amazing,” he says. “It just sucked me in. Right then and there I knew I wanted to do it.”

After working in the industry for four more years, he completed a food management degree at Charlotte Technical Institute in Port Charlotte, FL. He went on from there to complete an apprenticeship with the American Culinary Federation.

“I did a three-year apprenticeship program and studied under certified chefs,” he says. “I had to have 6,000 hours of on-the-job training to go through the program.”

Chef Foster’s skills were honed even more in Boca Grande, FL, the small township of the exclusive Gasparillo Island. While on the island, he continued  to develop his passion for superior ingredients.

“It really helped out. Since they got top dollar for their food, they were always able to bring in the prettiest ingredients.”

Having worked mainly in seafood in the early stages of his career, Chef Foster struggled at first to find his individual culinary style.

“I had to dig deep and find out who I was as a chef and which way I really wanted to go,” he recalls. “What I found out was I really enjoyed more of the smaller farmto- table-style cookery – sourcing from not only just local, but also from small farms across the country.”

Knowing exactly where his produce comes from and what goes into his meats was part of the allure.

“I was able to look at how they were raising the animals and the ingredients that were going back into the animals. It was just, to me, a gorgeous product,” he says. “It took a lot more weight off my shoulders as a chef because the ingredients already have so much going on.”

With this philosophy in mind, Chef Foster focuses on creating dishes with a simple plate at Liam’s Restaurant, which is named after his son. He believes in using only four or five ingredients at the most, allowing each component to speak for itself.

“I try not to manipulate the ingredients into something it would never be,” he says. “I always refer to a saying, ‘you can turn food into garbage, but you can’t take garbage and turn it into food.’ As a chef, there is always so much you can do to certain ingredients, but you’re never going to get past a certain point.

“By buying these ingredients that are just phenomenal, I’m able to bring [the dishes] up to a whole other level. At the same time, I have to represent those ingredients and not destroy them – and that’s so easy to do as well.”

Cooking in Thomasville

When he opened Liam’s Restaurant, Chef Foster and Rhonda, who also has an extensive background in the restaurant industry, decided they were at the point in their lives where they wanted to run a restaurant on their own.

“We wanted to be completely owneroperators, completely hands on,” he says. “I’m a working chef, and I really love being on the line. I come in at 7 o’clock every morning and I don’t get out of here sometimes until 11 at night.”

The interior of Liam’s Restaurant has a homey atmosphere and was designed to keep the charm of the building’s early 1900s character. Local artwork is displayed on the walls, which is an appropriate companion to the artistry of Chef Foster’s seasonal dishes that he creates in an open kitchen.

“The open kitchen allows the customer to see us working, so they can look into the kitchen and ask questions,” he says. “It creates more of that intimacy between the customer, the chef and the guys in the kitchen.”

At Liam’s Restaurant, Chef Foster focuses on seasonal menus created from small artisanal producers and serves only sustainably sourced organic foods. He keeps a very small menu but makes subtle changes – sometimes every week – depending on the seasonality of the ingredients.

“Right now, the local blueberries have just tapered out, but we’ve got the local figs coming in season. You only get them for four to six weeks, and then they are out,” Chef Foster says. “Local ingredients like that are vine ripe and brought to the farmer’s market, and that’s what I really love.”

Chef Foster makes sure to give praise to Rhonda who studied small, handcrafted farmstead cheese from around the world. Her passion for cheese is highlighted year-round at Liam’s Restaurant, which features several cheeses on its menu, including artisanal cheeses from nearby Sweet Grass Dairy.

The pair also focuses on educating their customers about the various types of cheeses and the cheese-making process. The restaurant hosts cheese tastings and winemakers dinners once a month to highlight wines and small craft beers from around the world to pair with the cheeses.

“There’s a uniqueness to it. We try to create great food and bring in the wines to create a wonderful atmosphere and tie it all together.”

Chef Foster likes to expand the palate of his south Georgia customers, some of who rarely get to experience dishes outside the realm of classic Southern cuisine. To do so, he and his wife expand their own palate by traveling around the country, experiencing the work of other chefs and bringing back fresh and new ideas to Thomasville.

“We love food, and we plan our trips basically around our dining itinerary,” he says. “It’s hard for us to go somewhere where there’s not great food. We want to hit those restaurants and see what’s going on and experience everything, and that’s what keeps us fresh.”

Chef Foster sees the importance in also including his restaurant staff in these travels.

“A lot of my staff has been here nearly since I opened up, and that’s what’s really great about it,” he says. “They’ve been a part of the process, and we travel together so they experience food with us. It sharpens their skills, and that makes us a better restaurant. They’re experiencing these things on their own, and that’s what we love to do.”

Continually educating his staff and his customers on the artistry of the farm-totable concept, Chef Foster has created an atmosphere at Liam’s Restaurant where it is clear that the focus is not only on the meticulously chosen ingredients that go into the dishes, but also on creating a uniquely distinct dining experience.

September, 2009

By Charles Y. Hoff, Law Offices of Charles Y. Hoff, PC; and Joseph J. Gottlieb, Cohen Goldstein Port & Gottlieb, LLP

A recent decision of the Georgia Supreme Court and recently passed legislation may have a dramatic impact on the ability of a franchisor to restrict the competitive activities of its franchisees in Georgia.

To protect the integrity of its franchise system, franchisors seek to protect their proprietary business methods and information through the confidentiality and noncompetition covenants contained in their franchise agreements. Since the enforceability of noncompetition covenants is typically a matter of state law, a franchisor must deal with differing legal standards of review. The Georgia courts have viewed noncompetition covenants to be in partial restraint of trade, and therefore enforceable only if reasonable as to time, territory and scope. The covenants in franchise agreements are strictly construed and difficult to enforce by the franchisor. A Georgia court will not fix, or “blue pencil,” a defective noncompete.

In the case of Atlanta Bread Co. International, Inc. v. Lupton-Smith, decided on June 29, 2009, the Georgia Supreme Court ruled that a covenant in a franchise agreement that restricted the competitive activities of a franchisee during the term of the agreement, but which did not contain geographic limitations on those competitive activities was unenforceable, ruling that in-term covenants would be construed in the same manner as post-term covenants.

This decision could greatly impact franchisors with franchised units in Georgia. According to the amicus brief filed on behalf of the International Franchise Association (IFA) in the Atlanta Bread case, in the franchise agreements of 42 restaurant franchises operating in Georgia, 32 contained in-term covenants without a geographic restriction. According to the IFA, in 2005 there were 32,680 franchised units in Georgia that provided 390,534 franchising jobs. Franchisors must respond by revising their agreements for new franchisees and will be inevitably face challenges to protect their proprietary methods and systems from competition by their current franchisees.

In HB 173 signed by Gov. Perdue on April 29, 2009, the Georgia legislature has made another attempt to address the enforceability of noncompetition covenants. HB 173 would allow a court to “blue-pencil” overly broad restrictive covenants and provides specific guidance as to what provisions in a restrictive covenant would be presumed enforceable, duration, for example. A previous legislative attempt to enact a similar law was struck down as unconstitutional in 1991. HB 173 will become effective only upon the passage of a Constitutional Amendment in November 2010 permitting the legislature to issue the new law.

September, 2009

By Jami Curley

Across the country, the restaurant industry is rife with household names that got their start right here in Georgia. From Zaxby’s and Waffle House to Chik-fil-A and Atlanta Bread Company, Georgia has long been the birthplace of restaurants that offer diners beyond its borders a taste of the fresh, homey cooking that defines the South, at prices that place the experience firmly within reach of the purse strings of any consumer.

Now Georgia, and the Atlanta metro area in particular, is proving it has the stuff to be attractive to upscale restaurant concepts and familiar chains seeking to expand their names and try out some fresh ideas.

Celebrity chef and host of TV’s Top Chef Tom Colicchio chose Atlanta as a premium location for the expansion of his Craft fine dining restaurants. In 2008, he opened branches of Craft and Craftbar (a somewhat more relaxed expression of the concept) right next door to one another in the Mansion on Peachtree in Atlanta’s Buckhead area. In the same year, celebrity chef and restaurateur Jean- Georges Vongerichten, through his relationship with Starwood hotels, brought the Asian-inspired Spice Market concept and the broader menu of Market to the W hotels in Midtown and Buckhead, respectively.

While the two restaurant moguls have somewhat different approaches to food, the climate of Georgia’s capital city is proving ripe for sustaining vibrant outposts of each of these sweeping fine dining empires.

A crucial element in a successful expansion effort is the placement of personnel. The name behind the name brand cannot be everywhere at once, and so, to ensure that the standards of the brand are upheld to the highest degree, the selection of a representative can make all the difference. Chef Colicchio chose from among his staff Chef Kevin Maxey to head up the Atlanta Craft and Craftbar kitchens, relocating him from a three-year stint at Craft in Dallas. Though a recent transplant to the Atlanta market, Chef Maxey has an intimate knowledge of the Craft concept and its brand standards.

“At Craft, the concept is the menu,” says Chef Maxey. “The entire menu exists as a result of localization.”

Chef Vongerichten, on the other hand, selected a local legend, Chef Ian Winslade of Bluepointe restaurant fame. Chef Winslade has been prominent in the Atlanta restaurant scene for the past 15 years, and uses his unique insights into the ebb and flow of the restaurant business in Georgia to guide Atlanta’s versions of Spice Market and Market to success.

“Atlanta has always been considered a capital of the Southeast,” Chef Winslade says. “A lot of people gravitate here to be in a metropolis. I think of Atlanta as a regional food hub. I think we’re on par here with Chicago, even Los Angeles.”

At the same time, more traditional franchisers, such as the Baskin-Robbins Corporation, are also finding Georgia to be fertile ground for growth, with more than 60 new stores planned for the Atlanta area and surrounding regions. The new stores are part of a much larger expansion plan for the entire Southeast.

“Atlanta and Georgia overall are very strategic crossroads in the Southern market,” says Salman Siddiqui, Vice President of Global Business Development for Baskin- Robbins. “We are solidly in the Virginia and Washington, DC, area, but creating a strong presence in Georgia allows us a base to expand further south into Florida and westward into Alabama.”

Baskin-Robbins is also cautious to select excellent candidates for its franchises. Managers provide potential franchisees with every opportunity to ask questions and work closely with them through business and marketing plans at the outset of the process. But after the discovery phase, there comes the financial review to ensure that new members of the franchise family are not going to scoop up more debt than they can lick.

“Financial review is used to make sure that the investment you are trying to make has a good likelihood of going through, that you will really be able to [succeed in] the business that you are getting into,” says Siddiqui.

Georgia’s climate also plays a part in attracting the big players in the restaurant industry. The long growing season and burgeoning green market scene are proving to be key assets as restaurateurs continue to develop their commitment to localization, organics and greening practices.

“The restaurant scene is amazing here,” says Chef Maxey. “There seems to be a good growing climate, and there’s just a lot of beautiful produce and great local products.”

“In the last six to eight years, there’s grown up a big organic movement now in Georgia,” says Chef Winslade. “With so many good products available, and [the fact] that you can get [ingredients] fairly reasonably and quickly, those are the main reasons the food scene has really exploded here.”

“Georgia, Florida, this is the warm belt. This is where our customer base lives,” says Siddiqui.

In addition, as the population of Georgia and metro Atlanta has become more diverse and well traveled, they begin to demand new and more interesting dining concepts.

Fresh ingredients, new flavor profiles and new preparation techniques are not only welcome, but also sought after, making it much easier to unveil a Southern outpost of a multistar dining experience once only available in New York, Chicago or Los Angeles. Very few changes need to be made in the cuisine to accommodate the local palate because the local expectations have grown so much broader.

For Chef Maxey, it’s all about technique. “We see product that is really nice, and that is what drives the menu. In New York, we might get a really great covolo nero [a black Tuscan cabbage]. Let’s say we braise it, get a sweet-savory flavor going on it. Well, down here we’ll take that same technique and apply it to a more local product, like a kale or or spicy red mustard green.”

“This city has grown immensely in the last 10 to 15 years, and it has a more diverse population with a more discerning palate, as regards to when, what and how they want to eat,” says Chef Winslade.

His adjustments to Spice Market’s concept are limited to slightly decreasing the level of heat in the menu. “People in the South are a bit more scared of spices, perhaps. Once they are introduced to it [at Spice Market], I think they accept it’s not going to bite your head off; it’s more about the flavor. But I think people here are more receptive than ever to a concept like Spice Market.”

A June 2009 report issued by the National Restaurant Association showed a general optimism in the overall outlook of the industry, with 34% of operators expressing expectations that conditions will improve within six months. And despite a statewide economic slump in which the current unemployment rate in Georgia hovers around 10%, there are signs that the restaurant industry here is holding its own.

According to figures from the Georgia Department of Community Health, the number of new foodservice permits issued for 2008 are only down about 3% from 2007, when 2,750 permits for new foodservice were issued, the highest figure for the previous five years. Still, expansion into Georgia is not without its challenges, especially in this economy.

“There have been signs things will improve, but the year to date has not been stellar,” says Chef Winslade. “We’re 10+% off, so it’s significant. We’re feeling it, but then so is everyone in our business.”

“Fortunately, with demand being down across the board with a lot of goods, food prices have been fairly low to consistent with what they had been,” says Chef Maxey.

With Craft and Craftbar occupying the same space, Chef Maxey feels they are succeeding at servicing customers across a variety of price points. “This economy makes us cautious, of course. We’re watching our controllable expenses very carefully. We have had a bit of a slowdown this summer, but people keep telling us that that is normal for Atlanta.”

The uncertainty of the current times can make the idea of expansion or franchising seem unrealistic, but there are encouraging indicators for small businesses that are thinking of taking the plunge. Most large franchisers offer some help with locating stable loan sources.

“In a tough economy,” says Siddiqui, “banking standards are tougher, so it is harder to get qualified for loans. People coming into our system find that we have relationships with banks who understand our business models.”

A financial institution that understands the ins and outs of a proposed franchise is going to be more willing to extend a loan. Also, because demand is down, the prices of many elements are open to negotiation.

“If you can afford it,” says Chef Winslade, “I think this is the optimum time [to expand] because you can get everything at a discount. Restaurant space is very reasonable; people are willing to make deals with you on construction. Now is the time, because the signs point to us pulling out of the recession. If you can get in cheaply now, I think in six, eight months, maybe a year, you are going to be sitting on a great place.”

“Instead of keeping money in reserve funds or stocks, they can put that money in their own stores,” says Siddiqui. “If they pick the right site and have a franchise with marketing power behind it, this can be a strong and compelling proposition for them.”

Restaurants New To Georgia

From upscale to fast food, more and more restaurants are moving onto Georgia turf. Here are a few of the more recent ones:

Craft: 3376 Peachtree Road, Atlanta, (404) 995-7580
Other branches: New York, Dallas, Los Angeles

Craftbar: 3375 Peachtree Road, Atlanta, (404) 995-7580
Other branches: New York, Los Angeles

Spice Market: 188 14th Street NE, Atlanta, (404) 549-5450
Other branches: New York City, Istanbul, Doha (Qatar)

Market: 3377 Peachtree Road, Atlanta, (404) 523-3600
Other branches: Paris

BLT Steak Atlanta: 45 Ivan Allen Jr. Blvd., Atlanta, (404)
577-7601
Other branches: New York City, Washington, DC, Los Angeles,
Miami, Hong Kong, Charlotte

Il Mulino New York-Atlanta: 191 Peachtree Street, Atlanta,
(404) 524-5777
Other branches: New York City, Washington, DC, Las Vegas,
Chicago, Atlantic City, Aspen, Miami, San Juan, Tokyo

Straits Atlanta: 793 Juniper Street, Atlanta, (404) 877-1283
Other branches: San Francisco, Burlingame, San Jose, Houston

RA Sushi: 1080 Peachtree St., Atlanta, (404) 267-0114
Other locations: Multiple locations in California, Florida, Illinois
and Arizona; Las Vegas, Baltimore, Houston and Dallas

EVOS : 885 Peachtree St., Ste. 2, Atlanta, (404) 252-4022
Other locations: Tampa, Chapel Hill, San Luis Obispo, CA