FOUR Star Pizza, the erstwhile fast food delivery chain, is undergoing a facelift.

The company is in the process of revamping its menu and facilities and has adopted a new name, The Upper Crust Gourmet & Pizza.

When Four Star Pizza first opened, it was limited to a single location ? a tiny nook on Angle Street. Bermudians, however, quickly took to the novelty of having their food delivered and the business soon expanded to outposts in Somerset, Flatts Village, St. George's and, for a time, Warwick. Three additional restaurants also formed part of the group ? the Village Inn in St. George's and Flatts Village and The Curry House, also in St. George's.

Heading into 2005, however, company president Marico Thomas decided the family-owned business was in need of an overhaul.

"It's been 15 years that we've been in business," he said. "The business model ? which we kind of based on (the American company), Domino's Pizza ? worked. It served us well for those 15 years.

"But if I look at what we're doing now and how we're doing it, I think there's some improvements that have been made that we can take advantage of. So we took a hard look and what we're doing is moving from being a fast food pizza place that delivers, to being a casual theme restaurant, that also delivers and does catering."

Four Star Pizza was conceived in 1990, the indirect result of Mr. Thomas' inability to satisfy his craving for freshly-made pie. "I was working in a video store owned by my parents and in a security firm they had also," he explained. "They had a shoe store at the same time ? we were doing all these things.

"But CableVision was being introduced to the island and I remember telling my parents, maybe in 1988, that we needed to find another source of income because we needed something to sustain us.

"I realised that until people got tired of CableVision and returned to the video store, (the service) was bound to take away some of our video sales."

However, it wasn't until he was abroad on holiday that an idea for the company struck.

"I realised that I always bought pizza overseas, fresh, but in Bermuda I always bought it frozen," Mr. Thomas said.

On his return to Bermuda, the entrepreneur decided to do a taste test.

"I went around to all the stores and the pizzas were not what I expected. Sometimes they didn't even taste the same, at the same place."

Mr. Thomas learned how to make type of pizza, and found a location to set up shop. "And then I thought about delivery," he said. "So that's what we opened up to do. We opened up a very, very small place, sort of near the edge of town, with the intention that nobody would ever come to us and we would just deliver."

There was a growing demand that Four Star Pizza deliver in other parishes and that the restaurant expand its menu, Mr. Thomas said. 1992 saw the addition of the Flatts site. A larger facility, it enabled the company to extend its selection. In 1994, Four Star Pizza was transported to Somerset. The Warwick store, which is now closed, opened a year later. A move to St. George's later followed.

Still, there was room for growth. According to Mr. Thomas, catering became a part of the business partially through the failure of two Queen Street restaurants owned by Four Star's parent company, Thomas United Co. Neither Chit Chat nor its successor, the Clubhouse Sportsbar & Restaurant, was based on the Domino's Pizza model that had served the Four Star group so well. Neither restaurant was able to maintain a viable trade.

"They didn't work out, but because of them, we had staff. We had equipment," Mr. Thomas said.

Rather than fire the employees and sell the supplies, the company opened the Village Grill in Flatts.

"We had some extra space at Four Star Pizza in Flatts and so I said, 'As long as you guys don't lose money, go ahead and have some fun'."

According to Mr. Thomas, people liked the food and the business became a success. With plans to introduce a Four Star Pizza to St. George's already under way, the decision was made to replicate The Village Grill in that parish.

"So we had The Village Grill (restaurants) and then we opened a third place in St. George's, The Curry House. We had multiple kitchens across the island and a lot of qualified chefs and so we decided to put them to use, doing some catering for weddings and parties ? events that weren't part of our normal business of pizza and delivery."

On Wednesday, Thomas United Co. opened The Upper Crust in Somerset. Located in the former home of Four Star Pizza, it boasts a varied menu, a completely new decor and, dine-in, take-out and delivery service.

"You'll still be able to get all the things you got from Four Star Pizza before," Mr. Thomas said. "You can still get your pizzas. You can still get your submarine sandwiches. But we're giving you a lot, lot more ? we've invented a whole line of gourmet pizzas.

"We've added an Oriental section. We've added an Indian section. There's appetisers. There's salads. We have beer and wine service."

Similar changes were planned for the remaining restaurants under his company's umbrella, he added. "Flatts is next. And then St. George's. And then Hamilton. We're also poking around, trying to get into another restaurant in Warwick. Our aim is that the other names (Four Star Pizza, The Village Grill and The Curry House) will all go away and we'll have one single brand.

"From that one brand, you'll be able to get (a variety) of different items ? we intend to add and subtract categories of food at the different stores based on what what's in that area and what the customers in that area want."

Asked why he made the decision to change an already successful business, Mr. Thomas said he had to do so in order to better meet the community's needs.

"I think that Four Star Pizza was branded fairly well," he explained. "People understood it to be a product that served pizza and delivered ? certainly people wouldn't even consider to come and pick up the pizza if our delivery (time) became a little long ? but we wanted to try to extend our menu a little more.

"If I'd tried to do that with Four Star Pizza, people would be like, 'Marico, really. Give me the pepperoni pizza and stop messing around with all that other stuff'. The branding was too strong. So I could either spend a lot of time trying to you that Four Star Pizza is something different, or I could communicate that to you in a different way.

"We're not trying to say it's the 'New' Four Star Pizza ? a lot of people do that. No. We're not the 'New' Four Star Pizza. We are totally different than before. Our image is different. The way that we want to serve you is different.

"Even the way that we want to be with you is different ? we're going to give a dining room space which I think is a little bit more interesting, a little bit different than what you see in other places on the island."

The company has some 85 employees tasked with making a positive impression on the island's residents. According to Mr. Thomas, The Upper Crust will differ from Four Star Pizza in that aspect of business as well ? the new restaurant has as part of its mandate, to cater to the needs of its staff.

"We've figured out over the years that quite a number of people have actually worn a Four Star Pizza uniform and they have an impression of what it was like to work at Four Star Pizza at one point in time," he said.

"But we've changed so much, including the job responsibilities. We actually have a kitchen porter now and an assistant kitchen assistant porter who do all the hard work. Our delivery people actually have a much nicer, a much more enjoyable job.

"Because of the porters, they're able to spend more time on the road making money and delivering food rather than doing all that other stuff. We could use about another 30 for delivery. Our delivery business is just beating us over the head and knocking down the door and we don't have enough staff.

"We are a nicer place to work. We've spent probably as much time and money in making the customer space look nice, as we have in making the employee space look nice ? the kitchen is fully air conditioned. It has a brand new floor. There's colour and there's really great equipment. There's defined space.

"So the re-branding is an effort to communicate both to customers and also to our present and future employees, that we're different ? The Upper Crust is a totally different way of doing what we used to do.

"We didn't want to leave the restaurant business but we needed to tweak what we were doing. So I gave it a look and said, 'If I was to buy this place, what would I do different?' The Upper Crust is what I would do."