Guerrero is encouraged by the fact that more and more people are “getting” the slow-fast food concept. As of January 2006, Guerrero estimates that his customer counts average about 200 a day, close to his break-even point of 300.
In addition to increasing volume, Guerrero is working to increase production efficiency to help reduce costs. Ticket times during The Oinkster’s opening week were “very long, 15–20 minutes, a totally unacceptable wait for fast food,” Guerrero says. Turnaround time has since dropped to 10 minutes, and Guerrero reduced the number of cooks from seven to five. There will soon be more room in the kitchen, too. Guerrero has found someone to cure The Oinkster’s pastrami off-site, which means no more white plastic curing barrels in the back of the house. “I found a guy whose father taught him how to do it the old-fashioned way, and he is able to cure 2,000 pounds a week for us,” Guerrero says. “We’ll still spice and smoke the meat right here in the restaurant.”
While Guerrero believes that The Oinkster’s complex concept will be “hard for other people to copy,” he is also confident that he will have no problem replicating the operation at additional locations. A second Oinkster is planned for 2008. Once that location is up and running, Guerrero intends to build a central commissary to support future stores.
“Right now, everything works because I’m there watching things and tweaking the menu and fixing the sauces if they don’t come out quite right,” he said. “A commissary would give me almost the same level of control without resorting to shortcuts or off-the-shelf products that are consistent, but mediocre.”
Guerrero has not discounted the idea of franchising, and at least one food writer, LA Weekly critic Jonathan Gold, thinks that is a wise decision. In fact, Gold says he believes The Oinkster is “built to franchise.”
“Once you know how to make the pastrami, if you’re doing 100 pounds a week, it’s not that much harder to do 1,000,” Gold says. “It’s a noble aspiration and I think the idea of this restaurant is on the side of the angels.”
Dennis Lombardi, executive vice president of foodservice strategies at WD Partners, offers a more cautious endorsement. While he believes the premium experience of The Oinkster will appeal to fast-causal consumers, Lombardi warns that consistent replication of the concept could be tricky once the concept grows “beyond the watchful eye of Andre himself.” But, says Lombardi, with strong training and operational systems plus product specifications and a vendor network in place, franchising should be viable for The Oinkster concept, as long as Guerrero is able to make the transition from a fine-dining approach to a quick-service one.