Staff Report

CHERAW -- Cafe Enterprises, the parent company of Fatz Cafe, a 40-unit Southeastern restaurant chain, is bringing 120 new jobs to Chesterfield County.

The chain plans to open a casual restaurant geared toward families in late January. The new Fatz Cafe will be located at 973 Chesterfield Highway and will be hiring associate managers and kitchen and service staff.

General Manager Will Allison will lead the Cheraw location, Fatz Cafe’s first restaurant opening of 2008. The restaurant will seat 168 guests and include a full-service bar and separate take-out entrance.

All Fatz Cafe restaurants, including the new Cheraw location, are open seven days a week for lunch and dinner.

“At Fatz Cafe, we offer proprietary signature menu items that emphasize taste, quality and value in a comfortable, friendly atmosphere,” said Steve Bruce, president of Cafe Enterprises. “We are so excited to become a part of this community and share our unwavering commitment to superior guest service with the people of Cheraw.”

Fatz Cafe has more than 3,400 associates and operates in four Southeastern states, including North and South Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee.

The first Fatz Cafe opened in a converted fruit shed in Spartanburg in November 1988.

Headquartered in Taylors, Cafe Enterprises Inc. was formed to serve as the parent company for Fatz Cafes. Fatz Cafe ranked #52 in the 2007 South Carolina 100 list of the state’s largest privately owned companies and has been named one of the nation’s top 400 restaurant concepts by Restaurants & Institutions magazine for the past five years, most recently ranking #282. In 2007, Technomic named Fatz Cafe as one of the “Top 100 Emerging Chain Concepts in America.”