Tin Fish
Tin Fish's school of restaurants is coming along swimmingly.
Franchise Times first visited Tin Fish and its owner, Joseph Melluso, in February 2005. At the time, Melluso had just finished helping Tin Fish licensees Sheffield and Athena Priest set up their location at Lake Calhoun in Minneapolis. Four years later, the operation is yielding quite a catch, according to Melluso. "They're having between $10,000 and $15,000 days. There's constantly a crowded pavilion and people waiting in line - and the excitement, the staff. It's been great."
The company has six more units in Indiana, Washington and California. Yet it has not sold a single franchise, even though it had originally planned to do so. The company got away from franchising early because Melluso was focused on the development of other restaurant ideas and menus. But Melluso is still hoping to establish a franchise system, and has cast his net out in hope of luring a developer.
Nutty Munkey
Back in October 2004, Franchise Times went deep into the jungles of Springfield, Missouri, to catch a glimpse of a frozen custard restaurant called Nutty Munkey. The tropical-themed concept hoped to provide customers with a "total customer experience." Customers were greeted with a hearty "Welcome to the Jungle" upon arrival, and told to "Have a Nutty day" upon departure.
But monkeys are known for eating bananas, not frozen custard, a lesson the franchise would learn the hard way. By 2005, Nutty Munkey had concluded its operations. The neon lights that adorned the exteriors of its buildings were turned off.
Originally a concept by Missouri-based Restaurant Systems Group - a Yum! franchisee that operates such brands as KFC, Taco Bell and A&W - Nutty Munkey filed its last tax return in 2007 and its Houston-based franchisees filed for bankruptcy that same year. Company officials could not be reached for comment.
