John Felico never envisioned having one of his Dominic's of New York food eateries inside a convenience store.

"It just wasn't the type of environment I saw us being in," said Felico, president of FoodNet Franchising, the Henrico County-based owner of Dominic's.

Most Dominic's locations are kiosk carts in front of Lowe's home-improvement stores, although the company does operate a couple of cafés inside office buildings and at the Pentagon.

Felico changed his mind after getting a call from Steven Uphoff, owner of the Uppy's Convenience Stores chain. Uphoff was building a new store in western Henrico County and wanted Dominic's as the food operator.

Felico liked the Uppy's operation. He decided to give the convenience-store arena a try.

A Dominic's of New York^® Pronto Café opened last week inside Uppy's "On the Run" Exxon station at 3101 Lauderdale Drive, about a half-mile from Short Pump Town Center.

"It is hard to take your concept that people are used to seeing in a specific venue and convert it to another venue and tweak it, but that's what we are doing. It is working," Felico said.

Uphoff said he is pleased with having Dominic's inside one of his stores. "They are such a high-quality branded product and they care about the value they present to the customer."

Operating Dominic's cafés inside the Pentagon and some office buildings in Pennsylvania has helped the company make the transition to a convenience-store setting, Felico said.

Those cafés have seating. The Pronto Café concept, such as the one at Uppy's, does not.

Also, the menu at the café locations is greatly expanded and different from what is offered at the kiosks in front of Lowe's.

The Pronto Café sells paninis, wrap sandwiches, hamburgers and wings in addition to its signature Italian-sausage sandwiches. It also has made-to-order salads as well as breakfast items.

"Our menu is all cooked-to-order, and not very many items are grab-and-go," Felico said.

Dominic's has a similar operation at the Pentagon, where it serves about 500 customers in 1½ hours at lunchtime.

If the convenience store concept works, Felico and Uphoff plan on putting more Pronto Cafés inside new and existing Uppy's. Dominic's has an arrangement to operate inside convenience stores only in Uppy's in Virginia.

Uppy's has 38 locations, mostly in central Virginia. The chain has nine more locations in development in the Richmond area.

Uphoff hopes to put a Dominic's in about 20 of his current locations and in all of the new ones. Five more Pronto Cafés should open by early 2008.