Current print subscribers can create a free account by clicking here
Otherwise, follow the link below to join.
To Our Valued Readers –
Visitors to our website will be limited to five stories per month unless they opt to subscribe. The five stories do not include our exclusive content written by our journalists.
For $6.99, less than 20 cents a day, digital subscribers will receive unlimited access to YourValley.net, including exclusive content from our newsroom and access to our Daily Independent e-edition.
Our commitment to balanced, fair reporting and local coverage provides insight and perspective not found anywhere else.
Your financial commitment will help to preserve the kind of honest journalism produced by our reporters and editors. We trust you agree that independent journalism is an essential component of our democracy. Please click here to subscribe.
Kyle Preston is bringing more pizza to Peoria, regardless of any pandemic.
Mr. Preston, whose company owns the Valley’s Biscuit Cafes, is branching out in a new direction with the opening of the second location of The Rec Pizza and Wings in Peoria to bring Detroit-style pizza to the community.
With a first location near Beardsley and Lake Pleasant roads started with former partner Mark Gluck in 2019, a second shop opened earlier this month as Mr. Preston has an eye toward bringing the brand to locations throughout the West Valley.
“The West Valley is underserved,” he said. “We don’t have a lot of options. It’s a gold mine for whoever will take the leap.”
Taking that leap is part of the challenge, particularly lately. Many restaurants statewide faced closures during the summer because of Gov. Doug Ducey’s executive orders regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, and all are still restricted on capacity.
But a funny thing happened to The Rec during that time: sales at the original location skyrocketed over the summer. While he originally had plans to expand, that leap became what he saw as a “calculated risk.”
It wasn’t just executive orders and closures that hampered expansion. Mr. Preston said getting inspections through the city of Peoria was a challenge as the pandemic workforce made doing business a little tougher for everyone.
Opening during a pandemic wasn’t originally the plan. Mr. Preston said he believed in the market for Detroit-style pizza and he’d signed up the second location prior to the closures.
The restaurant industry has been at the forefront of carnage when it came to closures and job losses from the pandemic recession. A study from the National Restaurant Association released in September found nearly one in six restaurants nationwide, or about 100,000 total, closed permanently or long-term because of the pandemic. That resulted in a loss of nearly 3 million employees and $240 billion in sales.
But Mr. Preston said moving forward was an obvious choice.
“There are only two things that can happen,” he said. “I can fail horribly or when all this is said and done I could have three or four locations and be in a better position than I was before the pandemic.”
With no competition in the West Valley for his product and a few players already in the East Valley, Mr. Preston said his goal is to grow more in the region.
For his company, KEP Franchise Services LLC, expanding is old hat, particularly in the West Valley. He has opened six Biscuits Cafes in the region and has a seventh, at Third Street and Bell Road, opening soon. The concept was one started by his grandfather in Portland that the family imported to Arizona.
Beyond the pandemic, The Rec has faced other challenges. While startup costs are relatively low for a restaurant franchise at about $200,000, Mr. Preston said finding prime real estate has proved difficult, as well as finding landlords willing to take a risk on a new concept that doesn’t have much of a track record. The Biscuits Cafe track record has helped when working with the same landlords on different concepts.
He knows finding locations can be a struggle for startup entrepreneurs, but Mr. Preston encourages them to work on their concepts and get to know property owners and landlords.
“You have to build relationships,” he said. “The only reason we’re able to do what we do is because we’re on a first-name basis.”
And finding the right location is key, Mr. Preston said.
“If you’re in the best location, you don’t have to have the best food to succeed,” he said. “But if you’re in the best location and have the best food, you will succeed.”
Finding the best locations has another benefit, Mr. Preston said.
“I know that if I can get all the best spots in the West Valley before the others can get in, it can cut down on the competition,” he said.
By 
