Urbane Cafe

Music Sandwiches are all about what's on the inside, but let's face it. The bread you use can make or break a sandwich. Urban cafe founder Tom Holt thought so too, so when he opened his first store in Ventura, California, he had to make sure that the bread holding the sandwiches together was stellar. Him and his friend Pete came up with our fricasha bread recipe, which is The heart of it is what revolves around every cafe, so we make our bread fresh every day. And it's not more than 20 minutes from us making it to going down the line into our sandwich or salad, so it's always super fresh. There's not a lot of concepts where you can actually have the sandwich on the bread that's made right there in-house. We actually make everything on site, which is super special. Every night the prep's all make the dough, we let it rise, and then they are baking it all day long. The fricasha isn'the only thing setting urbane cafe apart from the others, because it's what's on the inside that counts too. Hormone free, all natural meats and veggies fill the sandwiches and bowls offered at urbane. I think one of the main things is our ingredients. So our chef is inspired from food culinary all around the world. So we have a lot of things that a lot of fast casual brands don't have. So we have seafood options and not only that, but all of our sandwiches are kind of inspired from different cuisines. So We have a Moroccan Jewel salad, and then you'll see And then we have our chicken pesto. So you'll see a lot of different things from cuisine all around the world, which I think really sets us apart, because a lot of other concepts don't have that range of culinary in their menus. Director of culinary, Judy Han makes a point to not only have every item delicious, but also healthy. She wants to make them so that'something that you can eat every day, something that's a little bit lighter and healthier for you. So I think when she's thinking about different things, she's always The chain has 34 locations across California and Nevada, according to technology data, with plans for expansion in the future. It also experienced a 22. 7% sales increase from 2023 to 2024. So with such great growth, what is compelling urbane to stay company owned? I think the biggest thing is consistency. So you notice that when you have different franchisees, sometimes they do things different ways. And so we want to keep the consistency, So we want to keep that all the same. So that is why we are company owned and we want to stay company owned. And that people is very important to us too. So making sure that we are a people forward company. That people forward perspective is what allows urbane to give back to the community, especially in the wake of natural disasters. We had a few years ago had fires here in Ventura County and But when we had those fires, the first thing that Tom thought about was How can we feed the first responders? How can we feed the people who are displaced? And that was So were out boots on the ground handing out sandwiches, handing out different things to people. As urbane cafe expands into new markets from California, the main challenge is the demand for people. We're always looking and recruiting for more people and We really So that's a really a challenge and an opportunity for us to make sure that we get the right people in the right seats. And then we're developing them to get to those higher roles to the GM's and the AOC's and kind of up through there. Because as we grow, we need a lot more people. So that's kind of been a challenge and an opportunity. One thing is for sure. Urbane cafe remains committed to their original vision, providing fresh, flavorful food at a value price point that customers can enjoy daily. While making a positive impact in each community that they serve.