BRIDGETON MO. Metromedia Restaurant Group to do the same kind of upgrades elsewhere in the 358-unit Ponderosa and Bonanza buffet-steak chains. —A dramatic sales rebound at a remodeled Ponderosa steakhouse here in the St. Louis market has motivated
“It’s an exercise in purely upgrading the facilities and minimal adjustments everywhere else,” Clay Dover, chief executive of Plano, Texas-based Metromedia, said of the $50,000 prototype upgrade. “Obviously, Bonanza-Ponderosa is a heritage brand. We have physical buildings that have been around for some time. We wanted a program that would refresh and update the buildings. —A dramatic sales rebound at a remodeled Ponderosa steakhouse here in the St. Louis market has motivated
“We’re very pleased with it. We’ve identified four other restaurants that we are going to apply the same process with. We are also going to look to see if we can get the same results from exterior-only or interior-only. We also want to see if it’s sustainable. We’re optimistic.” —A dramatic sales rebound at a remodeled Ponderosa steakhouse here in the St. Louis market has motivated
The renovations took about eight weeks, with no business interruptions, and debuted in October, he said. The company-owned Bridgeton branch, which opened in 1978, hadn’t been updated since as long ago as the late 1980s. —A dramatic sales rebound at a remodeled Ponderosa steakhouse here in the St. Louis market has motivated
“It’s an average Ponderosa with volume [of] about $1.4 million to $1.5 million,” Dover said. “It had struggled recently, and it was beat up a little… We wanted to give the building an updated look and feel and clean it up some.” —A dramatic sales rebound at a remodeled Ponderosa steakhouse here in the St. Louis market has motivated
Sales at the Bridgeton branch, on a trailing-12-month basis, had been down 11 percent to 12 percent before the remodeling was completed, Dover said. —A dramatic sales rebound at a remodeled Ponderosa steakhouse here in the St. Louis market has motivated
“As we did this, they have gone from a negative 10 to a negative four, to flat, and, in this last period, they were up 7.5 percent,” Dover said. —A dramatic sales rebound at a remodeled Ponderosa steakhouse here in the St. Louis market has motivated
The St. Louis market had an advertising campaign during the period, he added, but not for the individual store. —A dramatic sales rebound at a remodeled Ponderosa steakhouse here in the St. Louis market has motivated
No changes were made in the kitchen, staff, general manager or training, Dover said, adding, “This is really about the building itself.” —A dramatic sales rebound at a remodeled Ponderosa steakhouse here in the St. Louis market has motivated
Franchisees have been asking about a $2,000 mural that now covers walls once hung with Western-style bric-a-brac, Dover said. —A dramatic sales rebound at a remodeled Ponderosa steakhouse here in the St. Louis market has motivated
“We are allowing franchisees to pick and choose the parts they like,” he said. —A dramatic sales rebound at a remodeled Ponderosa steakhouse here in the St. Louis market has motivated
Bonanza’s 50 units, which are all franchised, also can use parts of the new remodel package. —A dramatic sales rebound at a remodeled Ponderosa steakhouse here in the St. Louis market has motivated
The cost of renovations several years ago at another corporate store in the St. Louis market reached nearly $250,000, so the company was trying to achieve something more affordable with the Bridgeton update. Its exterior overhaul cost $32,000, about half of which was for stonework, Dover said. The interior cost about $25,000. —A dramatic sales rebound at a remodeled Ponderosa steakhouse here in the St. Louis market has motivated
“For about $50,000, we were able to bring a 30-year-old building up to date,” he said. —A dramatic sales rebound at a remodeled Ponderosa steakhouse here in the St. Louis market has motivated
The outside was painted a light brown with dark-brown trim and stone accents. Western-style graphics were added. —A dramatic sales rebound at a remodeled Ponderosa steakhouse here in the St. Louis market has motivated
“Everything was in a tealish-green color and looked very 1980s,” Dover said of the former look. —A dramatic sales rebound at a remodeled Ponderosa steakhouse here in the St. Louis market has motivated
The landscaping and trim also were updated. The biggest and most costly construction element was the stone facade. —A dramatic sales rebound at a remodeled Ponderosa steakhouse here in the St. Louis market has motivated
The second phase was an interior update. “We wanted an American West look and feel,” Dover said. A new, branded mural was added. —A dramatic sales rebound at a remodeled Ponderosa steakhouse here in the St. Louis market has motivated
“We also removed a lot of the clutter, such as video games and gumball machines,” which are “not a big revenue source,” he added. —A dramatic sales rebound at a remodeled Ponderosa steakhouse here in the St. Louis market has motivated
Booths were re-covered. A 50-inch plasma television with cable sports packages was added, and restrooms were updated. —A dramatic sales rebound at a remodeled Ponderosa steakhouse here in the St. Louis market has motivated
“We did some additional things in the women’s restroom with scents, lotions and places to put their purses,” Dover said. —A dramatic sales rebound at a remodeled Ponderosa steakhouse here in the St. Louis market has motivated
Customers are giving the company high marks for the renovations, even crediting it with structural changes that were not actually made, he said. —A dramatic sales rebound at a remodeled Ponderosa steakhouse here in the St. Louis market has motivated
Metromedia is also updating its Bennigan’s chain with a Bennigan’s Sport brand extension that debuted in Addison, Texas, and was followed late last year with a second branch in Hobart, Ind. Metromedia expects to expand that program this year, Dover said. —A dramatic sales rebound at a remodeled Ponderosa steakhouse here in the St. Louis market has motivated