Growth is on the menu for fledgling manufacturer Cabreeze\u2122 as its convertible patio structures help restaurants tame the elements and expand their business.<\/p>\n
Cabreeze\u2122 founder and serial entrepreneur Kent Forsland has found an early appetite for his patent-pending structures among busy restaurants eager to add capacity and extend the use of increasingly popular patios beyond the North Country\u2019s fleeting outdoor dining season.<\/p>\n
The Cabreeze\u2122, the prototype of which Forsland sketched on a restaurant napkin, is a permanent structure with sliding walls and a convertible roof that open and close independently. The retractable roof and walls allow the Cabreeze\u2122 to adapt to changing conditions, shutting out wind, rain and even street noise or opening up on mild days, and to different uses, from restaurant seating to weddings, corporate meetings and reunions.<\/p>\n
The structure consists of a steel frame, aluminum and two-ply polycarbonate roof segments and sliding walls of anodized aluminum and glass.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s built on a solid foundation, typically including underground concrete piers and a concrete slab, and goes up in just a week or two after assembly is done in the Cabreeze\u2122 factory in River Falls, Wis., about 40 miles east of Minneapolis.<\/p>\n
Forsland launched the company in 2009, a challenging time for any new business and a particularly difficult time to persuade restaurant owners to spend $150,000 to $200,000 or more on capital improvements.<\/p>\n
The key has been to find busy locations that needed extra room despite the recession \u2014 and to explain what Forsland said is the one-year payback time on the investment, thanks to incremental profits from added capacity and additional guests, attracted in part by the buzz he said the structure generates.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we focus on restaurants that have more demand than capacity, it is pretty awesome,\u201d Forsland said. \u201cIf a structure would cost them $150,000, we can show them that by having this extra capacity, it will pay for itself in a year. That means the next year they\u2019re putting that $150,000 in their pocket. It is pretty compelling when we find those kinds of restaurant owners.\u201d<\/p>\n
Forsland projects that this year\u2019s revenue will surpass $1 million, more than tripling last year\u2019s $300,000. The Cabreeze\u2122 includes steel that\u2019s fabricated and powder-coated in Minnesota and aluminum that\u2019s extruded, anodized and fabricated in Wisconsin.<\/p>\n
Faster growth could come if Forsland can connect with a couple of innovative owners of franchise restaurants, which can lead to business with national chains. Restaurant sales for now have gone to independents such as the Lake Elmo Inn, which installed a Cabreeze\u2122 on its patio last November, and to Patrick McGovern\u2019s Pub in St. Paul and al Vento in Minneapolis, which both hope to complete installations this year.<\/p>\n
Lake Elmo Inn chef-owner John Schiltz said his Cabreeze\u2122 enabled him to seat 1,000 extra diners during the holidays and 500 extra during Valentine\u2019s weekend in his 35-seat patio, which he previously covered with a temporary tent. His family celebrated Christmas in the Cabreeze\u2122, which he heats to operate year-round.<\/p>\n
Patrick McGovern\u2019s co-owner Pat Boemer said the pub\u2019s planned Cabreeze\u2122 would extend its patio season from three-plus months to eight or nine months a year while providing space for crowds from the nearby Xcel Energy Center.<\/p>\n
At al Vento, chef-owner Jon Hunt said he decided on a Cabreeze\u2122 to expand business at his already successful location instead of opening another restaurant.<\/p>\n