The FOOD 50™ survey will ask franchise owners 20 questions related to their franchise ownership experience. The survey questions cover franchisee training and support, system quality issues, franchisor relationship, financial opportunity and overall satisfaction. Additionally, franchisees will complete demographic and lifestyle questions, for a 360-degree view of their franchise experience.

“Franchising is nearly a $2 trillion industry and food-related franchises make up the largest single segment… roughly 40%,” said Eric Stites, President of Franchise Business Review. “There are thousands of franchise opportunities today. We want to help prospective franchise buyers identify the very best opportunities. From my experience, franchisee satisfaction is the single most important factor to consider before investing in a franchise and it is often the hardest to measure.”

Franchise Business Review recently completed a similar project called the Franchise 50™, surveying thousands of franchisees across the U.S. and Canada. Nearly 250 companies registered for the Franchise 50™ project, which was one of the largest surveys ever completed on franchise owner satisfaction. The FOOD 50™ project will be an exclusive look at satisfaction levels among franchise food operators and Franchise Business Review expects to have over 100 leading food franchise companies participating.

Registration for the Food 50 Awards is open to all North American based food franchise companies with 10 or more franchisees. Companies must register by June 30, 2006. Registration and details are available at http://www.Food50.com. Franchise Business Review will be presenting awards to the 50 highest scoring companies, as well as “Best-in-Category” awards for winners in each market segment. The award-winning companies will be announced in early September.

About Franchise Business Review

Franchise Business Review is a national franchise market research firm that performs independent surveys of franchisee satisfaction and franchise buyer experiences. The firm’s services include commissioned franchise research projects leveraging proprietary survey processes and software, as well as industry-wide studies of franchisee satisfaction open to all North American franchise companies. Franchise Business Review is headquartered in Portsmouth, NH and can be reached at 603.552.2747 or by visiting their company websites at http://www.FranchiseBusinessReview.com, http://www.Franchise50.com and http://www.Food50.com.

Franchise Business Review Media Relations Contact:

Eric Stites

Founder and President

Portsmouth, NH

603-552-2747

eric@franchisebusinessreview.com

View Company Website: http://www.franchisebusinessreview.com

According to 2 Scoops Café’s founder and president MaryAnn Kilgallon, the Scoop-A-Thon contest reflects her company’s long-standing emphasis on community involvement. “Our company recognizes that we must be concerned with the well being of our neighbors,” she said. “All our franchisees make a special effort to be welcoming and supportive members of the communities in which they operate.”

In accepting the check for her school’s media center, principal Ginny Kinnerly said, “I have personally known MaryAnn for years. She and her company are sincerely interested in the education of all our children.” Principal Kinnerly indicated that the grand prize money will be used to purchase additional books for the media center.

Founded in 2002, 2 Scoops Café is an ice cream parlor with a 1950s and 60s Americana theme. Serving hand-dipped ice cream, premium coffee, hot dogs, fresh bagels and muffins, each franchise is independently owned and offers an inviting environment for family outings. Current growth plans include the opening of eight new cafés in Central Florida by the end of 2007.

View Company Website: http://www.2scoopscafe.com 

Because the original Tossed opened in 1998 to 45 minute lines and was exalted by New York Magazine as “the place to get a salad,” it was important that all future locations be designed to handle traffic, which peaks at lunch and dinner. “Simply having a large restaurant to accommodate peak times is not necessarily the most efficient use of space. Emphasis on flexibility and comfort assure that the maximum number of patrons would be able to dine comfortably at any time of the day,” Russo explained. The goal of the redesign was to freshen the look, improve traffic flow and ensure that Tossed’s design would be a success in any market.

Tossed customers can choose from a selection of specialty salads but more than half of customers choose to create their own, selecting ingredients from a menu that features five different lettuces, more than 70 “Toss-Ins” and over 20 types of dressings. The menu includes whole wheat, fat-free crepes, sandwiches, soups, smoothies and desserts. Tossed has the distinction of being the world’s first online salad bar, a service launched in 2000 that allows customers to create and order a salad from their laptop by logging on to www.tossed.com. Time Out New York described Tossed as “a restaurant that serves heaping salads on big plates, Tossed offers stylish seating and hip sounds.”

The first of 19 Tossed locations in Atlanta is slated to open on October 15th in Alpharetta, GA. Bob Russell, Operations Director for the Atlanta investment group, will be overseeing the project and is excited about bringing the concept to fellow Atlantans. “There are a lot of folks out there who never use their kitchen. Atlanta has a young thriving market with a lot of density and growth. The Tossed concept has Atlanta written all over it,” Russell said.

Russell has owned casual dining restaurants in the past and has also worked for Sodexho in their healthcare department. Now, Russell will marry his two experiences to oversee Tossed in Atlanta. “At Sodexho, we worked to dispel the myth that hospital food can’t be good food. I believe that Tossed will do the same for salads,” he explained. Russell was first introduced to the concept while visiting NYU with his daughter and dining at Tossed. “I saw the potential for Tossed in Atlanta immediately” he said “not to mention dozens of other cities.”

Houston, for example, is another ripe market for the Tossed concept, according to Bryan Sansbury, CEO of Sansbury Investments, who will open seven restaurants in the Houston area by 2010. The group’s first location is scheduled to open in the “Energy Corridor” of Houston on December 1st. The group hopes to eventually open as many as 20. “Market research found that many people just want to grab a salad but they were finding the choices to be limited when it came to high-quality ingredients and the ability to have personal input in an upscale fast-casual setting. We began researching concepts nationally and Tossed quickly emerged as the front runner,” Bryan explained.

According to Eric Schmitt, Tossed CEO, Palm Beach, Houston and Atlanta were definitely target markets. Eric says Tossed has long-term potential for 1,000 U.S. restaurants. They are also looking toward D.C., Detroit, Denver, Seattle, Dallas, Boston, Phoenix, Cleveland, Philadelphia, St. Louis, the Carolinas as well as Northern and Southern California in addition to other major metropolitan cities where Tossed would be embraced as a place where, according to Chef Magazine, “a customer can have the salad of his dreams.”

View Company Website: http://www.tossed.com 

John Creed, Chairman of Passport Restaurants, Inc.’s said that franchise sales are being ramped up and there are major efforts underway to enhance the New York NY Fresh Deli menu as well as its seating and décor.

New York NY Fresh Deli is about ready to open a new, upgraded prototype restaurant in order to present the concept improvements for future restaurant growth. Additionally, New York NY Fresh Deli is developing real estate options to its standard 2,000 sq. ft. restaurant. These include a design for an 800-1,000 sq. ft. unit to be used in food courts, office buildings, airports and other non-traditional venues, and a 300 sq. ft. Kiosk model, especially appropriate for dual-branding with other concepts.

New York NY Fresh Deli already has a comprehensive franchise support program for the training and opening of franchise restaurants. A newer, more interactive local marketing and menu merchandising program is being instituted in order to keep driving individual restaurant sales.

“New York NY Deli has already been named one of the 50 top new franchise concepts in the country. It’s a strong concept that we believe is capable, with the expertise of our management team, to improve and grow quickly – in number of units and in sales volume and customer count. Our mission is to develop New York NY Fresh Deli into a premier nationwide restaurant chain in the burgeoning fast casual sandwich segment of the U.S. restaurant industry,” Creed added.

New York NY Fresh Deli, based in Phoenix, Arizona, features made fresh signature New York Hot Sub Sandwiches with a fun New York theme, Gourmet Deli Sandwiches and a full line of Fresh Cut Salads.

About Passport Restaurants, Inc.

Passport Restaurants, Inc. is a multi-concept restaurant management and holding company which acquires, develops and grows emerging restaurant concepts in the casual dining and quick-casual dining segments of the U.S. restaurant industry. Passport Restaurants, Inc. currently owns Playa Grill & Margarita Bar, a quick-casual restaurant that features high quality, high value, made-fresh Mexican grilled foods in a casual coastal atmosphere, Steve’s Pizza a quick-casual “hometown” pizza restaurant offering a superior quality, affordably priced pizza for dine-in, take-out and delivery and New York NY Fresh Deli. For additional information visit the Passport Restaurant, Inc. website at www.restaurantholdings.com

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:

John M. Creed, Chairman
760.754.2722

Christopher R. Thomas, President & CEO
407.240.9190

The new store is located in Centro Commerciale Auchan, one of Europe’s largest shopping malls, with over 100 stores. Villa Pizza will be operated by Ernesto Coppola, Enzo della Monica, and Gaitano Chiantese. This store debuts a modern look that will be used in future Villa Pizza international locations and hosts a sitting area of 120 seats. In its opening week, this location broke the record for highest opening sales week in an international Villa location.

This is the seventh store in Italy for Villa Enterprises and its affiliates, and the second in the Naples metropolitan area. An eighth store in Italy, in Nola, is currently under development.

In the past five years, Villa Enterprises and its affiliates have more than doubled in size. Villa Enterprise and its affiliates now have over 300 stores in 38 states and 6 countries with approximately 60 percent of the locations being corporately managed.

In addition to Villa and Cozzoli’s Pizza®, Villa Enterprises and affiliates operate Casa Java (sm) and the Everything Yogurt Brands, which include Green Leaf’s (sm), Bananas® and South Philly Steaks & Fries®.

The new Cuppy’s site also includes a comprehensive education section that includes information about coffee, the origin of coffee, the coffee business, and coffee statistics. Visitors to the site can learn about espresso and espresso based drinks from experts such as Alex Fisenko, known in the industry as ‘The Godfather of Coffee.’
In addition, the new website also features an area where Cuppy’s customers can check their gift card balance. The site also highlights news about the Cuppy’s franchise and other coffee industry articles. Also, visitors can subscribe to a monthly newsletter from Cuppy’s that features specialty coffee and smoothie recipes, coffee industry news, and information about the franchise and it’s current offers and promotions.

“We want our franchisees to have everything they need to run a successful coffee and smoothie business at their fingertips. We are constantly putting out new programs, and we think it’s important for our franchisees to have instant access to all of it,” said Clark.

About Cuppy’s Coffee & More
Cuppy’s Coffee, Smoothies & More, a franchise based in Fort Walton Beach, Florida provides aspects of the business including marketing, proven systems, site selection, training, volume buying power, and growth. For more information on Cuppy’s and to learn about our franchise offerings including the dual drive-up/drive-thru, coffee café/coffee shop, mobile café, coffee kiosk, or coffee cart visit the website at www.cuppys.com or call Toll Free at (888)241-4324.