A new dining venue could soon take over a darkened downtown Charleston restaurant site.
Charleston Hospitality Group, which owns and operates Toast and several other restaurants throughout the Lowcountry, recently inked a deal for the former Monza pizzeria space at 451 King St., according to Jim Moring with restaurantbrokers.info, who handled the transaction.
A new Toast All Day concept is in the works after Monza closed Feb. 1 following a 13-year run, according to Charleston Hospitality Group CEO Sam Mustafa.
He plans to incorporate pizza into the new restaurant's operation but not offer all of the existing Toast menu items at first.
"But we will in the future," Mustafa said. "It will be Toast All Day and in the evening," he said, adding "the beauty of the location is it's already set up. It really is a turnkey operation."
The new restaurant could open in a few weeks, after some modifications, if enough workers can be found.
Mustafa's original Toast restaurant has operated for the past 17 years on lower Meeting Street, but he doesn't plan to close the location anytime soon.
"We are going to stay there as long as they allow us," Mustafa said. "It still does great numbers."
Mustafa's restaurant group also includes Eli's Table, Honky Tonk Saloon, Queology and John King Bar & Grill throughout the Charleston area.
He operates two other Toast locations in Mount Pleasant and one each in Summerville and West Ashley.
Mustafa plans to open a new Toast location in Savannah by mid-March and is planning to own another in Boston with a franchise location in the works for Atlanta. In December, he took over a non-named restaurant in Axel Hotel in Miami Beach and plans to transform it into a Toast-like venture as well.
To attract workers, Mustafa is offering them a chance to own his restaurants eventually as franchisees. His chief financial officer, Joe Gillie, is in the process of buying, as a franchisee, the location on Hungryneck Boulevard near the Isle of Palms connector in Mount Pleasant, Mustafa said.
"Down the road, most will be franchise operations," he said. "I will still own one or two."
