Franchisee Profile: Matt Licht, Owner of Wing Zone Bellmore, NY

Location: 2760 Sunrise Hwy
Bellmore, NY 11710
Opened: October 15, 2010


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Q: Where are you originally from?
A: Freeport, NY, just 10 minutes away. I’ve lived here all my life

Q: Before Franchising, what were you involved with?
A: I went to UF as an Animal Science major planning on going to veterinary school, but I soon realized that the 4.0 GPA I’d need to do this wasn’t exactly what I was planning to do with my time in college… So, upon graduating, I decided to open the very first Wing Zone in New York with my dad in East Meadow, in October of 2004.
My parents were both teachers, so we were able to recruit some great local high school students to work in our store. One was Matt Dolan, a particularly great worker who is now my business partner and part-owner of the new store in Bellmore.

Q: How did you learn about the brand?
A: Wing Zone started in Gainesville, at UF where I went to school. Actually, my family is friends with WingZone founder Matt Friedman and his family. Our moms taught high school together. So it was really exciting for us to be able to take Matt’s great concept and bring it to the state of New York for the first time.

Q: Why was this brand the right fit for you?
A: I like the product. I like how in our areas there aren’t really any other places like us, if there are they aren’t even close to touching us quality-wise. Not a lot of wing places who do what we do. We love the product and what we produce. It’s a great franchise even through tough economic times—in the past few years we managed not just to keep our doors open but also to expand! I feel very fortunate, especially now that the economy is picking back up.

Q: How do you see the brand connecting with your local community?
A: We joined Chamber of Commerce, sponsor Little League teams, have a great relationship with local college, Hofstra. We also regularly give gift certificates to fundraisers. Community service and local involvement is really important to us. After all, this is my hometown, I love it here.

Q: What are your future goals? Development plans?
A: I’d like to open up about 3 more locations in Long Island, for a total of at least 5 restaurants. My long-term goal is to open my own brewpub!

Wing Zone Featured in Newsday

Wing Zone was recently featured in a great placement in Newsday called “Wing Zone owners hope business takes flight” which published today. This article was built from an in-depth interview with Matt Licht and Matt Friedman and discusses Wing Zone’s expansion on Long Island. A portion of the article can be read below and online by clicking here.

Wing Zone owners hope business takes flight
By James Bernstein

Matt Licht and Matt Dolan hope their business will one day wing Long Island.

They own the only two Wing Zone takeout/delivery stores in the state, and they plan to have five of them, all on Long Island, in which case they will be ringing the Island as well.

Wing Zone, headquartered in Atlanta, serves up cooked-to-order chicken wings, fingers, sandwiches and more, and since the first...

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