The dream has not died.
Mr. Mike’s is still coming to Salmon Arm, with the most recent plan to start training and serving food by mid-July.
Darren Flintoff is one of the owners of the Mr. Mikes chain’s parent company, the Stonewater Group.
He reports in an April 30 email to the Salmon Arm Observer that the project is coming along well, with crews beginning to back fill areas that have been under construction.
The restaurant will be housed in the building owned by Gord Erickson that was home to the Urban Market, near the Hideaway Liquor Store on Lakeshore Drive W.
“It will be a completely different look and feel when we are done,” Flintoff says. “(It’s) looking like mid-July for us to be able to start training and serving food.”
He says they’ve already hired a couple of key staff positions.
“We hold a formal job fair about a month prior and look to hire approx. 80+ staff. The Chief Experience Officer (our General Manager) has already been hired and is training in our Kamloops location and our Restaurant Leader (Ass’t Manager) starts training next week.”
In a previous interview regarding the new restaurant, Flintoff explained that in 1995, Bill and Kelly Ranford teamed up with him and Lindsey Flintoff to acquire the parent company of the Mr Mikes chain.
They re-positioned the historic brand into a full-service, casual dining concept and refurbished the franchises with open kitchens, implemented a quality menu and gave the restaurant a unique ‘west coast’ personality and comfortable atmosphere complemented by a friendly, inviting bar.
Read more: Mr. Mikes to open in place of Urban Market
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The salad bars are gone but warm, inviting interiors are here to stay.
“We describe ourselves as ‘contemporary casual,’” Flintoff said. “We’re in small towns north of Salmon Arm where we’re well-received. It’s kind of this cool concept for small towns and people quite like what we’re putting out.”
@SalmonArm
marthawickett@saobserver.net
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