Owners closing Merv's Melt Shop to expand Canopy Roads Cafe empire statewide
Merv's Melt Shop has served its last plate of over-the-top creations and side-splitting portions.
After five years, the Railroad Avenue location won't be reopening. The website is stripped of its robust menu, and the owners opted to speak to customers with a farewell note, also posted to Facebook.
Brad Buckenheimer, David Raney and Omar Hajjer, owners of Rise and Grind Hospitality Group, were faced with an interesting dilemma:
Keep Merv's open and contend with higher rents and seasonal customers when college students flee in the summer and return every semester, or go all in with the booming business that's becoming the company's bread and butter?
They opted to expand the Canopy Roads Cafe brand. With four locations in Tallahassee, another site in Tampa and a franchise in Jacksonville, the timing seemed too good to pass up. Another location in Neptune is next.
"With everything in (the Gaines Street ) area being so seasonal, we figured we’d go out on top,” said Buckenheimer. “We just have so much on our plate right now.”
Merv's is Tallahassee latest restaurant casualty. The Deck Pizzeria Pub and Downtown Ramen Bar closed within weeks of each other last week and in May.
"We have experienced the seasonality of being close to campus,” Buckenheimer said. “Combined with that, there’s just a lot of competition.”
Rise and Grind Hospitality Group also owns the Lunch Box and the Proper, the brewpub located inside Proof Brewing Co.
Rise and Grind, which has 80 to 100 employees in Florida, hopes to have 19 Canopy Road Cafe locations statewide by 2022. The company is projected to reach $10 million in revenue by the end of 2020, Buckenheimer said.
Restaurants are a driving force for the state's economy, an "industry-at-a-glance" report from the National Restaurant Association said. There were 41,366 eating and drinking place locations recorded in Florida last year, representing $50.1 billion in estimated sales. Restaurant and food service jobs make up 12% of the state's employment.
In the capital city, occupations projected to gain the most jobs in Leon County between 2018 and 2026 are food preparation and service related, according to the Tallahassee-Leon County Office of Economic Vitality.
"At the end of the day," Buckenheimer added, regarding Merv's, "I do know that people really enjoyed the food, and some people are going to be really upset."
But, Merv's was a fun experiment. Buckenheimer and Raney, buddies since they were 18 and through college, wanted to open in the Gaines Street District as the area transitioned from an industrial echo of the past into a vibrant destination full of color and quirks.
The duo wanted to be in the mix and brought Hajjer, another buddy, on as a silent partner, Buckenheimer said. State and government employees braved lines to devour some of the restaurant's "hits."
"The Roscoe," a chicken and waffles interpretation, was a sandwich topped with cheddar cheese, Tabasco sauce and maple syrup on the side. Another crowd pleaser was the Chicken Avocado Melt.
The good news is residents may still be able to enjoy hits from Merv's. The hospitality group plans to infuse them into menus at Canopy Road Cafe and the Proper, which may evolve into a second stand-alone site in the future if a suitable location surfaces.
Contact TaMaryn Waters at tlwaters@tallahassee.com or follow @TaMarynWaters on Twitter.