Charcoal Group creates new restaurant brand BRANTFORD, Ont. — When it came time to decide whether Tom Wideman and John Zizzo would renovate Moose Winooski’s in Brantford, Ont., the brand was brought into the Charcoal Group fold. Charcoal Group chief executive officer Jody Palubiski, said while Moose Winooski’s was “a tremendous business for the partners” — who also make up the Charcoal Group’s executive team with partner Tim Wideman — it was time to renovate or evolve. “The decision was made to go in and create a new concept there,” said Palubiski, a Kitchener, Ont. native who joined Charcoal Group in 2003. The new restaurant, Sociable Kitchen & Tavern is slated to open in late November at 45 King George Rd. in Brantford, Ont. The Moose Winooski’s locations will remain in Barrie and Kitchener, Ont., for the time being, Palubiski said. Tim and Tom Wideman’s parents founded the business in 1955 with the purchase of The Charcoal Pit, a 57-seat restaurant. Two years later, the name was changed to the Charcoal
Brantford’s Moose Winooski’s will be transformed into Sociable Steakhouse and in 1962, it was moved to a larger location seating 250 guests. In 1976, it moved again to a 26,000-squarefoot complex in Kitchener, Ont., where it still stands with two other Charcoal Group restaurants, Martini’s Restaurant and dels Enoteca Pizzeria. With 13 operations under the Charcoal banner, brands include Wildcraft Grill and Bar, The Bauer Kitchen and three Beertown Public House locations. “The Sociable Kitchen really is an extension of everything we’ve done,” said Palubiski. Without some of the restrictive factors large foodservice companies are bound to when making decisions, Palubiski said Charcoal Group has an infrastructure that allows it to innovate with respect to design, service and food and beverage. “For us, it’s a constant experimentation and iteration and it’s very much dependent on
where we think things are headed over the next several years,” said Palubiski. “From a market standpoint, there is continuing to be a worldwide fascination with all things crafted and focusing on absolute details of creating interesting products in interesting spaces and taking into consideration the economic factors around us. “What I mean by that is, in our industry, the landscape is changing dramatically and we see all of those things as a real positive for what we can do because of our flexibility.” Working with McMillan Design, based in Burlington, Ont., Palubiski said Sociable Kitchen will have a “unique” look with cargo containers being incorporated into the architecture. “We’re always looking to use functional materials in a clever, interesting way, but at the base of all of that is creating restaurants that function incredibly well,” said Palubiski, adding
it’s important the physical design of a restaurant is congruent with its operations. “For us as the very base, we want to create restaurants that work to provide the level of service that we’re shooting for,” he said. The 8,500-square-foot restaurant will seat about 380 guests, with two patios and a large 35-seat island bar. “The sea containers will make up a large part of the exterior façade as well as house the beer fridge in the dining room,” said Palubiski. Director of culinary operations Eric Pless is creating a menu Palubiski describes as including “a lot of comfort foods with a few surprises.” Bread will be made from scratch daily, bacon smoked and cured from pork bellies and condiments made in house. “We try to look at every element of a product and trace it back when possible,” said Palubiski. He said Charcoal Group would like to open more Sociable Kitchen locations in the future, “provided we can maintain a level of uniqueness in each of them and make sure they are tailored to the communities that they’re in.”
From Little Caesars head office to franchisee HAMILTON — Richard Greville used to oversee Little Caesar’s Canadian operations and recently retired to open his own store in Hamilton. Greville started with the company 25 years ago as a store manager and was asked shortly after to join the corporate team in a real estate capacity, helping Little Caesars find new locations. “I did that for about a dozen years or so and over that time I got the opportunity to meet franchisees, meet corporate staff, work with colleagues in the United States and Canada,” he said. Halfway through his career with the pizza chain, Greville took on the role of vice-president and general manager for the Canadian arm of Little Caesar. Greville retired on Oct. 10, 2014 to open a store with his son, Josh, who also worked for Little Caesars in a marketing role. The pair has a multi-unit development goal. “Over the years, as a vice-president and in the real estate department, I was able to meet a lot of franchisees and I was really impressed how the franchisees would … invest their life
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Josh (left) and Richard Greville. savings and build a great business for themselves,” said Greville. He chosen Little Caesars not only because of his familiarity with the business, but also due
to the support provided to franchisees. “The company, their mindset is always to add value to the franchise,” he said. From the Canadian head office, about five
staff have become franchisees over the last decade, but Greville said there are numerous incidences in the United States. Steve McGregor, former zone manager for Little Caesars Canada, also decided to open three stores of his own in the Hamilton area. McGregor said the long-term franchisees he had contact with over the years at head office encouraged him to take the leap into entrepreneurship. McGregor has spent quite a bit of time in the pizza industry, working with Mother’s Pizza and then taking a position with Blue Line Foodservice Distribution, also owned by the Ilitch family, who founded Little Caesars in Detroit in 1959. While the privately-owned company doesn’t disclose the number of units it has, Little Caesars stated it has hundreds of locations in Canada. “We are excited about the opportunities to grow our business within Canada,” Paula Vissing, managing director for Little Caesars of Canada, said in an email. “We continue to build our Canadian team to support that growth.”