Leisa: Hello, I’m Leisa Holland nelson and welcome to another edition of Women Mean Business, where we’re going to bring you up close and personal with extraordinary women doing extraordinary things. My guest today is Molly Voorhees, President of Beck’s Prime, I think Houston’s leading fast food casual restaurant that’s all fresh and wonderful. Welcome Molly.

Molly: Well thank you Leisa, it’s great to be here.

Leisa: tell us about Beck’s Prime.

Molly: Beck’s Prime started in 1985; it was a business that I think was a longtime dream of my dad. He had worked in a burger joint at 14 in Dallas and had always loved the business. When he started a new law firm he said you know what, I think on the side I’m going to do a restaurant company and I need to find and operator. And he was lucky enough to find Mike Knapp and the two of them joined forces and in my mind dreamed up a whole new market niche that today we call Fast Casual. And it’s the idea that you order at the counter and the restaurant will freshly prepare food and then deliver it to the table or via a pager now; we used to shout out someone’s name: Molly, your order’s ready! But I think they really invented that idea of freshly prepared food in a convenient, easy experience for the customer but not really fast food and not fine dining.

Leisa: And I know one of the real distinguishing things about Beck’s Prime is the location and the ambience; even though it’s a fast food there’s always a lovely place to sit inside or outside. So business meetings happen in your fast food restaurants I understand.

Molly: They do. You know our Founders love food, so you see that come through in what we do. They love food, they love nature and a nice place to sit so we have beautiful decks under beautiful trees at many of our locations. And then having a place that’s just comfortable and easy and not stuffy but we never wanted to be the Chuck E. Cheese model or the kid only, but we want to be a place where you can bring your family and you can bring your 90 year old grandmother who’s going to find something that she’s excited to eat as well as the kids.

Leisa: Thank you so much for sharing that with us. There you have it, another extraordinary woman doing extraordinary things. I’m Leisa Holland Nelson, President and Co-founder of ContentActive, Houston’s leading web and mobile design and development company. You can find me on ContactActive or follow me on Twitter @LHNelson. We’ll be back again next week with another edition of Women Mean Business.