More PDQ chicken restaurants to open soon

PDQ is about to open new locations at a PDQ kind of pace, especially for a new restaurant chain.

In the next few months, the restaurant company started by those who founded Outback Steakhouse will grow from a first prototype site in Tampa to at least four more across Tampa Bay, with an additional four possible by the end of the year.

Meanwhile, other Outback founders are targeting whole regions in North Carolina and South Florida.

"We were pretty confident about what we had to start," said Steve Erickson, president of PDQ. "But, knock on wood, it has been one of those things that was accepted very quickly, and there's a market for it."

PDQ opened its first spot in South Tampa late last year, aiming to sell a chicken sandwich a notch or two above a typical Chick-fil-A one, but in a more upscale dining atmosphere akin to a Panera Bread.

Add to that fresh-cut french fries, ice cream shakes and a new style of Coke dispenser that can deliver hundreds of drink flavors, and the concept is popular enough to fill the parking lot beyond capacity at lunch and dinnertime.

Erickson said PDQ is seeing 800 or more customers a day at the first Tampa site, with an average check of $7 to $8.

The acronym "PDQ" officially stands for "People Dedicated to Quality," though the founders say they don't mind that most people may associate it with the more familiar "Pretty Darn Quick."

The concept was started by Outback co-founder Bob Basham, who built the restaurant model of PDQ with growth in mind. Now the company is moving into a more aggressive development phase — scouting new locations and starting construction in some spots.

The next PDQ location to open will likely be in Wesley Chapel near the Shops at Wiregrass open-air mall, with a potential opening date in May.

A location in Carrollwood is already under construction in a former Perkins restaurant and could open in June. A St. Petersburg location is set to open in July along a residential area of Fourth Street North.

A North Carolina location will open soon, too.

Beyond that, PDQ officials are scouting locations around Sarasota, Clearwater, Brandon and the area around the University of South Florida.

The concept for PDQ originated from a chicken joint that Basham and others discovered near Charlotte, N.C., called Tenders, so now they plan to open a few locations in the next year around Raleigh and Charlotte.

Another Outback founder, Tim Gannon, holds rights to build PDQs in some areas of Florida, and real estate agents are scouting four potential locations in Broward County and Palm Beach.

Whether PDQ expands more will depend on how the first restaurants fare.

"As we open these next four, then eight, that will really tell us where we stand," Erickson said. "We're not going to be like McDonald's that has locations on every corner. We're still focused on one customer at a time."