Cafe Santa Fe plans new concept eatery

Tom Flores, president of CSF Franchise Group of Fayetteville, said he is considering a new concept eatery that would be about half the size of the company’s Cafe Santa Fe restaurants.

The new restaurants would be small enough to locate comfortably in malls and strip centers and would have lower overhead than any of the 17 restaurants currently under the CSF Franchise Group umbrella.

“I would love to roll it out next spring or summer locally,” Flores said. “It’s termed ‘fast casual.'”

Flores said the set-up cost for a full-blown Cafe Santa Fe is about $250,000. The first year, a full-service Cafe Santa Fe restaurant may do about $1 million in sales, and the profit would be about 10 percent.

The new, smaller versions would be about half as expensive to open and would bring in about half as much in sales. But the profit margin would be about twice that of the larger stores, he said.

Flores said the restaurants would be similar to chains in California such as Maui Tacos and Baja Cafe.

“It would be hip, cool, fast and comfortable,” he said.

Flores said the restaurants would likely serve only beer and margaritas for its alcoholic beverages. Metal utensils would be replaced with plastic, further lowering overhead.

In the meantime, Flores plans to open two full-service Cafe Santa Fe restaurants in eastern Oklahoma within the next 10 months.