Burning ambition
Tracy Perkins' handshake is brisk and she is smiling. The smile is important for she insists that the front-of-house staff in her two California Pizza Factory restaurants always greet customers with a smile. "I hate people standing by doors, looking around and feeling uncomfortable. We have a policy of greeting customers, even if you have a handful of pizzas and can only say ‘I'll be with you in a minute'," she explains.
Tracy herself has plenty to beam about. Two-and-a-half years ago, she and her husband, Gary, opened their first restaurant in the Harborne suburb of Birmingham. Within a year it had won the prestigious Egon Ronay Just a Bite England Restaurant of the Year (1993) and in 1994 it was named Pizza Restaurant of the Year by the Pizza and Pasta Association.
"It's fantastic to be noticed and to have a pat on the back because inevitably there are times when you lose confidence," she says. But confidence is not something the Perkins seem to lack. At the end of last year they opened their second California Pizza Factory in their home town of Solihull and are now looking for a third.
The duo are aiming for five restaurants. "We want to open one a year," says Tracy, "and then consider the option of franchising".
The idea of opening a chain of concept restaurants had been in their minds for 18 months before the Harborne restaurant opened. At that stage they owned an outside catering business - Gourmet Foods - which Tracy had set up at the age of 19 (she is now 32) after completing a cordon bleu cookery course. "I didn't mind lugging china around to marquees at 30", she laughs, "but not at 40."
Several ideas were considered and rejected - including an American diner chain - before Tracy and Gary settled on Californian pizzas. After a fact-finding week in Los Angeles, they returned to the UK with their plans crystallised.
Within six months, Harborne's California Pizza Factory was open for business. "We were absolutely determined," says Tracy. "Nothing was going to stop us."
She estimates that the cost of setting up the operation was £250,000, of which a substantial amount went on decor. London-based Design LSM came up with a modern, utilitarian design for the former factory. They introduced lots of bold colours, galvanised steel grids to carry lighting, and arresting collages prominently displaying cogwheels - the logo adopted for the restaurants which also appears on menus and staff T-shirts.
"We definitely didn't want an Italian trattoria design," says Gary, although there is a Mediterranean feel about the smaller Solihull unit (seating 90 as opposed to 110) with shades of blue, yellow pillars and minimalist chairs. The trattoria image is laid to rest, however, by a front-of-house kitchen dominated by a wood-fired pizza oven in both restaurants - an idea lifted straight from LA.
Funding for the Harborne unit was achieved through a combination of personal money and a bank overdraft. But business was good from the beginning and, says Gary, "we'd got to the point where everything was paid back". A bigger overdraft was forthcoming and it currently stands at £130,000.
Queues on Friday and Saturday nights at Harborne are a regular feature. Clientele varies between the sites: at Harborne most of the customers are young, professional couples; while at Solihull they tend to be families. At Harborne, most of the trade is in the evening, with 20% to 30% pre-booking at weekends, whereas there is more lunchtime business in Solihull.
Children are welcome. There is a children's menu and a toy box with crayons helps keep tiny terrors at their tables.
Although 60% of turnover comes from pizzas (there are 19 variations), there is also a choice of eight pasta dishes and six salads, plus four desserts and a selection of American ice-cream.
Pizza favourites include CPF Barbeque Chicken (£6.95), Tuna Melt (£5.95) and Cajun (£6.25) and Tracy is currently working on a balti pizza - the restaurants are, after all, in the heart of the balti belt. "We have to be careful not to have unusual flavourings that don't work, however," she says.
All pasta, pizza dough and desserts are made on site to keep quality high and offer value-for-money. "Everything starts with the proper ingredients from scratch," she explains.
Providing a high-quality service is another priority. "There is no reason why anyone in England should be served by someone who is rude. I'm very keen that we have a happy team who enjoy their work."
There are 40 staff between the two sites. Although some have had previous experience, Tracy and Gary provide training - two weeks for front-of-house service staff and up to eight months for chefs, who are trained a section (pasta, pizza, pantry) at a time.
There are managers at both sites and regular meetings keep staff informed of developments. Tracy is keen to stimulate motivation through internal promotion. The kitchen managers at both units - Le Owen at Harborne and Tony Bennett at Solihull - joined as chefs.
The Perkins would like to hand over the running of the restaurants to their managers eventually. "That has always been our plan," says Tracy. "I'd hate the restaurants to take over our lives - at the end of the day we have two children we want to spend more time with."
