 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.”
For more information, visit http://www.melsdiners.com
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Media Contact:
Quantified Marketing Group
407.936.1010
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