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How casual dining is serving up just what customers want

Sarah Stowe

It’s a little fancier but not formal: casual dining is a family favourite and a more relaxed approach to sit-down eating that’s just right for our laid-back lifestyle. 

There are signs that the casual eating segment is picking up the pace in Australia. In Queensland, for instance, real estate business Colliers International reported last year that retailers were increasing their casual dining floor space from 50sq m to 1000 sq m.

Kym Thrift, associate director of retail leasing at Colliers International, said “The casual dining pre-cincts tend to be located within major regional shopping centres creating a dining experience that retains the customers within the precinct for a lot longer than a takeaway option would.”

Hospitality magazine reports the opening of a $20m dining and retail precinct in June this year in Perth, a retail hub combining modern architecture, heritage buildings, art and space.

And in early 2014 Westfield completed its $45m redevelopment of its Eastgardens centre with the unveiling of a new casual dining area. The precinct has a 1,3000 sq m with indoor and outoor dining for six hospitality businesses including the franchised dessert chain San Churro.

Why casual dining is a trend

So why are brands opting to expand into the casual dining arena?

One franchise chain to step into this space is the Melbourne based Vietnamese fast-food business, Rolld.

“The Rolld Kitchen brand is to address a huge demand from our loyal customers about casual dining, especially for families. We want custom-ers to have the Rolld family experience whether with your family or friends,” says marketing director at Rolld, Christina Murrell.

The brand new Rolld Kitchen will offer an extension of the menu, with a new range of sup mi (Viet noodle soup), com tam (broken rice), banh xeo (Vietpancake), nuong (grills) and introducing a shared plate that includes a selection of cuon (rice paper rolls), spring rolls, goi (Viet salad), crispy chicken ribs and crispy school prawns.

Customers will be seated with menus and table service will add extra convenience. 

William Street, Perth will house the first Rolld Kitchen outlet.

“Expect a space that is significantly larger than regular Rolld stores (up to twice as big), with seating capacity for 60+ happy diners. It was a chance for us to re-think strategically”, says founder and CEO, Bao Hoang.

Just launched is the latest development in Mexican dining. Clovis Young, the founder of Mad Mex, explains the new Cantina model.

“Mad Mex is a reduced service model. Five to seven years ago it was a step up in food courts, now with Cantina we’re appropriate for the fringe precinct.”

Lunch accounts for 70 percent of the business, and this new model is a chance to take the business from the food court, he says.

Cantina is all about tacos, beers, and a sit-down restaurant experience.

It is, says Young, very financially viable. And a little bit fancy.

“Papa Rich and Grill’d have taken fast casual to casual dining through d_cor and the presentation of food,” he says.

It seems this is what the customers are looking for.

Hospitality experience required

“This is more of a taco, beachy vibe, a 3sqm cantina – fresh juices, big jugs, margaritas, flagship coconut mojitos.”

Customers open a tab at the bar, order chips and salsa, order a meal. It is still a quick eating option, just five to 10 minutes from ordering to food delivered on enamel plates to the table.

Young describes the environment as more contemporary, “a bit less 22 years old testosterone male, but still wanting to dial up a fair amount of fun”. Translate that as colourful handwritten signs, surf boards, less mariachi on the airwaves and more 80s and 90s and current rock music.

The cantina will be tailored to each precinct.

Young emphasises that these are two separate brands with different value propositions. “We can see both are great businesses, very different territories,” he says.

A larger footprint and a pricier menu set the tone for the cantina option. Franchisees will need to invest an extra $150,000 than they would on a typical Mad Mex outlet to get it up and running.

“It’s a more complicated business model, and a higher level of hospitality experience is required – managing a bar, plating food, wait service. We are conscious of a different skill set – but our first franch-isee (in Tuggerah, on the New South Wales Central Coast) is a top performing existing franchisee,” says Young.

It’s about moving from a manufacturing mindset (we build your meal) to a front of house focus, he highlights. “It’s a really positive step to deliver the Mexican family food experience around a table.”

Summing up the development of the Mexican food concept, Young reflects on how the Mexican restaurant of the 1970s and 1980s was overtaken by the taste for Thai in the 1990s. That was the start of fast casual.

“The cantina takes the old favourite of the 1980s and makes it modern and relevant and cool.”

  • Read the full article in the Jan/Feb edition of Franchising magazine, out now in newsagencies. Want to subscribe to the leading publication in the franchise sector? Click here to find out more. Missed an issue? Check out our back catalogue here.