Friday, January 25, 2008

Sign of the times: Stratos gets a scoreboard

By Pegasus News wire

Once again, they're telling Nick Rizos he's crazy.

Rizos, who opened Stratos Global Greek Taverna and the nation's largest laundromat in Northwest Dallas, now has brought a touch of Vegas glitz to a workaday section of Northwest Highway.

It's a big, state-of-the-art, scoreboard-style sign flashing messages, photos and graphics to lure passing drivers into giving Stratos a try.

"Everyone says I'm out of my mind," Rizos says. "It's not the first time."

Last year, the Greek-born entrepreneur won over skeptics who questioned whether a huge, ultra-modern laundromat and car wash could prosper in a working-class neighborhood. The answers came from steady streams of customers and honors from two national trade magazines.

The Journal, monthly magazine of the Coin Laundry Association, featured Nick on its cover, while American Coin-op Magazine named Rizos Wash the Grand Prize Winner of the 2007 Coin-Op Beautiful contest.

How do you top that? Nick looked down Northwest Highway, saw a mundane collection of billboards and neon, and decided he would do better.

"We have a great place with great food," he says. "We needed to stand out and say 'We're here, try us.'"

So he invested nearly $50,000 in a full-color LED message board, four feet high and eight feet wide, that’s impossible to ignore.

"You see them at car dealers and big hotels, and all over Las Vegas," Nick says. "Most restaurants aren't crazy enough to put up a sign like this."

Behind the impulse, he says, is a solid business calculation. "You buy an ad in the paper and it costs hundreds of dollars and you don't know who sees it," he says.

"We have 70,000 cars a day going by. With all the lights and the traffic you're probably going only 15 or 20 miles per hour, you'll have time to read it. You'll see a big white building with a crazy sign and maybe you'll stop. We already have people who told us that's why they came in."

The sign was manufactured by WatchFire Signs of Danville, Ill., and installed by Beshara Signs of Decatur, Texas. It is controlled by a computer inside the restaurant that instantly transmits videos, photographs, messages – and the traditional time and temperature.

"It's a wonderful way to get your message out," says Peter Beshara, owner of Beshara Signs. "Nick's a big promoter, and that's a big factor in any business, especially the restaurant business."

Stratos Global Greek Taverna has been recognized as one of Dallas' leading Mediterranean restaurants since its founding in 2001, consistently praised by The Dallas Morning News, D Magazine, The Fort Worth Star-Telegram and many others. Nick Rizos, a native of Nafpaktos, Greece, brought his mother's famous recipes to Dallas three decades ago as well as a tradition of hospitality and innovation. Among Stratos' distinctive features are a stylish, eclectic atmosphere, an elegant dance floor and a pet-friendly patio. Special events include belly dancing shows, half-price dinners on Mondays and Tuesdays and The Uncle Barky Show, a monthly series where the public can meet prominent local media personalities.

Source: Stratos Global Greek Taverna

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