Entrepreneurs purchase Pie Hole concept license

“Shut your pie hole” may be contemporary argot for telling somebody to stifle it, but a group of entrepreneurs in the Treasure Valley is eager to do just the opposite: open a lot more Pie Holes.

Pie Hole is the name of a pizza by-the-slice restaurant opened five years ago by brothers Jason and Russ Crawforth. There are three locations in the local area, including one on Broadway Avenue and on Eighth Street in Boise, and another on Main Street in Meridian. What’s new about the business is that the Crawforths entered into a licensing agreement with Eagle-based Diversified Franchise Concepts late in 2010, allowing DFC to expand the Pie Hole franchise to other parts of the state and beyond.

“My brother and I currently manage three of the Pie Holes in the Treasure Valley,” Jason Crawforth said. “Our experience is working with restaurants within an easy drive of us. We’re basically at capacity right now, so to expand into other markets is beyond our capacity.”

Crawforth is a longtime acquaintance of one of the partners of Diversified Franchise Concepts, Eric Mott, who, along with another partner, attorney Jerry Darnall, is in charge of the Pie Hole portion of their franchise enterprise.

Diversified Franchise Concepts is a partnership of five men of diverse backgrounds who combined financial resources and talents to create a company that invests in existing franchises or buys into business concepts it feels have the potential to grow into franchises.

Pie Hole is a business the men of Diversified thought they could expand, so they purchased concept license rights from the Crawforths.

“Our goal is to buy additional stores that we own and pay a license fee to the founders to use the concept,” Mott said. “It’s called a ‘concept fee’ but it’s like a royalty. They have a lot of oversight; they’re the licensor, we’re the licensee. They have first rights, such as the trademark. With their approval, we can do our own thing, operating as an independent business.”

Diversified pays a monthly fee per store to Pie Hole’s founders, according to Crawforth.

“They have expertise in rolling out franchises,” Crawforth said of Diversified. “I knew what Eric was doing and thought, ‘This is something we should do.'”

Diversified has Pie Holes now in Pocatello, and in Moscow where they hired 18 people and set a record week in sales during commencement at the University of Idaho.

“There was a ‘standing room only’ crowd and a line out the door, and it was open from 11 a.m. to 3 a.m. and was crowded at all times,” Mott said.

Darnall said the partners are very hands-on with the franchise. “Some days we’re the CEOs and some days we’re the managers, and we occasionally take out the trash, too.”

Diversified wants to eventually own 12 Pie Holes. They pick locations based on foot traffic, nearby bars, and a cohort of college students. “We’re going to stick with this plan and not deviate,” said Darnall.

Mott and Darnall are currently doing site selection work in Coeur d’Alene, Twin Falls, Idaho Falls and Rexburg. They’re also looking at Nampa and Caldwell down the road. They see Weiser and Ontario as potential “B markets” for Pie Hole.

They’re also looking at college towns in Montana, Washington, Oregon and Wyoming. While they would like to go national someday, “we’re seeking initially to be successful in the Northwest region,” Mott said.