Sept. 28, 2005

Mel's Diner brings customers back to basics

Food and family stay dear to this southwest Florida chain's heart, despite its ever-growing popularity.

Bonita Springs, FL - "Bringing back good times and great food!"  That slogan has been the driving force behind Mel's Diner, the popular southwest Florida chain, for fifteen years.  Even though company has experienced significant growth in recent years, it still prides itself on its simplicities and charm, like family-friendly service, comfort foods prepared from scratch and great value.

We offer quality comfort foods for an unbeatable value," says Chris Karakosta, president and CEO of Mel's Diner.  "That's that we've built our reputation on, and that's what we will continue to concentrate on as we continue to grow the Mel's Diner concept."

Mel's Diner restaurants are designed with retro flair and feature many of the qualities commonly associated with those establishments, like Formica dining tables, pastel-colored booths, neon lights and glass displays.  The menu takes that impression one step forward, offering an assortment of comfort foods and family favorites, like meatloaf, burgers, turkey and more.  If that weren't enough, many of those items come available as affordable combination meals, which include soup and salad, and sometimes even dessert.

"We serve great comfort food," says Fred Scherger, director of culinary operations for Mel's Diner. "It's like coming to my house on Thanksgiving or Christmas.  That's what you can expect from Mel's.  We want to be known as the king of comfort foods, and there's no other restaurant chain that can really hang their hat on that."

Founded by Karakosta in San Carlos, FL in 1989, the restaurant originally set out to mimic the look and feel of Karakosta's first eatery, the Chicago-based family style diner Dimitri's.  Before Mel's, Karakosta owned and operated two other establishments in the southwest Florida area, the upscale steak-and-seafood spot, The Green Onion, and Stevie Tomato's Sports Page, one of the area's first sports bars.  In Mel's, he sought to return to the familiarity and wholesomeness of Dimitri's, while also supplying an environment where his family could spend more time together -- they originally served as his staff in the eatery.

(Coincidentally, Karakosta chose the name for his restaurant more for its familiarity than for its tie-in to the popular TV-show, Alice. "We never put any of the character names on the menu or did anything related to the show," says Karakosta.)

"The Mel's theme itself is appealing to a wide age range, from kids to seniors," says Brad Cohen, district manager with Mel's Diner. "You can literally have three or four generations sitting at one table, and the value perception is very obvious too, compared to other restaurants where you have to educate people as to why things cost what they cost."

Currently, chain boasts 10 locations throughout southwest Florida and plans to add two more locations in early 2006. While its reach may be widespread, however, each store continues to pride itself on that same sense of family-friendly service, high value and good home-cooking that made the original location such a success.

"A lot of our guests travel up and down the coasts," says James Rodriguez, district manager with the company, "and they stop at Mel's because they know what they know what to expect.  And the prices blow them away even more - an entire meal for $7.99 that you can't even finish most of the time."

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Media Contact:
Ashley H. Hallmark
Quantified Marketing Group
407.936.1010
321.663.1209 c.
ahallmark@quantifiedmarketing.com


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