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Mission: To offer the best panini on the planet, served with uniquely personalized service.
The first My Panini restaurant is now open at Lindbergh City Center in Atlanta. The restaurant serves lunch, dinner and catering seven days a week from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. My Panini is a start-up restaurant company owned and operated by Atlanta-based Grill Ventures, Inc. The My Panini specialty restaurants will compete in the quick-casual segment, the restaurant industry’s strongest growth category. Initial expansion plans call for the first three My Panini restaurants to open in the Atlanta area. The Lindbergh Center City My Panini location is the first Georgia restaurant to be certified by The Green Restaurant Association.
Our focus: Panini, Planet, People:
Panini: The Gestation Phase: The founders of My Panini spent years perfecting the art of panini tasting, a miserable, thankless job of dining in exotic destinations, while writing off every single panino as a legitimate tax-deductible business expense. No single panino (singular for panini) satisfied the connoisseur’s criteria. The idea of creating the “best panini on the planet” began to gestate.
My Panini is born
The art of serious panini-making began to be explored and perfected in home kitchens, chefs’ kitchens and, ultimately in test kitchens. Over time, dozens of focus group participants were paid to eat a free lunch and given a chance to criticize or praise. Dozens more participants were given the same offer again until, at last, there remained only praise (and the sounds of crisp bread being broken together).
The participants were imPRESSed because My Panini sandwiches are “pressed,” the way panini is supposed to be. In other words, not grilled, toasted, microwaved, or otherwise compromised.
Each made-to-order panino combines full-flavored, imaginative ingredients. Artisan cheeses mingle with house made sauces, fresh vegetables and quality meats on ciabatta bread (in most cases) and are then pressed to a ridged, crisp perfection on the outside, yet are hot and moist on the inside – the way panini is supposed to be.
The My Panini full-flavored menu features several signature panini including Steakanini, ™ which is loaded with medium-rare roast beef, caramelized onion, roasted garlic Cheddar and Swiss cheeses, roasted red pepper and wasabi-Dijon aioli. The lower-calorie Bikini Panini™ category features a Veggie Bikini with portabello mushroom or the Turkey Bikini, which is filled with avocado, provolone and sweet pepper cheddar cheeses, roasted red tomato and wrapped in a tomato-basil tortilla. Other signature Panini are Chicken with Attitude and the Ultimate Grilled cheese.
Made-to-order salads include: The My Panini Salad featuring fresh spinach tossed in fat-free raspberry vinaigrette with cranberry-raisins, apple and jicama slices topped with Gorgonzola crumbles, slivered almonds and sunflower seeds; a traditional Caesar salad; a Southwestern salad and a Crispy Asian Salad. All salads are served with “teeni panini” ™. Optional enhancements for topping salads include: sliced cilantro-lime marinated chicken breast; prime rib; sesame ginger salmon and lump crab.
Additional menu items: dozens of “build-your-own-panini” choices for the adventurous; soups, and “Not Fries,” – garlicky potatoes that are pressed, not fried. Dinner or hearty lunch entrees include salmon, grilled prime rib, pork loin and barbecue chicken, which My Panini blushingly refers to as My Panini “Naked.” (The Weenie Panini, a tofu hot dog from our kids’ menu, may also make one blush, or at the very least, giggle.)
My Panini also offers take-out and “hot” catering for events or meetings delivered via the hybrid My Paninimobile. Specialized equipment with an active heat source is used to transport catering orders to keep everything that is supposed to be hot, well, actually hot.
The Planet: While circling the planet in search of the perfect panini, My Panini was reminded of how essential it is to have a planet to begin with, and how important it is to do their part in protecting it. So My Panini decided to become the first restaurant in Georgia to be certified by The Green Restaurant Association (GRA), (which by the way, is no easy task, since the GRA takes this stuff very seriously, as well they should).
For instance: My Panini uses non-disposable plates and flatware (even in catering – imagine a real plate in an office meeting). “To-Go” orders are packed with biodegradable flatware. Even the cups for sodas, tea and smoothies are biodegradable. They’re made from corn. (Nothing is too corny when it comes to caring about the earth). The dessert to-go containers are made from compost-able sugar cane fiber – 100% biodegradable, and the paper napkins and “Biopak” catering boxes are bleach-free. The truth is, in some cases My Panini had to make a choice: Is our stuff going to be really cute, or responsible? We chose responsible. Cute is never as cute once it gets to the landfill.
On the other hand, the My Paninimobile is cute, and cool, and is a Ford Escape hybrid so it helps to keep the earth cool while delivering hot sandwiches.
So what else makes My Panini GRA certified?
- My Panini has contracted with “Round and Round,” a local Atlanta recycling firm in order to recycle cardboard, glass bottles, plastic bottles and cans;
- Construction materials included high-pressure laminates from Wilson-Art, which are “Greenguard Indoor Air Quality Certified.”
- The kitchen equipment at My Panini is energy efficient; the refrigeration system is ENERGY STAR ™ certified; the dishwasher uses less water; and the ice machine is 25% more energy efficient than other models. Since My Panini “presses” rather than fries or grills, there are no exhaust hoods or fryers required to operate the My Panini kitchen.
- Electric hand dryers have been installed in the restrooms to conserve water and energy, along with low water usage toilets, SoySafe soaps and cleaners, and “green” specified toilet tissue.
- The primary all purpose cleaner is soy-based, and is a non-toxic and environmentally safe product that releases no odors, chemical fumes or vapor emissions into the air; it contains no chlorinated solvents, phosphates, silicones, acrylics, acetones or caustics. It is 100% biodegradable; non-petroleum based and has no negative effects on rivers, streams, plants or wildlife.
- Communication materials for to go menus, catering menus and stationery were printed by an environmentally-friendly printer, utilizing at least 35% post-consumer recycled paper and soy-based inks printed on alcohol-free presses. new
- Additionally, My Panini will implement a minimum of four environmental practices each year, allowing for evolving “green” innovations to be incorporated into the restaurants operations.
People: All My Panini employees (aka imPRESSers) are offered a 401K Plan, paid vacation, a bonus award program, meal benefits and a limited medical insurance plan.
The My Panini leadership has long supported Samaritan House of Atlanta, and will continue to do so with restaurant resources, including complimentary catering at Samaritan House for their homeless clients, and offers guests the option to contribute “Change for Change” to Samaritan House. Samaritan House of Atlanta transforms lives by helping homeless men and women achieve self-sufficiency through personalized employment readiness and life stabilization programs. (www.samhouse.org)
Additionally, My Panini will sponsor a quarterly “Community Cause Day,” for local schools and charities. A percentage of sales on Cause Day will be donated to the cause.
Leadership:
So, who dreamed up this panini place, anyway? Like a lot of quick-casual restaurant concepts (which will not be named here), the founder of My Panini has a single-syllable name, too. Ned. He also has a last name. It is Barker. Ned Barker, the all around panini-lovin’ guy would prefer to -- well, stay out of the spotlight. After all, Ned maintains, “It’s all about the panini, the people and the planet.”
In other words, it’s not about him, even though he is considered people; he lives on this planet, and has consumed a few panini. Ned has very respectable food and beverage credentials; he spent twenty years with the company that is now Intercontinental Hotels Group (IHG), where he was most recently Vice President of Food and Beverage for the North American Division. As one might imagine, Ned climbed a few rungs on the ladder between his first job as a busboy and the Lifetime Achievement Award he received from IHG. He also serves on the Board of Samaritan House of Atlanta, and was previously the Chairman of the Board.
Cheerleaders: Bikini Panini and Beef Steakanini: These mascots are not just mild-mannered nini’s; nor are they exactly people. They are signature sandwiches with a certain je nais se quoi. He’s a superhero. She’s a bit of a flirt in her yellow polka-dot bikini. Visit them at : www.bestpanini.com or at www. myspace.com.
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