EDINA, Minn. -- Lunds/Byerly's here credits its new business partner, Shanghai Circus, with bolstering its fresh image and adding pizazz at the front of its stores.
Shanghai Circus, owned by Chicago-based Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises, is an all-natural, open-kitchen Oriental take-out concept that's replacing in-store units of Leeann Chin, a local restaurant chain. The partnership between Leeann Chin and Lunds/Byerly's was terminated last year.
The deal with Lettuce Entertain You grants Lunds/Byerly's exclusivity with Shanghai Circus operations inside its stores. The chefs and cooks are Lettuce Entertain You employees, but Lunds/Byerly's associates serve the food.
The retail chain plans to install the concept in 17 of its stores over the next year and a half, said Jennifer Panchenko, the chain's food-service director. The first went in last fall, and the fourth and most recent unit opened last month in a remodeled Byerly's store in Minnetonka, a Minneapolis suburb.
Panchenko said Lunds/Byerly's officials saw the concept as just the thing for today's times.
"It appeals to everybody," she said. "With it, we're appealing to Gen X, the tweens, as well as to others. It's really non- or multi-generational, and it hits all the food trends we see people gravitating to right now. It's healthy, full-flavored, mostly low-carb, offers lots of options, and it's all natural."
It provides a lot of action and theater, too.
"You can see the chefs zesting fresh lemons and fresh oranges [and] cutting cilantro. It's all just-in-time cooking. Very fresh, in small batches."
The 20-unit Lunds/Byerly's formed a partnership with Leeann Chin in 1992, but the concept's sales had been dropping in recent years, officials told SN last year.
"It was innovative in the beginning. Nobody else had it then, but it's no longer giving us a good point of differentiation," said Michelle Croteau, company spokeswoman, last year when that agreement was ended.
Industry sources in the area told SN that one hindrance was that Leeann Chin aggressively expanded with its freestanding units and that diluted the business at the supermarkets. There are no freestanding units of Shanghai Circus in the Twin Cities market.
