Year 4 of Hard Knox
As a part of our 10 year anniversary celebration coming up, we have spent time reflecting on the years of the restaurant. We spent the month of July looking back at the 4thyear of Hard Knox Pizza.
Similar to year 3, year 4 of Hard Knox wasn’t drastically different than the years before it. Small things were changed and bettered. But the yellow walls, boxing pictures and heart of Hard Knox remained true to what it always had been.
4th year in business
During the 4thyear, business was continuing to grow. Which meant the demands of the restaurant and the responsibility was continually increasing. Adam Isabelle, who was an employee at the time, stepped in the role of General Manager at the restaurant. When we spoke to Adam about year 4, he shared with us that for the customers not much looked different. But behind the scenes, a lot of exciting steps were beginning to happen. He shared it was an exciting, but stressful time.
The most relevant piece of Hard Knox’s story during year 4 was the owners Dean and Jill started intently looking into the opportunity of franchising opportunities. This was not the first time they’d shown interest in franchising, but they were definitely pursuing it more so in year 4 than they had before. During that time, Dean and Jill had plenty of opportunities to franchise and had several other restaurants approach them with offers. But each time, there was just something that wasn’t the right fit for Hard Knox.
Toward the end of year 4, Jill was starting to near a point of stepping back. She was working full time a day job while also completely managing the administrative side. Her hours were long and the pressure was high. This moment of realization that she was ready to step back was a pivotal step in the next steps of Hard Knox Pizza.