A Q&A with Don Clifford, Soulshine Pizza with locations in Mississippi and Tennessee
The first Soulshine Restaurant was opened in February 2001 by Chris Sartin in Flowood, Mississippi via our affiliate Soulshine, Inc. Currently, three Soulshine Restaurants are open and operating, one in Flowood, Mississippi, one in Ridgeland, Mississippi, and one in Franklin, Tennessee. Currently we have two (2) fast casual (Our New Concept) restaurants under construction (Gluckstadt, MS and Gallatin, TN).
The Concept
Our new concept is a fast casual experience that showcases a lot of new technology to better serve our customers. We serve a craft style hand-tossed pizza that comes in three different sizes and a variety of different toppings. We have been serving the greater Jackson area as well as the Nashville market for the last two decades. The new fast casual model we are constructing will change our style by streamlining our operations in a few different ways.
We will be offering counter service, as many fast-casual pizza parlors do, but with some added features. Those features will include the ability to order and pay for your food at the table via QR codes, ordering via kiosk for to-go orders, integrations with third party vendors to help alleviate any wait times, stall QR codes that allow us to know when and where to bring your food when you arrive. This concept is going to be successful through proper marketing and training. We look forward to expanding into the Nashville market and others in the future.
Growing the Brand
Years ago, we saw the market changing. It became more about online ordering and to go and less about full service. Once Covid hit and we had to switch to only being able to do to-go orders we knew we had something. That’s where our new concept comes in. A fast casual version of our old classic that focuses more on speed of service and new and ever developing technologies to make the to go experience enjoyable.
Once we drew it up, we knew we had something. Smaller restaurant with counter service that focuses on to go business but that still has the ability for you to come in grab a beer and a pizza and sit if you want. New integrations with third party delivery, new pos systems to streamline online ordering, kiosks to speed up ordering, status boards so you can track your order all the way through the kitchen. A smaller footprint with a big impact. A smaller footprint and less startup costs will allow us to develop more restaurants quicker.
We focus on families. Everyone’s got to eat dinner and once they see how quick and easy it is to stop by and grab some quality food made by people who care about putting out the best product possible, they will be lifelong customers. We have something for everyone here at Soulshine, calzones, oven baked sandwiches and beautiful fresh salads all made to order. So, get on down to a Soulshine near you, where family, community, and great food is what we stand for.
