Thursday, October 16, 2008

Franchise Opportunities

A hungry person can purchase Royal Roast Beef sandwich in East Boston, but not downtown. Something is wrong with this city. Granted there is no beach downtown and a shaved roast beef sandwich is traditionally considered beach food in Massachusetts. This isn't the case in states that call themselves something other than commonwealths. The proliferation of Arby's and Roy Roger's chains attest to this. They have chain outlets clustered thickly around landlocked, highway cloverleaves in Oklahoma, Montana, Nevada and Kansas. Downtown Boston does have a frog pond. Does that count as shoreline? The tykes seem to believe. If they can, so can I.

Downtown does have a Falafel King. As someone who happens to have the last name 'King' I will tell you it does carry a bit of initial cachet, but that wears off soon enough after a bit of familiarity. Boston's falafel king is indeed the peak of the our fair city's falafel vendor hierarchy. Is a falafel sandwich purchased at Downtown Crossing and consumed on the Common as satisfying as a Royal roast beef sandwich bought in Eastie, carried across Bennington Street, and devoured on the shore of Constitution Beach? That's a tough call. I am mostly vegetarian, but Royal Roast Beef is better than good. If the shop were located on Dot Ave, the kids would call it Dottatstic!

I think Kelly's Roast Beef, a Revere-based enterprise with expansionist ambitions has a market built in at Downtown Crossing. Royal Roast Beef is content ruling its domain in Eastie. Kelly's wants everyone to enjoy its sandwiches. There are plenty of hungry students and tourists ready for some shaved, rare beef in Boston's skyscraper canyons. They don't need a beach. They need a point of purchase. The stars are aligned and the opportunity is ripe.

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