Franchises Lead the Mediterranean Food Trend
A few years ago, Alon Mor, a former district manager and director of special projects for Panera Bread, had a lot on his mind. He'd been thinking about the food he ate while growing up in Israel, and wished there were a clean, quick place like Panera to share those flavors with his young children. At the same time, he was blown away by the rise of fast-casual franchises and chains. "Denver, where I'm from, is the fast-casual mecca," he says. "Chipotle, Noodles, Qdoba and Einstein Bros. all came out of this area."
It all clicked on a visit to a Whole Foods Market. "You used to walk down the aisle and see maybe one brand of hummus and one type of pita bread," he remembers. "But one day I realized there were all these different kinds of hummus on the shelf. I figured, something's going on here."
