Melting Pot chain expanding to gourmet burgers and pizza

The Melting Pot chain of fondue restaurants will soon stick their skewers into a different sort of restaurant concept: Burgers and Pizzas.

The Tampa-based company hopes to launch more than 1,000 "Burger 21" and "Peel" locations, just as there are indications that the restaurant industry is both struggling, and showing some small signs of improvement.

Both new concepts come from a partnership with Chris Ponte, namesake of Café Ponte in Clearwater.

The Burger 21 idea jumps into a white-hot restaurant category of "better burgers" that has also seen blistering growth of Five Guys, plus a slew of gourmet burger restaurants started by celebrity chefs like Emeril Lagasse and Bobby Flay.

According to trend tracker NPD Group, burgers and sandwiches are among the few segments rising in an otherwise downward slide of the entire restaurant market.

As its name suggests, Burger 21 will offer 21 different kinds of burgers ranging from $4 to $8, from basic beef to a shrimp and crab burger, plus salads, hot dogs, malt shakes and floats. Similar to other fast-casual concepts, customers will order their meals at a cashier, then servers will bring the prepared food to a customer's table.

The first location is set to open in mid October in a 2,800 square foot space at 9664 W. Linebaugh Ave., across from the Westchase elementary school.

"Peel" takes its name from wooden pizza peels that chefs use to slip pizzas into and out of ovens. These will also be fast casual sites, with the first location potentially opening in 2011.

Already, The Melting Pot has 144 locations, and recently started opening sites in Canada and Mexico.

To help structure this growth, The Melting Pot formed a holding company called Front Burner Brands to work as the umbrella over its concepts, which already include the GrillSmith casual restaurants.

These, however, are not the easiest times in the restaurant industry. On one hand, rents are exceptionally cheap for space to open a restaurant. But that's in part because so many retail and restaurants have closed and lenders remain skittish about financing new projects.

After two years of brutal economic downturn, overall, restaurants appear to be in what economists call a "murky bottom," where some indicators show declines while other indicators show some improvement.

This spring, the total U.S. restaurant count declined by 1 percent, or about 5,200 sites, according to NPD. The bulk of those losses came from independent restaurants closing up. Comparatively, chain concepts were somewhat more solid, NPD found.

Foot traffic in restaurants continue to drop off, but not as quickly as in past quarters, with improvements in pizza and quick-service restaurants.