The Squeeze In Franchising History
Squeeze In Business History
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1974
The Squeeze In opened in Historic Downtown Truckee, California, north of Lake Tahoe, in May 1974. Specializing in omelettes, sandwiches and soups, the tiny breakfast and lunch restaurant had just 12 tables and seating for 49 guests. We’re the “modern founders” Gary and Misty Young. We became the owners of the Squeeze In on January 1, 2004. Although it was in need of updating, we could see the immense potential of the business. Misty gave up a partnership in an ad firm and Gary left his position as a landscape construction foreman to buy this little gem of a restaurant. Once we acquired the original Truckee location, revenues and guest counts immediately saw healthy and substantial increases. During the first two years we owned it, we worked non-stop both IN the restaurant and ON the restaurant, building the business through the focused and strategic development of people, systems and efficiencies. Development happened in all areas: training and accountability systems for the front and back of the house – as well as purchasing, administrative and executive functions behind the scenes. We like to say “we’re laid back and easy going in front of the guest, and as strategic and systems driven as Apple behind closed doors.” In other words, your guest is comfortable and having a great time while you’re building and managing income and success systems in the background. Systems development has been one of the keys to our decades of success.
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2007
In preparation for expansion, we brought on partners, Shila and Chad Morris, our daughter and son-in-law. Shila and Chad had been working in the family business while attending college. They’re amazing leaders in their own right, both holding food service and hospitality certificates from Cornell University in addition to their undergrad and, for Shila, her graduate degree as well.This truly is a family business. The newest Squeeze In partner is youngest daughter, Kay Salerno, President of YoungSocial, a digital marketing firm. Shila, Kay and Misty are all verified leadership experts, having earned international certification from The John Maxwell Team and have worked closely with John Maxwell and his faculty over the last several years.
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2008
We opened the second location of the Squeeze In on February 1, 2008, in northwest Reno, Nevada.
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2009
Misty received a telephone inquiry from a Food Network producer, which led to the filming of a surprise episode of the popular Food Network show Throwdown! with Bobby Flay. Bobby Flay was a fabulous host, fun to work with and the episode was exciting! Three times during the show, on national TV, Bobby said, “Misty, you are like the nicest competitor we’ve ever had on Throwdown!” Well, we showed him some good, old fashioned western hospitality – and we served up a great breakfast to the 75 people who turned out to be part of the filming.
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2010
Throwdown! with Bobby Flay: The national broadcast catapulted the business forward – revenues leapt by 25% literally the morning after the show aired, and sustained that increase for the next year, which helped set us up for more growth.
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2011
Several months after we appeared on The Food Network, Squeeze location number three, located in south Reno, Nevada, opened on April 1, 2011. Our largest restaurant, it has the ability to serve almost 700 guests in a single 7 hour operating day.
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2012
As we began to consider bringing on franchise brand partners, and opened our fourth family location in August 2012, in Sparks, Nevada, we returned to a design reminiscent of the original Truckee location, long and skinny, as we like to say, “a hallway with tables.”
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2015
We welcomed our first franchise brand partners, Chris Lowe and Dina Gonzalez to the team, into the Las Vegas market.
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2017
Kathy Monday becomes our franchise brand partner for Modesto, California.
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2019
Nathan Bartosz became our franchise partner for Eagle, Idaho.
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2022
Jim Gurnea and Troy Blake became franchisees for Spanish Springs, Nevada.
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2022
Mike and Whitney Goldwater became franchisees for Gardnerville, Nevada and purchased our Carson City, Nevada location.