Growing a Business: Multiple Concepts and Rebranding
Co-owners Chef Tom Gray and Sarah Marie Johnston opened Moxie Kitchen & Cocktails in 2013, and successfully carved out a destination for locals amidst a slew of national restaurants popping up at St. John's Town Center. Three years later, their next venture, Town Hall, opened in the San Marco section of Jacksonville, and business was humming along until September 2018, when they had to change Moxie's name due to a legal issue. We had a chance to sit down with Chef Tom and Sarah Marie to learn what drove their decisions to open a second eatery and rebrand Moxie as Prati Italia.
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Background: San Marco is our neighborhood, and where we opened our first restaurant before Moxie Kitchen & Cocktails. When the previous owner at the Town Hall location was closing his business, he asked us if we would be interested in the space. We took a look at it and thought about it, then decided to go ahead.
The change from Moxie Kitchen & Cocktails has been underway for a while. In September 2018 we got legal notification from a restaurant chain called Moxie’s Bar & Grill in Canada – they issued a cease and desist. By October of 2018, we had a plan to convert Moxie’s Kitchen to an Italian restaurant. We were careful with our messaging, because we didn’t want people to think we were closed. We finished 2019 as Moxie, then took the first two weeks in January to convert to the new concept, Prati Italia. Our team turned around the new concept in 16 days. It was exhilarating and exhausting!
How location reflects the brand: The small space at Town Hall was something new and different, and that was appealing. We saw an opportunity to have a cozy neighborhood restaurant near where we live. The space needed a lot of renovation and we had to determine how to approach that, along with how Chef Tom wanted to express himself in his cooking. We wanted to add to the blend in the neighborhood without taking away from what was already there.
Challenges: Maintaining the same level of quality in multiple locations. We put more procedures and practices in writing as a reference point for ongoing training. We haven’t been able to clone ourselves yet. We’ve been fortunate to have one of our chefs since 2006, Albert Fuentes. We are focusing on the two restaurants together and trying to make sure we split our time between the two places.
Advice: You need a good core team that shares the same values and philosophy so they can teach when you’re not there. Have the same systems across the board - prep processes, bar setup, the same spreadsheets - it makes it easier when going between businesses.
