For chef Rick Petralia, joining the Freddy’s Frozen Custard and Steakburgers team was an opportunity too good to pass up.
So, earlier this year when the phone rang, the then-director of culinary innovation at Fazoli’s accepted.
“It’s an opportunity that came at a very fortunate time,” Petralia says of the brand’s recent signed franchise agreements and accelerating growth.
He’s worked with Freddy’s just four months as director of menu strategy and innovation, and already he has some menu items he worked on debuting in a matter of weeks.
“When I first started at Fazoli’s, they had their calendar lined up for over a year. So, it took over a year for anything I developed to come out to the restaurants,” Petralia said. “I’d go to Fazoli’s with my wife that first year, with my family, and they’d be like, ‘Oh, did you come up with this?’ It took a whole year for me to say, ‘Hey, I came up with this.’”
He has a new burger coming to stores soon enough, but Petralia is really excited to work with frozen custard.
“Working in the dessert platform has almost limitless possibilities of what you can make, and what you can combine with our frozen custard. It’s something I’m really excited about,” Petralia said.
A key difference—aside from the cuisine—at Freddy’s versus Fazoli’s is Freddy’s lack of limited time offering menu items. Freddy’s, Petralia said, found a few LTO items that work, and run the same ones every year.
He’s looking forward to changing that.
“We’re gonna take it into a little bit of a different direction, and really come with a robust LTO platform, things that are new traffic drivers,” Petralia said. “We want to bring in new guests that maybe aren’t familiar with Freddy’s, and exciting LTOs might be what brings them in for the first time.”
Petralia’s new position is a more strategy-heavy role, rather than just working on the culinary side of operations. Before he joined the team, the position didn’t really exist. Previously, the founder came up with menu offerings.
The job requires a lot of research, which Petralia values so he can develop new items based on what people are looking for or already enjoying. For instance, he may think a certain sandwich needs fixing, but if the customers prefer it the way it is, he wouldn’t need to change it.
As the company continues growing, Petralia wants to use customer surveys and other tools to gather input from guests to further improve the traditional menu.
“It’s going to stay traditional,” he said. “We’re not going to make radical changes right away.”
Petralia draws his inspiration from similar quick-service restaurants and their successful campaigns, like Taco Bell bringing back its Mexican Pizza.
“That’s something that inspires me and motivates me and almost keeps me up at night, like how can Freddy’s have an overnight success like that?” he said.
The total investment required to open a Freddy’s store is $760,754 to $1.1 million