Fast food that's good for you
On a sunny April afternoon, a mixed crowd of patrons shift on high heels, work boots and sneakers as they line up at a Shrewsbury fast-food restaurant to put in their orders for bacon cheeseburgers, fries, meatball sandwiches and fajitas. But this group of diners has reason to feel good about their fast-food choices. They are at the KnowFat Lifestyle Grill, a pioneer in the growing healthy fast food niche that is taking hold across Massachusetts and across the country.
At a time when the media decries America’s growing obesity problem, the Shrewsbury restaurant has been serving up low-fat burgers and AirFries, along with veggie burritos and brown rice, since November 2002. But soon, KnowFat Lifestyle Grills will be cropping up everywhere from Houston to San Francisco to Stoughton in an effort to open 600 franchise locations by 2009.Meanwhile, diners who relish the free-range chicken stir fry, bison meatloaf and wild Alaskan salmon sandwiches at O’Naturals in Acton could soon find their favorite organic fare available nationwide as well. The fledgling all-natural, organic restaurant chain — started by Gary Hirshberg, CEO of Stonyfield Farm Inc. in 2001 and based in Portland, ME – began marketing franchises of its unique format nationwide in January.
Healthier fast food is, says Boston Chicken franchise veteran and KnowFat Franchise Co. co-CEO George Naddaff, an "evolution" in the never-ending battle for what he calls "share of stomach" in the restaurant industry. While Naddaff avoids speculating on the potential dollar volume for the "healthier" fast food niche, he says it has plenty of room for both his Brighton-based company and for the more organic-driven spot being staked out by O’Naturals, which he deems not really a competitor of KnowFat Lifestyle Grill.
Matter of timing
At age 76, Naddaff, who grew the homestyle meal take-out restaurant Boston Chicken from a single store to 1,300 franchise locations before selling it, remembers when the concept of fast food was considered a long shot. "To everything there’s an issue of timing," he says, noting that with the explosion of attention on obesity, health and fitness, healthier fast food is a concept whose time has come.
That’s why in 2003, Naddaff decided to buy Lo Fat Know Fat, a small chain of low-fat food restaurants paired with a health-food retail component started in 1999. Timothy Kurtz, one of the original founders of Lo Fat Know Fat, says he and three other partners came up with the idea for a healthy fast food restaurant to go with the health food store they operated together. They opened the first restaurant in Watertown in 1999, long before the obesity craze or even the low-carb craze hit the public. The idea, he says, was to offer a healthier fast food alternative to the "normal person." Thus the menu featured burgers, fries and soda along with steamed broccoli and protein powder shakes. Over the ensuing four years, Low Fat Know Fat opened two more stores in Shrewsbury and Woburn.
But Kurtz says the chain was growing too slowly and the concept needed to be refined. The partners formed a franchise company with Naddaff, raised $8 million in private funding and began marketing franchises a year and a half ago.
Thus far, Naddaff says, KnowFat has sold 55 franchises, with seven already in operation. Within the next few months, new locations are slated to open in Landmark near Fenway Park, in Stoughton and in Beverly, as well as in Minneapolis, Houston, San Francisco and two locations in Florida. He says the franchise effort is on target and eventually he expects the chain will hit 3,000 locations.
Meanwhile, Mac McCabe, O’Naturals co-founder and CEO, says his company has received some 600 inquiries in its newly launched franchise effort. The move to go national follows five years of operations in which the company opened four locations — Falmouth and Portland, ME; Acton and Somerville.
McCabe says O’Naturals doesn’t compete with KnowFat because his company serves all-natural, organic food with no additives or preservatives as opposed to low-fat food. O’Naturals’ menu, which is based on years of research, attracts some 25 percent takeout.
While these two chains begin their quest for nationwide locations, their owners admit they have plenty of competition from mainstream restaurants tending toward healthier menus. Kurtz says he’s not worried that fast-food giants McDonald and Burger King are now offering healthier selections. People who want to eat healthy, he says, will want to be in a healthier place. "It’s kind of like getting coffee at a gas station," he says.
Micky Baca can be reached at mbaca@wbjournal.com
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