After a successful first launch north of the border, The Melting Pot, a fondue-themed eatery headquartered in Tampa, Fla. is looking to open new locations in four more Canadian cities.

The company has 93 restaurants in 32 U.S. states and one in Canada. It opened in Edmonton in 2010, but the company now plans to expand to Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary and Ottawa.

A company executive who spoke to FoodNX, said interest in the concept is increasing.

“We started in 1975 so I think a lot of people know who we are but we still get inquiries from everywhere but frankly, one of the things I saw was a growing interest from Canada,” Collin Benyo, franchise growth strategist at Melting Pot Restaurants said.

“I went to our leadership team. I said, ‘I think we need to find a way to make this work,’ because we have a lot of people interested.”

Looking to build off of success in Alberta

The restaurant is hoping to begin first with a location in Calgary, which may be able to profit off the success of the Edmonton franchise.

“Calgary is just a great location to grow the brand with the right person. That’s the whole viewpoint of making sure that Calgary is a top target for it,” Benyo said.

“The Edmonton store has found great success, and we feel we can duplicate that with the right partners in Calgary and other cities as well. (Calgary) is only three hours away from our single location in Edmonton, and based on the demographics and the growth; population, market segmentation, and I think a city that just is very happily enjoying dining out based on some of the research we’ve done.”

The Melting Pot is counting on its unique proposition to make it stand out in the sometimes crowded restaurant business.

“If you look at franchising, you probably have 15 burger franchises, 15 pizza franchises. Melting Pot competes directly with no one.  I’m unaware of any other fondue franchise in the world, let alone North America,” he said.

When it looks for a franchise operator, having previous restaurant experience is desirable but not always necessary, Benyo explained.

“Melting Pot is such a simplistic culinary approach that we don’t require hospitality background for folks who are joining the brand. The last four or five groups that we’ve signed within the United States have no restaurant experience, but what we’re looking for is more people that have great backgrounds and leadership and team building, entrepreneurialism: everything that can help them grow a business first, and then a restaurant second.”

In its most recent quarterly results, the company reported a 19 per cent increase in net sales and a 20 per cent increase in guest count year-over-year.

Unique operating model that doesn’t deploy chefs

The firm’s approach to its guests is also exclusive to The Melting Pot, according to Benyo.

“I work in a restaurant chain that the guest is the culinary catalyst. We don’t need to have salaried chefs. We don’t need to have necessarily, years of experience; culinary training at certain universities. We are unique in that offering,” Benyo said.

Guests to the restaurant are typically offered four courses: “You’ve got cook-tops actually built into the tables. They bring out a pot. They start with a base, either a beer or wine. Melt down the cheeses, which are all proprietary cheeses that we have made for us in Wisconsin. And we create cheese fondue right there in front of the guests, and then they dip in breads, veggies, apples, meats; a salad course is second.”

From there, raw meat, seafood or vegetarian options are provided and restaurant goers also cook their own food, with six sauces for dipping. Finally for dessert, people can dip fruit or pound cake into a chocolate fondue.

Consequently, there are no ovens, flat tops or fryers in The Melting Pot, unlike most traditional restaurants.

“We are a prep kitchen, so we expand our hiring range a lot larger than most concepts. We can hire for the culture and create a good environment for running a good team.”

Looking for Canadian restaurant experience 

Expansion in Canada is not simply a matter of exactly duplicating its U.S. restaurants, Benyo said.

“I’ve heard so many times, when I’ve been in the franchising workshops and sessions in talking about a Canadian expansion, is that the biggest rule of thumb is that anyone that believes moving to Canada is just a matter of geography, and you just need to duplicate the same process in the next country that you’re doing currently, that’s where a lot of the errors happen.”

The Melting Pot is looking for potential franchisees with industry experience in Canada, he said.

“The strategic partner we bring in is going to know a lot about the hospitality industry; be able to avoid some missteps, and just making sure that our process is translated properly," he explained. "Not just insisting that our process, because of the legacy that we have with 50 years of service, just is naturally going to work in another country.”

In its search for new operators, the firm has begun an outreach campaign that will culminate with the Toronto Franchise Show in September.

Instead of opening 15 or 20 restaurants, The Melting Pot’s current Canadian strategy is “growing slowly” and open up to five restaurants by 2030.

“I think our goal is to find the right group; partner with them, train them correctly, make sure that we’re hiring the right people for the management teams, and ultimately translating the success that we’ve had here and making it palpable and real in Canada,” Benyo said.