Sandwich Chain Fills Niche Appetite For Specialty Subs Fuels Growth Of Bruchi’s Fast-Food Restaurants

At best, Bruce Greene is a visionary businessman whose foresight turned a simple sandwich shop into a multimillion-dollar franchise operation.

At worst, he stumbled upon a good idea and knew how to capitalize on it.

The truth about the 38-year-old owner of Spokane’s Bruchi’s sandwich shops - specializing in Philadelphia-style cheesesteak subs - is probably somewhere in between.

In seven years, Bruchi’s has grown from a $70,000-in-annual-sales sub shop to a corporate entity worth between $5 and $6 million. The 17th and 18th stores will open this year.

Greene modestly attributes the company’s success to quality food, customer service and a unique concept.

His employees and co-workers say the same, but also label Greene a “visionary” who provides the ideas that push the company to the next step.

“He’s like the brain, and we’re the arms and legs and hands,” said District Manager John Day, who’s been with the company from the beginning.

Though there’s nothing spectacular about the clean restaurants with their black, white, and red checkerboard decor, employees say it’s the extra steps Bruchi’s takes in customer service that make the fast-food chain different.

For example, said Kathy Lawhead, franchise sales director, employees talk to each customer three times before they leave - once when they come in, next when they pick up food and, finally, when they leave. They also address customers by their first names.

“We try to develop friendships with the people that come in the door, thinking of them more as friends than customers,” Lawhead said.

Bruchi’s steady growth rate accelerated when the company began franchising just under two years ago. At the time, it had eight company stores open.

Franchising was both a response to requests from interested business-people and a natural way to grow the company, Greene said.

Now, there are nine franchises, stretching from Kennewick to Coeur d’Alene, and seven company-owned stores. Plans for next year include the first foray outside the Inland Northwest - Phoenix, Ariz., with both franchises and corporate stores.

Greene likes Phoenix both because it’s growing rapidly and because winter sales will offset Spokane’s yearly cold-weather lull in the restaurant business. Greene hopes to eventually have seven corporate stores in Phoenix, as he does in Spokane.

The growing empire is light years away from the expectations of a casual group of friends who had nothing better to do in the late 1980s than open a sub shop.

Greene borrowed $18,000 from his father, still his partner in the business, and opened the store at Francis and Nevada in North Spokane in 1990.

They toiled over a name, finally settling upon a childhood nickname of Greene’s, and Bruchi’s was born.

“Some kid called me Bruchi when I was like, 2,” Greene said. “It was a name that was out there, and it just kind of worked.”

Greene and his buddies didn’t work too hard at first. They opened the store from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. and closed on weekends. When the sun was shining, they’d sit on lawn chairs, beers in hand, and tan themselves until a customer showed up, said Chris Riley, the company’s general operations manager.

“When a customer came up, we’d put our shirts on and go inside,” Day recalled with a laugh.

When they opened, Bruchi’s signature items - beef and chicken cheesesteaks - weren’t even on the menu. It was the average sub shop, with mostly cold sandwiches. It took six months to come up with the idea that today accounts for more than 60 percent of the company’s sales.

“I figured no one else was doing it out here,” Greene said simply. He adds, with pride, “We started doing chicken cheesesteaks before people back east did.”

The cheesesteak idea, Greene said, came from his mother, Joan, who grew up in a small town in Delaware, just miles from Philadelphia.

While Greene was developing ideas for his restaurant, his parents were traveling on the East Coast and sent him menus from the sub shops they encountered along the way.

It’s that help from family, friends - and the occasional real estate magnate - that has contributed to the business’ success.

When the first store opened, advice from some of the regulars, such as Harlan Douglass, helped grow the company. Douglass, one of Spokane County’s biggest property owners, would give Greene advice about buying property for new stores when he stopped in for sandwiches.

“That’s how lucky I got,” Greene said.

Greene also has an open-door policy, employees say, and will listen to any and all suggestions.

“He’s not the almighty boss type,” Day said.

That laid-back side of Greene’s personality won over Nathan Oulman - Bruchi’s newest franchisee - immediately.

“He’s taught me a lot,” Oulman said of Greene. “Customer service is the biggest point with him.”

The 22-year-old entrepreneur opened his Bruchi’s May 1 at Third and Washington.

Oulman already had years of experience in the restaurant business. Months after graduating from high school in Moscow, he opened a small diner in Odessa. After 18 months, he sold it to venture into fast food.

Oulman liked the Bruchi’s concept because it’s fast food without an overwhelming menu. The emphasis, Oulman said, is on quality, efficiency and customer service.

Though franchising has been a hit, Greene is concerned that the company’s gone overboard.

Fewer people interested in franchising want to work in their own stores, Greene said. They just want to own them.

“Everyone wants to get into the restaurant business. Everyone thinks you’re going to get rich in a month,” Greene said. “Our biggest challenge as we grow is to make sure the quality stays.”

For a store to be a success, Greene said, the owner has to take a personal interest and oversee the operation. Bruchi’s is considering requiring that franchisees work in their stores.

The first franchises opened in October 1994, in Kennewick and Yakima. Seven more followed in rapid succession. Two more are due to open this year, in Wenatchee and Ellensburg.

A franchise costs $13,000 up front, with Bruchi’s getting 4 percent of annual sales. Later this year, the company will start charging an additional 2.5 percent of sales to pay for advertising.

The company plans to approach franchise requests more conservatively, but it still projects opening 30 franchises within the next three years. Within the same time frame, Greene plans to open 25 corporate-owned stores.

The company also is getting more particular about store locations, Greene said. He only wants to open stores that will produce at least $300,000 in annual sales. That limits them to cities with a minimum population of 15,000.

“We won’t do anything less than that,” Greene said.

Few, if any, of the company’s new stores will be in the Spokane area. Aside from a plan to open a Bruchi’s in the Spokane Valley Mall, Greene said the company is done in Spokane.

“We’ve kind of cannibalized ourselves in Spokane by opening up so much,” Greene said.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo