LAS VEGAS (KSNV) — New Las Vegas restaurant Angie’s Lobster prides itself on cutting costs wherever possible. They ask customers to clear the tables. Their wrap was the cheapest the owner could find. And online customers find exactly one napkin in their bags.
“We don’t want them to think we’re doing this on purpose to be lazy,” said co-owner Tony Christofellis. “We want them to know the reason why we’re doing this. It should be super efficient so we can make the ultimate luxury food as affordable as a chicken dish.”
This hyper-efficiency allows Angie’s Lobster to sell its signature Maine Lobster Roll for $9.99.
Husband and wife team Tony and Roushan Christofellis founded the restaurant in 2022 after selling their shares in Salad and Go, a concept they launched in 2013. According to Angie’s Lobster, Salad and Go has more than 130 locations across the country.
That money allowed them to invest more than $15 million in a new vertically integrated restaurant concept. They bought their own shipyard in Maine, built a 60,000-square-foot facility to process their seafood and set up their own fleet of trucks for distribution, Tony said.
“We believe we can do it cheaper if we cut out all the (middlemen) and do it ourselves,” Tony explained.
Tony said it was important to him to cut as many costs as possible to produce affordable meals made from wild-caught seafood. The company uses digital kiosks for ordering to eliminate cashiers. Although there are nine locations in Arizona, there is no corporate headquarters and minimal staff. They opted for drinking lids without straws to save costs, space and assembly time.
“So not only are we saving money on the straw, but we’re also saving the work of grabbing the straw,” Tony said. “The straw is taken out, which is one less step, but also a cost.”
Customer Drew Kruse said he didn’t mind the digital ordering process and thought the compromises were worth it.
“I mean, everything is pretty expensive in today’s economy,” said Kruse, who supports the company’s decision to cut costs. “It’s not hard to get up, order your food and clear your table.”
With operating costs rising, Tony believes Angie’s Lobster’s business model will redefine the restaurant industry. While menu prices are rising nationwide, Angie’s Lobsters’ low prices are thanks to customer understanding and cooperation, Tony said.
About 80 percent of customers clear their tables, he said.
Despite all these cost-saving measures, food costs still account for nearly 50% of a restaurant’s revenue, Tony said. According to Food Market Hub, the average restaurant’s food costs are about 33%.
Maine lobster isn’t the only extravagance, Tony said, they also prepare snow crab and cod from the North Atlantic and giant shrimp from the Pacific.
Aside from minimizing costs for supplies, logistics and labor, Tony says he spends next to nothing on marketing. However, to commemorate their first Angie’s Lobster outside of Arizona, Angie’s Lobster on Blue Diamond ran a promotion called “Free Maine Lobster Rolls for a Year” for the first three people to order at the drive-thru.
Zachery Johnson was first in line and won, but he said he would have been a regular even without the reward. The food takes him back to his East Coast roots and the prices can’t be beat, he said.
The spark that inspired Angie’s Lobster was the death of Tony’s mother from pancreatic cancer in 2020. After leaving Salad and Go, Tony said he wanted to do something to honor her memory and continue her legacy through a family-run business.
Angela “Angie” Christofellis immigrated to Boston from Greece and began working in seafood restaurants at a young age.
“When you’re young and an immigrant, you know that there was only one real job for her and our family, and that was in the restaurant industry,” says Tony.
The restaurant’s namesake was a selfless person and Tony wanted to bring that to the business. Angie was a single mother, so getting something special like lobster was a big deal, Tony said. That’s why he wanted to create something that the average American could afford on a weekly basis.
On her last day, despite her illness, Angie tried to bake Roushan a birthday cake.
“Helping others, being selfless, being a servant. On her last day before she died, she tried to serve her family,” Tony said. “Being able to tell these stories to team members and our children keeps that legacy alive.”
Tony said Las Vegas is an ideal market for expansion because of its similarities to Phoenix. The Christofellis’ previous restaurant business also expanded to Las Vegas and was very successful, he said.
