Country Kitchen takes off with new airport unit

Nation's Restaurant News, Jan 6, 1992 by Bill Carlino

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico -- Two months after unveiling its first in-hotel restaurant, Country Kitchen has agreed to open a unit in a second non-traditional venue -- an airline terminal at the San Juan International Airport.

The 250-unit family restaurant chain said the airport Country Kitchen would open on the site of a shuttered Wendy's, possibly by the end of February or early March.

"This is a real opportunity to continue the branding success that fast feeders have enjoyed at airports," said Frank Steed, president and chief executive of Minneapolis-based Country Hospitality Corp., parent company of Country Kitchen. "It also provides other avenues for us in terms of growth."

The airport facility will offer the same menu used in standard Country Kitchen units but with several local items also available. According to Steed, the unit will measure about 3,900 square feet.

The restaurant will be located in a newly renovated terminal that had serviced Eastern Airlines. When the carrier was liquidated earlier this year, San Juan airport management relocated several carriers to the Eastern hangars.

"Since the Wendy's unit closed, there are currently no branded concepts operating at San Juan," explained Jon Ostrov, vice president of marketing for Country Hospitality.

As a "hub" for the Caribbean, the San Juan airport handles about 6 million to 8 million passengers annually.

The airport Country Kitchen is being developed under an area-development pact sealed earlier this year with Aviation Services Inc. of San Juan. It calls for Aviation Services, a diversified hospitality and facilities management concern, to open a minimum of 10 Country itchen units.

In addition to its position as the regional franchisee for Country Kitchen, Aviation Services handles in-flight foodservice for all the major airlines servicing San Juan airport. Aviation also runs sveral proprietary restaurants and snack bars as well as overseeing baggage handling, ticketing and security.

Aviation also operates the lodging property that hosts Country Kitchen's first in-hotel restaurant.

In recent years several of the large contract-feeding companies have become franchisees and licensees of nationally known fast-food concepts, placing the brand-name units in the formerly generic foodservice operations of high-traffic locations.

For example, Host International, Marriott's airport feeding arm, operates units of Burger King, Nathan's Famous Hot Dogs, Dunkin' Donuts and Mrs. Field, among others.

Before the airport announcement, Country Kitchen waded into non-conventional sites in November, taking over the restaurant of a Travelodge Hotel that is operated by Aviation.

"It's amazing how many full-service restaurants in hotels are losing money," Ostrov noted. "The convesion would be relatively easy because the kitchen is already in place."

According to Steed, Country Kitchen will probably query its sister concept, Radisson Hotels, about placing Country Kitchen units in their properties. Both Country Kitchen and Radisson Hotels are operated by Carlso Cos., which also owns the TGI Friday's dinner-house chain.

"Several Radisson properties have TGI Friday's units," Steed explained. "But sometimes you don't need the high-energy of a Friday's. Other times you just need a good three-meal restaurant."

However, Ostrov indicated that the company would not attempt to place Country Kitchen units within the company's 20-plus Country Lodging properties.

"[Country Lodging is] a limited-service concept, and it's doing very well in that niche," he pointed out.

However, attempts to put additional units in airport or hotels have not gone "beyond the discussion stage," Steed said.