Noodles & Company, the Broomfield-based fast-casual chain known for globally inspired pasta dishes, opened its first international location, in Canada, this week.
In the city’s busy financial district, the Toronto store also is the first Noodles to offer a breakfast menu.
Company CEO Kevin Reddy said he chose the location for its proximity to a large commuter area with more than 20,000 people working in the 4 million-square-foot office and retail Toronto-Dominion Centre.
“It’s primarily a breakfast and lunch complex,” he said. “We felt like it made a lot of sense.”
To prepare, Noodles has been testing the breakfast menu — Mediterranean- and Asian-spiced wraps, and French toast and English-muffin sandwiches — in mid-April at its Republic Plaza store on the 16th Street Mall, Reddy said.
“We really wanted to capture the learning and validate the learning that we’ve done in our test kitchen,” Reddy said. “We’re really happy they helped us fine-tune the menu.”
There are no plans to launch the breakfast menu in the U.S. permanently.
The restaurant’s core menu aligns well with Canadian consumers’ eating style, which influenced the decision to open in Toronto, Reddy said.
“What we’re finding in Canada doing our research, it’s a very diverse consumer base with a lot of different global flavors,” he said. “They eat adventurously. They experiment.”
generated $39 billion in the U.S. last year, but the concept is still relatively new in Canada, where most growth is attributed to U.S. brands crossing the border.
U.S. chains are expected to increase fast casual market expansion with 10 percent sales growth projected over the next five years, according to firm for the food-service industry.
Canada has become the logical next step for many U.S. restaurants that are established and growing, Technomic executive vice president Darren Tristano said. Its proximity to the U.S. allows brands to expand and test new concepts with a similar customer base, he said.
“Canada is still very small and still in development stages,” Tristano said. “To move to Canada is a great next step.”
Noodles opened in 1995 and expanded to more than 450 locations across the U.S., according to the company’s website. Reddy said the company today serves more than 60 million customers a year and could expand to 100 million with five years.
Amy Edelen: 303-954-1440, aedelen@denverpost.com or twitter.com/amyedelen
