Fast-casual restaurants are one of the fastest growing trends in the culinary world—from Chipotle to Panera and even Toledo-based Balance Grille, fast casual restaurants are popping up all across Northwest Ohio. Pita Pit, which was founded in Kingston, Ontario in 1995, has recently expanded to downtown Toledo, with local franchise owners Kate Dake, her husband Tom Dake and her brother Steve Gesicki opening their third location in Northwest Ohio at 30 S. St. Clair St. next door to Home Slice Pizza in the Warehouse District. The Lebanese-style pita restaurant offers a fresh, healthy alternative to traditional fast food businesses that typically sell high-fat and high-calorie meals. TCP had the chance to talk with owner Kate Dake about her restaurant’s food, her love on downtown Toledo and some interesting fundraising ideas to benefit local organizations.
What inspired you to expand into the Warehouse District and open another franchise location in downtown Toledo?
We were looking to expand so we started our search for places. We checked the suburbs—Perrysburg and Maumee and all that. And we actually took our staff to a Mud Hens game over the summer since we do around two staff parties over the course of a year. We drove around downtown and just liked the atmosphere around the stadium and the places over there. We happened to find this little spot that would be perfect for us and really fell in love with the entire space. Our store over at the university is just a little too far away to service downtown as far as catering for businesses and delivery orders, so we're looking at it more like a partnership between the two locations to service everything west of the river to the university.
Your first Pita Pit franchise was located in Bowling Green correct?
Yes, we purchased that location from Pita Pit USA. It was a rescue store, which means the franchise before us took a rough turn and things started to decline. We purchased that back from the corporate office and my brother Steve was the general manager there for the past 2 franchisees. Basically the opportunity in BG was just too hard to pass up. We got our start there and worked backwards.
What kind of things did you have to do to turn it around and make it profitable again?
The biggest thing is just being involved. We did a store refresh right away where we updated the look of the store on the inside. I think that re-energized the community a little bit—it certainly re-energized the staff to see someone care about the store. We gave the staff and ourselves the tools that we needed to market the store again and get back out there in the community. That is what was really lacking, especially at the end. It is so important to us to be a part of the community that we are in. We do a lot of fundraisers for groups at the university and we try to sponsor as much as we can for events in BG.
What’s an example of a fundraiser for a student group and what kind of student organizations do they benefit?
Our fundraisers work a little bit differently because Tom and I come from a nonprofit background where you're always doing some type of fundraising. So when we throw our fundraisers, we want to make it as easy for the group as possible. Right now, we set a time frame for our window on a certain day. The student group then receives a dollar for every regular pita sold between that certain time frame. We don't require any further coupons and they don't have to bring the flier in. So they are not only benefiting from the flier traffic but also from our normal customers. In BG, we've done a lot of the fraternities, sororities and honor societies, so everybody and anybody. We also did a fundraiser for the Bowling Green High School marching band.
Do you source any of your ingredients locally or do they get shipped in from a corporate office?
Because we are a franchise, a lot of the stuff is already set for us. Our corporate office does a great job of finding produces that are clean label. I know they get their stuff as local as they can when it is in season.
Any plans to open additional locations?
Our goal from the beginning has been ten Pita Pits between Cleveland and Toledo. We aren’t sure what number four is gonna look like, but we are on the look out for what a great opportunity might be. We need time to get the newest store up and running and give it the attention it needs for a good start. I don’t know if we're looking to do anything in the next year but we're not opposed to anything either, so we're just keeping an eye out to see where to go next.
How late will the downtown Pita Pit be open?
Monday through Thursday we are open till 9pm. On Friday and Saturday nights be will stay open until 3am but stop delivery at 9pm. Our driver’s safety is a top priority and concern. We do deliver to most of downtown and also the Old West End. As of now, we will stay open till 5pm on Sundays, but that will flex as the Mud Hens schedule takes off over the summer when more events are happening.
Do you have any groups in mind for future fundraising efforts at the downtown location?
This year we are looking to participate in the March of Babies as part of the March of Dimes. Another thing we did last year was Toledo Pride Festival, which we will probably be involved with again this year. As far as walk-in fundraisers, we don’t have anything just yet but we are taking information from groups that are interested in setting up a fundraiser.
