MELLOW STORIES

Here are some folks we feel are reasonably emblematic of the kind of people who are "successful" Mellow owners. As you'll see, "success" is in the eyes of the beholder - be it more free time, financial security or just plain happiness.

MELLOWMATCH #10
Ron Platt Pizza Esquire Delray Beach, FL John, David, and Johnny Valentino The Family Business Jacksonville, FL; JAX Beach, FL, Fleming Island, FL Matt Duke The Duke of Pizza Myrtle Beach, SC Jim & Cindy Waters The "Corporate Couple" Winston-Salem, NC; Greensboro, NC Casey Fox Mellow Since College Raleigh, NC; Durham, NC; Wake Forest, NC
Matt Duke
  • Store(s): Myrtle Beach
I fell in love with Mellow Mushroom in college. After I graduated, I went the corporate route for about eight years. Doing that, gave me the foundation to do a venture like this. But I never forgot about the good times I had at Mellow, and when I found out they were franchising, I really got excited, because I didn't like the idea of being a cookie cutter restaurant, I wanted to be diversified, I wanted to be unique. I sat my wife down, looked her in the eye, and said, ‘Honey, we can do this. We can be successful with this. I think we should pursue it.
Casey Fox
  • Store(s): Raleigh, NC; Durham, NC; Wake Forest, NC
It’s gotten a whole lot easier. Every day, every year, it gets easier and easier. I’m playing golf a few days a week, and taking some trips. It wasn’t like that at the beginning, it was eighty or ninety hour weeks back then. It definitely changed my life. Going from a college kid, where you don’t have a worry in your life, to here, where if you’re going to be successful you have to be here. But I love it. I love work. Even if you told me I wouldn’t have to set foot in any of my restaurants and still make a comfortable living, I wouldn’t do it. I’d be so bored.
Jim Cindy
  • Store(s): Greensboro NC, Winston Salem NC
Our tipping point was when we hit the mid forties. We knew then what the rest of our lives held if we didn’t make a change. We realized it was time, we didn’t want the next twenty years to be like the last twenty. We just starting searching for something different. Then we found the Mellow Mushroom in Asheville. I wandered in there and just had a fantastic experience. The pizza, the vibe, and the beer selection got me. I was surprised when I went on the website and saw how many stores they had. That was it, then we just started knocking down dominos.
Ron Platt
  • Store(s): Delray Beach, FL
I fell in love with Mellow Mushroom by happenstance. We have a mountain home in North Carolina, we were walking down the street and saw this place called The Mellow Mushroom, and just sort of stumbled into there. We loved the ambiance of the place and the food, and I said to my wife, and that was eight years ago, I want to open up one of these someday. About five years went by, and I kept thinking about it. I saw a downturn in the housing market, and I wanted to diversify. As a lawyer I was leery about franchises, and this business was so different than what I had been doing, but the franchise helped me so much. These people are like a family now, they are the best.
Valentinos
  • Store(s): Jacksonville, FL; Fleming Island, FL; Jacksonville Beach, FL
I get a lot of calls from people who are thinking about opening stores. They want to call and ask me 10-15 questions, like I’m being interviewed. But I stop them, and I interview them, and within 10 minutes I know if they would be a great franchisee or not. The questions they should be asking are “Are you making money? Are you having fun?” As long as you are enjoying what you are doing, the rest will take care of itself. The people who are most successful are the ones who share the passion for what it is…not just a pizza restaurant, but the Mellow Mushroom. You have to have a fire in your belly for it.