The agreement with JWK Inc. of Chicago calls for the locationsto be opened in the next five years. Twelve of the new CCBrestaurants will be located in Nevada and 19 within a 210-mileradius in and around Chicago, including parts of Illinois,Wisconsin, Iowa, Indiana, Michigan and Ohio. By maintaining theagreed-upon schedules of openings, JWK will then keep exclusivityin the two areas.

Houston's tradition-heavy Crescent City Beignets coffee houseshas brought authentic New Orleans-style beignets, café au lait andCreole cooking to three stores here plus one in Austin.

Houston's Seaboard Franchise Services Co. helped negotiate theJWK franchise agreement. In 1999, Seaboard negotiated a similaragreement with Sugar Land-based SEJCON headed by businessman SteveJackson, to develop a minimum of four Crescent City Beignets in theHouston area over the next four years. The first is now open at2623 Town Center Blvd. in Sugar Land and the second was scheduledto open before the end of the year in the Woodlands' Sterling RidgeShopping Center at 6700 Woodlands Parkway.