MURPHY, Texas - CiCi's Pizza opens its first restaurant in Murphy on Monday, Nov. 7, not far from the chain's first location, which opened 26 years ago in Plano. The restaurant showcases new design elements the Coppell-based company is exploring for future use at other CiCi's locations as the company continues its "Build the Brand" growth strategy.

The 4,000 square-foot restaurant, located at 104 N. Murphy Rd., will support strong dine-in, carryout and catering business. New features include a larger pizza buffet, a dedicated and expanded carryout area, new menu boards and new uniforms. A brighter color palette brings a warmer, family-friendly feel to the dining room.

To kick off its grand opening week, the restaurant will award a free pizza buffet each month for a year to the first 100 guests in line who purchase an adult buffet on opening day. CiCi's will also drop hundreds of wallets in the area, each with a coupon inside for a free adult buffet. To wrap up the week, CiCi's will host a fundraiser for Plano East Senior High School all day on Saturday, Nov. 12. The restaurant will donate 20 percent of the day's sales to the school's PTA.

"Our new restaurant in Murphy will serve as a family destination for quality, affordable meals and will also provide an opportunity for the company to try some new features designed especially for our guests," said CEO Mike Shumsky. "We are committed to finding ways to improve the CiCi's experience for our guests while staying true to our ‘whatever it takes' service and unmatched value pricing."

The Murphy location will also introduce happy hour pricing from 2 to 4 p.m. with an adult buffet for just $3.99. The lunch buffet, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., is $4.99 and the dinner buffet is $5.49. Additionally, the expanded to-go and catering menu will highlight special prices to accommodate orders for one to 100 pizzas or more.

Guests who don't see their favorite pizza on the buffet can ask to have it made and delivered straight from the oven to their table. All pizzas are available to-go and 15" one-topping carryout pizzas are priced at just $5.99.

Hours of operation are Sunday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. and Friday and Saturday 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.

About CiCi's Pizza
Coppell, Texas-based CiCi's Pizza opened its first restaurant in Plano, Texas in 1985, and is now one of the nation's fastest growing pizza chains. The family-oriented restaurant is known for its popular pizza, pasta, salad and dessert buffet featuring up to 20 varieties of pizza and fresh ingredients for about $5. The expanding company has 600 restaurants in 35 states and in 2010, it announced plans to add another 500 restaurants in the next 10 years. In 2011, Zagat recognized CiCi's among its list of most child-friendly fast-food chains and the same year, CiCi's was named No. 1 in its category in Entrepreneur's Franchise 500 list. In 2010, CiCi's was named to Inc. Magazine's top 5,000 list, and to Parents' list of top family-friendly restaurants. Its commitment to value has been recognized by USA Today, Restaurants & Institutions and Nation's Restaurant News, which ranked CiCi's No. 1 in sales and unit growth among pizza chains for the past four years. CiCi's has also been named one of the top 25 performing brands by The Wall Street Journal and a top 200 franchise concept by Franchise Today.

For more information about CiCi's, visit www.cicispizza.com or www.facebook.com/cicis.

For franchising information, contact Bruce Evans at bevans@cicispizza.com or 972-745-4318.

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