Page 83 - BusinessWest May 12, 2021

The Hot Table chain has come a long way since the opening of its first location in the Breckwood Shoppes in Springfield.
model shifted,” he went on. “So now, we’re way above pre-pandemic sales levels overall.”
After Tower Square, the DeVoie brothers, now partnering with Calcasola, have been focusing
on where the large players in fast-casual have put down stakes. In fact, the strategy has been to fol- low them — on the theory that their research into where to locate is certainly solid — and, in doing
“
year’s numbers, overall. What’s happened is that this has become a delivery hub for people in West Springfield, Chicopee, and other cities and towns.”
so, create more of a critical mass of quality eater- ies, which creates dining destinations.
This was the case with the company’s next locations — in Enfield (2012) and Glastonbury, Conn. (2014), Route 9 in Hadley (also 2014), Marlborough (2017), and Worcester (2019). And that’s also the case, to one extent or another, with the Chicopee (there’s a Chick-fil-A right next door), Framingham, Hartford, and Westfield locations.
“People just drive there to eat, and you get
Hot Table
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neighborhood, large traffic volume, and visitors to other shops in the plaza.
The large players in smart casual wouldn’t have gone where Hot Table went next — Tower Square in downtown Springfield, in 2009 — either. But the brothers, enticed by the large pop- ulation of office workers in surrounding towers and an attractive offer from then-owner Mass- Mutual, decided to roll the dice. And they essen- tially rolled a ‘7.’ Indeed, the site has become a popular lunchtime destination — even moreso with recent arrivals such as Cambridge College
and UMass Amherst Center at Springfield — and has even thrived during the pandemic without most of those workers and students.
“We’re pretty close to last year’s numbers, overall,” said John, comparing 2020 with 2019. “What’s happened is that this has become a delivery hub for people in West Springfield, Chi- copee, and other cities and towns.
“With the new model of how we do business — we have more than 30,000 users of our app, which allows people to order and then utilize a third-party platform for delivery — our business
We’re pretty close to last
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who keep coming back for more.
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