October 5, 2006 - (North Palm Beach, FL)-The restaurant industry can be notoriously tough on newcomers, but don’t tell that to Michael Curcio. He could care less, just as his father did when he made a name for himself in the tire industry.

Twenty-nine-year-old Michael Curcio is the CEO and founder of South Florida-based Pyrogrill, a fast-casual restaurant concept specializing in “Mix” entrees featuring a mix of fresh-grilled chicken, steak or fish with crisp greens and signature sauces. Based on the outstanding success of its restaurant in Jupiter, Fla., Pyrogrill recently launched a franchising program for what is expected to become one of the hottest, fastest-growing and most profitable fast-casual concepts in the country.

Developing successful businesses is nothing new to the Curcio family. Chuck Curcio – Michael’s father, who sits on Pyrogrill’s board of directors along with Blimpie Subs founder Tony Conza – is the founder of Tire Kingdom. The elder Curcio started the company at a farmer’s market in 1972 and grew it into one of the nation’s largest independent tire dealers before retiring in 1996.

“To me, everything starting out was going to be tough,” Michael Curcio said of the challenges he faced when Pyrogrill was founded in 2001. "I just decided to do something that I enjoy.”

Curcio is not only doing something he enjoys, he’s doing it well. Estimated sales at Pyrogrill’s Jupiter, Fla., location are expected to reach $1.1 million in 2006. Same-store sales have increased an average of 43 percent over the last three years.

Backed by its reputation for offering outstanding food and customer service at reasonable prices, Pyrogrill is looking to open 15 to 25 franchised locations throughout the country in 2007, primarily in the Southeast.

Two additional company-owned restaurants are scheduled to open in Wellington and Lake Worth along Florida’s East Coast in January and May 2007, respectively. Curcio expects to open about 100 locations by the end of 2009, with 25 to 30 percent of those being company-operated units.

“We love the business. We love the idea and we love running it,” Curcio said. “Franchising just gives us a faster means of getting Pyrogrill out to more people. We’re trying to spread the love as quickly as possible.”

Curcio’s inspiration for Pyrogrill originated while he was playing basketball for the University of Miami in the late 1990s. When on the team bus en route to the airport to travel to away games, the players were served a delicious meal of yellow rice and grilled chicken with a curry mustard sauce from a local, family-owned restaurant.

Curcio started eating at the restaurant – Starr’s Chicken Grill – on an almost daily basis. “I realized it was a good product, but I thought the business could be run a little better,” he said.

So after graduating from Miami in 1999, Curcio was able to buy the recipes from the restaurant’s founder. After developing several more recipes of his own, Curcio opened his first location – originally known as Grillworks – in Gainesville, Fla., in 2001. The concept was an immediate hit with its healthy, fresh ingredients and signature sauces.

“I just got in the kitchen and worked things out,” said Curcio, who used only three of the original recipes as the foundation for his menu. “I had actually never cooked before starting the restaurant, but I had two years to experiment between graduating and opening. I read books and watched the Food Network. It gave me time to figure things out.”

Curcio also took a page out of his father’s guide to marketing. The elder Curcio had a reputation for zany commercials that began in his company’s infancy, when he could afford little more than $10 or $15 spots “during Cannon and Baretta reruns at 4 a.m.” Chuck Curcio said in an interview in Florida Trend magazine. Michael Curcio did the same in his creative television commercials, using a little person posing as an “Iron Chef” in one and in another using a chimpanzee pretending to be a bartender to promote the addition of beer to the restaurant’s beverage menu.

“My father’s success was developed initially through marketing, but also through the customer service people received when they walked in the door,” Curcio said. “While our commercials might have been crazy, customer service was and is one of the most important elements in Pyrogrill’s success. That’s because we are a service industry.”

With a projected outlook of more than $11 billion in sales from leading fast-casual dining chains in 2006, it appears that Pyrogrill couldn’t have picked a more appropriate time to launch its franchising program.

“There is nothing else like Pyrogrill and we will always be looking to differentiate ourselves through innovation and new ways to improve upon things,” Curcio said. “We’re a young brand and a fun brand.”

View Company Website: http://www.pyrosgrill.com