Phillips Famous Seafood

The prototype for Phillips Famous Seafood’s fast-casual restaurants was designed to feature an open kitchen so customers can look on while staff produce crab cakes and other signature seafood items.

By Donna Boss, Contributing Editor -- Foodservice Equipment & Supplies, 8/1/2004

During its 45-year history, privately held Phillips Foods Inc. & Seafood Restaurants has made its mark on the foodservice and retail foods businesses with its manufacturing division and seven full-service, family-style restaurants. In October 2003, a smaller, fast-casual restaurant was opened in Rockville, Md., under a new banner: Phillips Famous Seafood.

"Our founder, Steve Phillips, always wanted to expand with smaller units," explained Aden King, director of operations for the quick-casual division of Phillips Foods Inc. & Seafood Restaurants, headquartered in Baltimore. "As we began exploring our options, we found that our products didn't fit into the fast-food category, but rather into fast-casual. Our aim is to serve good quality seafood cooked-to-order in an open-kitchen environment without staff service."

Metal tabletops and chairs (above), along with pictures of the Phillips family and crabbing, contribute to a casual, beachfront environment.

Featured on the Phillips Famous Seafood's Rockville menu are 25 items, many of which first became popular in the company's full-service restaurants, including crab cakes, crab, lobster and yellowfin tuna salads and wraps, blackened ahi tuna, crispy tilapia, and crab and shrimp spring rolls. "We're a primary producer of mahi mahi, tuna and crab," noted King. "We source the primary protein, which is an expensive item. The fact we buy from ourselves will allow us to expand our quick-casual units nationally."

This year, King estimated, four more Phillips Famous Seafood units will be built. Five more are scheduled to open in 2005. If all goes as planned, a national rollout will follow.

Unlike the full-service restaurants, which were designed with Tiffany lamps and wooden tables, the primary décor elements selected by Kathy Diamond, principal of Kathy Diamond Associates of Scottsdale, Ariz., for the Phillips Famous Seafood prototype are metal tabletops and chairs, a corrugated roof over the service counter like one found at a crab shack, stained concrete floors, vinyl tile in one part of the seating area to break up the space and dark wood laminate for wainscoting. A distinctive image of a crab has been positioned on signs and banners. In addition, pictures of the Phillips family and crabbing hang on the facility's walls.

"Everything we've done, from menu design to décor and equipment, is for the sole purpose of growing the business," commented King. "We're trying to create a concept that is consistent. The menu is simple, so we don't need a culinary school-trained chef to execute it."

A distinctive crab logo and a corrugated roof over the service counter are among the interior design features that complement the front-of-the-house production equipment at Phillips Famous Seafood units.

Added the foodservice consultant for the project, Robert Ormston, senior associate, Cini-Little International Inc., Germantown, Md., "In order to replicate this prototype, we had to realize economies of scale through our equipment and menu board selections."

Products served at the Phillips prototype are delivered to a back-of-the-house loading dock, then placed into storage in either a walk-in cooler or freezer or dry holding area. This section of the restaurant is also equipped with a three-door refrigerator for produce, a three-compartment sink, a prep table, a combi steamer and an undercounter dishwasher.

"One of our biggest challenges was to design an efficient back of the house that was also small enough to give room to the front-of-the-house display cooking area," recalled Ormston. "We selected a chef's counter format for the front of the house, so cooks could keep up with demand during peak traffic periods."

The chef's counter, custom-designed with refrigerated and heated wells, was positioned on the cook side of the display kitchen, while an assembly area with refrigerated wells for condiments was positioned on the expediter side. Behind the counter is the cookline, which is equipped with a small steamer, three fryers, a griddle (on which the crab cakes are cooked), a charbroiler, an undercounter refrigerator and a reach-in refrigerator.

In the front of the house, a chef's counter (right) with refrigerated and heated wells was positioned on the cook side of the kitchen, while an assembly area (left) with refrigerated wells for condiments was positioned on the expediter side.

Once menu items have been cooked and/or assembled and plated, they are sent to one end of an L-shaped counter where an expediter checks orders and approves their release. Adjacent to the pick-up area is a self-service condiment bar where Phillips' sauces and other products are presented. At the opposite end of the counter, orders are taken and payment transactions are completed. Cashiers also fill soup orders (the soup wells are at one end of the chef's table) and give out beverage cups.

Behind the counter is a cookline equipped with a steamer, three fryers, a griddle, a charbroiler, an under-counter refrigerator and a reach-in refrigerator.

"Many of Phillips Famous Seafood products are made centrally in Baltimore to maintain quality and consistency," explained King. However, many menu components, including salads and "Seafood Creations," are made on-site. "We revised the cookline many times," said Ormston, "in order to keep the number of necessary production steps to a minimum and to make sure the equipment was the right size to handle the volume anticipated. The process involved a lot of collaboration between Cini-Little and Phillips."

Though the prototype design and FFE have been met with approval by King, staff and customers, the equipment package costs were higher than King preferred. "Our second challenge was to reduce the cost but maintain the integrity of the design for subsequent units," noted Ormston. "One change we made was to eliminate remote refrigeration." Another change made was to limit custom-built equipment to the chef's counter and to buy out all other pieces.

Though some changes in the initial Phillips Famous Seafood equipment package were inevitable, King, Ormston and all involved in developing the prototype agree that further alterations will only be made if they don't compromise the integrity of the menu items and the 45-year-old brand.

FOH photos by Phillips Famous Seafood
Kitchen photos by Rob Ormston