Pickleman’s Gourmet Café is opening its first drive-thru location in the Kansas City metro area at the corner of W 135th & Black Bob Rd. in Olathe.
It is the fourth Pickleman’s Gourmet Cafe in the area, following locations in Downtown KC, Westport, and Waldo. To celebrate Pickleman’s latest opening, the first two drive-thru and first two dine-in customers will receive an exclusive Pickleman’s Gift Basket.
Pickleman’s, founded in Columbia, Missouri in 2005, has become known across the Midwest and beyond for making many of its items from scratch giving it an artisan feel.
The menu includes lightly-toasted sandwiches, really good soups, fresh salads, thin and crispy pizzas and made from scratch cookies.
“I am personally pleased to see the continued success of our franchisees and the inception of their third location,” says Doug Stritzel, Founder and CEO of Pickleman’s Gourmet Cafe. “The majority of our franchisees operate multiple locations and most of them are looking to build more locations which is a strong indicator of the brand’s success.”
Peak Performance Brands, founded in 2022 and comprised of entrepreneurs Janell & Keith Royer and Kendall Pearl. Important to note, Keith started his career with Pickleman’s at the original Columbia, MO location in 2006, and he and Janell became franchisees in Lawrence, KS in 2018 Kendall began his journey with Pickleman’s in 2011 and joined the Peak Performance Brand Group in 2022, to open up their third location in Olathe, KS.
The former Fazoli’s location in front of Walmart at 135th & Black Bob Rd offers dine-in, drive-thru, delivery, and catering services to the surrounding area as well as online ordering for speed and convenience.
“We’re excited to bring Pickleman’s Gourmet Cafe’s fresh ingredients and bold flavors to Olathe,” adds Peak Performance Brand’s TITLE XX Keith Royers, Missouri native who has worked with Stritzel for over sixteen years. “We’re thrilled to be a part of both Olathe’s economic growth and the continued expansion of the Pickleman’s brand which is committed to providing the community with higher quality food than your typical sandwich shop.”
Pickleman’s Gourmet Cafe made news recently when it became the very first national chain in the sandwich sector to commit to using only No Antibiotics Ever chicken and pork–to provide clean protein options not commonly available in the quick-service industry. In addition, the brand was the first known to enact a real butter only policy for its made-from-scratch chocolate chip cookies. Showing that quality and cleaner ingredients are good business, the brand achieved 14.5 percent comparative same store sales growth in 2022 over the previous year.