It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that Utah’s very own Pudding On The Rice is modeled (or copied, depending on who you ask) after New York City’s famed Rice to Riches. From the furniture to the décor to even the serving bowls, the rice pudding eatery is eerily similar to its predecessor in the Big Apple. So much so, that it really begs the question, how unoriginal can one be?
Pudding On The Rice is a glaring illustration of the unoriginality and facileness seen all too often in Utah (well, Utah County). While that doesn’t really bother me, the fact that it is marketed as a creative, original, and completely unique idea certainly does. Lest you think I’m not a fan, I happen to really like the rice pudding served there and think such a store has great potential to be extremely successful and profitable given the market in the family-oriented, college town of Provo. Furthermore, I have no problem with the fact that the idea was scraped; however, credit should be given where it’s due. The entire creative concept for such a niche market was the brainchild of Rice to Riches owner Pete Moceo - I have a feeling the Pudding On The Rice founders may strongly disagree with that statement.
Now here’s an interesting development: Pudding On The Rice is for sale. While that fact alone may not seem that peculiar, the selling price is. The asking price for the eatery is a paltry $50,000…which by the way includes all furniture, fixtures, equipment, and inventory. I smell failure.
Rice to Riches
(I’d put up a picture of Pudding on the Rice, but their website isn’t working properly…and hasn’t for months. Whoops.)
5 responses so far ↓
1 Treebag // May 13, 2008 at 12:16 pm
Hmm…like a Chadders? What are some others?
2 Knee Grow Please // May 13, 2008 at 12:19 pm
At least their homepage is live…all those subpages is BROKE
3 alex // May 13, 2008 at 12:23 pm
how about spoon me? it’s a pinkberry knockoff
4 Trevor // May 13, 2008 at 2:14 pm
Ouch, no pulled punches there! The idea of using the same idea in other places is called franchising and it’s all over. I didn’t know about Rice to Riches before, but Pudding on the Rice is lucky they aren’t too big or there would surely be a lawsuit (even Chadder’s managed to get sued by In-N-Out.)
5 kelly // May 13, 2008 at 3:57 pm
I went to the one in NY and it’s exactly the same. I heard the Pudding on the Rice owner was complaining about how those guys wouldn’t franchise, so they just copied them. Great idea - you won’t sell it to me, so I’ll steal it! I guess that’s the typical Utah County business mentality…they can justify anything…
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