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The NRN 50: On with the show

The NRN 50: On with the show

It goes without saying that consistently delicious food is imperative to the success of a restaurant. But sometimes even a perfectly cooked steak or impeccable service is not enough to guarantee that a dining experience will stand out in customers’ memories.

That’s why many restaurants over the years have amped up their atmospheres to create striking, brand-specific experiences aimed at winning over customers and standing out in a crowded, competitive field.

“As the industry continues to get more competitive, entertainment really does become a differentiating component,” Hudson Riehle, senior vice president of research for the National Restaurant Association, told Nation’s Restaurant News last year.

From televisions to T-Rexes and guitars to games, entertainment has been a critical part of the restaurant arsenal for decades, even as the field has been home to a handful of high-profile failures.

The food-meets-entertainment formula has been particularly attractive to entrepreneurs since segment pioneer Hard Rock Cafe came onto the scene in 1971.

Created as a haven for music lovers by industry moguls Peter Morton and Isaac Tigrett, Hard Rock now has 122 locations in 47 countries, all sporting an eye-catching collection of rock and roll memorabilia. The Seminole Tribe of Florida now owns the chain.

The segment has also seen a number of flash-in-the-pan concepts whose mediocre food, expensive architecture or too-rapid expansion caused them to flounder or fail.

The once high-flying Planet Hollywood made a splash in the 1990s with celebrity-theme decor and A-list investors, including Bruce Willis and Sylvester Stallone. But it lost luster and scaled back expansion plans when the theme restaurant bubble burst in the late 1990s. The chain continues to operate 18 restaurants around the world.

Other victims include the now-defunct Fashion Café, a glitzy, supermodel-focused concept, and Dive! a short-lived nautical theme restaurant created through a partnership with Chicago-based Levy Restaurants and movie magnates Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg.

Despite those failures, the theme restaurant segment continues to make headlines.

Even the once-burned Levy Restaurants took another dive into the segment last October when it agreed to develop and operate the menus for 10 theme concepts created by restaurant entrepreneur Steve Schussler.

Those restaurants will be created as part of an earlier $100 million deal between Schussler and RED Development of Kansas City, Mo. The concepts in consideration range from an American roadhouse with truck stop decor to a magic-theme concept.

Rainforest Cafe, another brainchild of Schussler, also emerged out of the theme restaurant heyday. The tropical jungle-theme concept was founded in 1994 and sold to Landry’s Restaurants Inc. in 2000. Today, Landry’s operates 27 Rainforest Cafes in the United States and nine abroad, with average unit volumes of $9.5 million, according to the company.

The restaurants feature the chain’s signature indoor rainforest motif—with lush green accents, misty waterfalls and animal noises—but company executives say they haven’t lost sight of the importance of the menu, which features pasta, burgers, seafood and steaks.

“You can put on a show, but if you don’t give the customer good food and service they will not come back,” says Keith Beitler, senior vice president and chief operating officer of Landry’s Specialty Restaurants Division. “You can watch the show and get excited by a gorilla only one time.”

The company has said the locations at Disney resort properties are “still going strong,” but traffic in the mall properties is down by 1 percent.

Schussler also developed the vision for the dinosaur-theme T-Rex in Kansas City, Kan., and Yak & Yeti, an Asian-theme concept, which is scheduled to open in September in Disney’s Animal Kingdom. Both T-Rex and Yak & Yeti now are owned by Landry’s, which has plans to open another T-Rex in Orlando, Fla.

While new concepts continue to enter the segment, established concepts such as 31-year-old Chuck E. Cheese’s have withstood the test of time.

Introduced by Nolan Bushnell, creator of the early video game system Atari, the kid-friendly pizza chain remains a favorite among children because of its arcade games, rides and shows starring its namesake mascot.

The chain, owned by CEC Entertainment Inc. of Irving, Texas, has more than 500 locations and plans to open six to seven units in 2008.

While Chuck E. Cheese’s has found its niche targeting children, other chains court adults by attempting to create the ideal spectator environment.

“Our main mission is to create the ultimate viewing experience,” says Christine Baum, manager of marketing strategy and communications for the nine-unit ESPN Zone chain, which is owned by Disney Regional Entertainment. The ESPN restaurants in New York and Las Vegas each have two side-by-side 14-foot screens with high-definition capability. Other locations have one 16-foot high-definition television. Many tables have their own TV monitors.

To keep sports fans engaged during game breaks or distracted after a crushing loss, ESPN Zone also features the Sports Arena, a game room, as well as the Studio Grill, featuring a menu of American favorites, such as hamburgers, wings and ribs.

The eight-unit Fox Sports Grill chain also aims to create a festive atmosphere for sports fans.

“People like to come here to take advantage of great technology and dining,” says Jennifer Parker, Fox Grill’s senior vice president of marketing. “Sports create a lot of energy and people enjoy sharing sports together.”

For some chains, creating an engaging dining experience means giving diners the tools to entertain themselves.

Honolulu-based Gyu-Kaku Japanese BBQ specializes in Yakiniku dining, in which diners cook meats and vegetables for their own meals over a tabletop grill.

Currently there are 12 U.S. units. The chain was founded in 1997 in Japan, where there are more than 800 locations. The average sales per unit are $1.6 million.

Food is also the main source of entertainment at Max Brenner, Chocolate by the Bald Man, a concept described as “chocolate theater” with two stores in New York.

Oded Brenner and Max Fichtman, who left the company years ago, founded the concept in Israel in 1996.

The Union Square unit spotlights the vats where chocolate ganache, the base for drinks and the chocolate found in most Max Brenner desserts, is mixed.

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