Open Letter from Zao's President

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• News from Zao

November 25, 2009

Dear Zao Fan,

I begin with the above salutation, knowing that not everyone who reads this will be a fan of Zao or even familiar with what we do at Zao Noodle Bar. It's my job to get you to try us and make you a fan. With that in mind I'd like to welcome you to the new and improved zao.com. As President and CEO of Zao, I'm the person in charge of making sure Zao stays fresh not only when it comes to food but also when it comes to keeping up with the times. That said, you'll notice some nice new additions to zao.com. Most notably, Zao continues to be concerned about the wellness of our employees, guests, vendors and community. Along those lines, even though we aren't required to do so by government regulation, we are publishing comprehensive nutritional information for each dish we serve. Zao has plenty of options for all our guests so whether you are looking for low in saturated fat (Chicken Pho), light in calories (Crunchy Thai Shrimp Salad), vegan (Vietnamese Rice Noodle Bowl with 5 Vegetables & Tofu), gluten free (Pad Thai), cholesterol free (Zao Spicy Black Bean Veggie Stir Fry) or indulgent (Banana Spring Roll with Coconut Ice Cream) we have an option for you.

It's my mission to expand Zao to hungry pan-Asian diners across the country. To that extent we have made Zao available for licensing and franchising opportunities nationwide. Our licensing business is essentially for non-traditional locations and you will find our first limited service food court version of Zao (Zao Noodle Express) thriving on the campus of the University of Southern California (USC) in the heart of Los Angeles. With more non-traditional sites to come as well as full service franchising opportunities, this is an exciting new way to bring our food to throngs of hungry folks who haven't been exposed to much of the fabulous fare that Southeast Asia has to offer. In order to fit with the Zao philosophy of embracing technology wherever effective and possible, we are taking all new franchise applications exclusively online. If you are interested in learning more, visit the franchising section.

Finally, for those of you familiar with Zao, you may notice that we have a new cleaner, crisper logo, which is the beginning of a visual refresh across the brand. I think it expresses Zao's commitment to fast, fresh food, which remains our mission in both the full service and limited service restaurants. You'll begin to see additional upgrades and visual enhancements in our restaurants, so if you haven't visited one recently, I encourage you to give it a try and let me know what you think. You can email me directly, visit us at Facebook, or follow us on Twitter. We'd love to hear from you whether you are a new guest or an old one, because our mission remains to make you a fan!

Matthew Baizer
President and Chief Executive Officer
Noodle Bar, Inc.