After France, Belgium and the Netherlands, the Pitaya restaurant chain is about to enter the Luxembourg market. “Our goal is to open five restaurants in Luxembourg over the next four to five years,” Marco Tessaro--CEO and co-founder of AlphaSeed, Pitaya's franchise master in the Benelux--told Delano’s sister publication Paperjam.

The Bordeaux-based company currently has 121 outlets, mainly in France, but also in Belgium and the Netherlands, where AlphaSeed has already opened some of the 70 restaurants it aims to open in the Benelux by 2027.

Their recipe? A decoration and an atmosphere reminiscent of Bangkok street food. “The first thing you see when you enter is the range cooker, the hood and the cooks sautéing the ingredients in the woks with smoke, noise, and between each dish the remaining oil is set on fire, it's a small flame of three to four seconds that attracts the eye of the customer,” says Tessaro.

Pitaya wants to create the atmosphere of a Thai street food restaurant. (Photo: Dorian Lohse/K-pture.com)

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In Luxembourg, Pitaya aims to expand to five different locations. (Photo: Dorian Lohse/K-pture.com)

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AlphaSeed is betting on the fast casual segment with Pitaya, as well as its two other upcoming master-franchises. (Photo: Dorian Lohse/K-pture.com)

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Fast casual, an appetising segment

Together with his three partners from AlphaSeed, Tessaro is making his first foray into the fast casual market, by which he means a chain restaurant concept that combines healthy food at a moderate price (an average bill of between €10 and €15), ease of use thanks to digital ordering, and finally, a certain customer experience. “Fast casual is, together with the delivery and convenience segments in petrol stations, the third sub-segment of the hotel and catering industry that will emerge in 2021 higher than in 2019, before the covid crisis,” he explains.

Its appetite is far from drying up, since AlphaSeed is preparing to sign two additional master franchises, still in the fast casual segment. From shopping centres to shopping streets, via retail parks, the concept can be integrated in large and medium-sized cities alike, according to the Brussels-based company.

In Luxembourg, AlphaSeed says it is working with a franchisee for its first outlet planned for spring 2022, a stone's throw from Place d'Armes. Another franchisee candidate is expected to be in charge of the other four openings, but before that the locations have to be found. Tessaro does not hide his interest in the station area, the Kirchberg and Cloche d'Or shopping centres, without forgetting Belval. “But the franchisee will decide according to the opportunities that present themselves.”

This story was first published in French on . It has been translated and edited for Delano.