Development

Maryland-based California Tortilla, a Mexican-inspired fast-casual franchise, is expanding its footprint and will open in North Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Kansas and Georgia in 2019.

Schlotzsky’s Austin Eatery signed a 10-unit franchise development agreement that will expand its footprint in key markets and in underdeveloped areas of Arkansas, Texas and Oklahoma. The deal is the brand’s single largest agreement since evolving to the Austin Eatery concept in late 2016.

California-based fast-casual Pieology recently opened its first nontraditional unit at California State University, Fullerton. CSUF Auxiliary Service Corporation (ASC), the organization that oversees the various business enterprises on campus, is the Pieology licensee.

Chipotle Mexican Grill opened its 2,500th restaurant, this one in Concord, Calif. It’s a milestone that comes on the heels of a reorganization and a focus on tech for the fast-casual pioneer. Chipotle completed its executive leadership team with the hiring of Tabassum Zalotrawala as chief development officer, who will spearhead many of the new initiatives.

Wing Zone plans to open an average of at least one new international location per month in 2019. The company operates 24 restaurants in 5 countries outside the U.S. Wing Zone will focus on Central America, Southeast Asia, the Caribbean and Europe for continued global expansion.

Many thanks to all of you who took the time to stop by our booth at The NAFEM Show last month in Orlando, Fla., to have your picture taken and put on the cover of restaurant development + design magazine as a souvenir. We had a blast with our photo booth, taking over 600 shots during the three days of the show.

Ann Arbor, Mich.-based Domino’s Pizza opened its first store in Bangladesh, in the nation’s capital of Dhaka. Additional locations are planned for later this year.

Every time you open a new restaurant, you’re taking a risk. Is the site good for business? Will there be sufficient customers? Will sales be high enough? There are two ways to find out: Open your doors and see what business brings, or run a feasibility study (or two) and look at the hard data.