HOUSTON —Edgar Carlson and Larry Martin don’t consider themselves restaurateurs.
“We’re publicans,” Carlson said, using the British term for pub owners. —Edgar Carlson and Larry Martin don’t consider themselves restaurateurs.
Their Houston-based company, Hospitality USA, operates 17 pub-and-grills under the names Sherlock’s Baker St. Pub and Grill and 221B Baker St. Pub and Grill. They formed the company in 1995 and have recently begun expanding outside the core Texas market. A unit opened in Denver a year and a half ago, and plans are to open three more restaurants by the end of this year—another in Denver and one each in Houston and Tampa, Fla. —Edgar Carlson and Larry Martin don’t consider themselves restaurateurs.
The Southeast is a likely area for future expansion for management reasons, Martin said, because it’s a short flight from Houston to that part of the country. —Edgar Carlson and Larry Martin don’t consider themselves restaurateurs.
The company owns all of the restaurants. Franchising is a consideration, Martin said, “but not in the near future.” —Edgar Carlson and Larry Martin don’t consider themselves restaurateurs.
Both Carlson and Martin agree that they could expand the concepts just about anywhere because “there are not a lot of pubs out there,” Martin said, but their approach to expansion is to ensure that they have a strong management team in place before opening a restaurant. —Edgar Carlson and Larry Martin don’t consider themselves restaurateurs.
“We like to develop from within by growing people and training them,” Martin said. “You can only grow as quickly as your human resources.” —Edgar Carlson and Larry Martin don’t consider themselves restaurateurs.
Hospitality USA likes to hire upper-management employees who have experience in growing a concept and can “help us move in the right direction,” Martin said. —Edgar Carlson and Larry Martin don’t consider themselves restaurateurs.
“We’ve surrounded ourselves with people who have ‘been there, done that,’” he said. —Edgar Carlson and Larry Martin don’t consider themselves restaurateurs.
Carlson and Martin themselves are marketing and management veterans. —Edgar Carlson and Larry Martin don’t consider themselves restaurateurs.
Carlson majored in marketing at the University of Houston and has spent more than 25 years in the hospitality industry in management and supervisory roles. He is responsible for the Hospitality USA marketing and public relations programs. —Edgar Carlson and Larry Martin don’t consider themselves restaurateurs.
Martin received a bachelor’s degree in business management from the University of Houston’s School of Hotel and Restaurant Management. He handles the company’s development and growth, finances, market analysis and concept evolution. —Edgar Carlson and Larry Martin don’t consider themselves restaurateurs.
The two company co-owners said the expansion of their concepts has been a “calculated growth.” —Edgar Carlson and Larry Martin don’t consider themselves restaurateurs.
The company does not want to add more than four or five units a year, Martin said. —Edgar Carlson and Larry Martin don’t consider themselves restaurateurs.
Expansion involves a lot of opportunities “to get it right or get it wrong,” he said, and Hospitality USA wants to proceed at a pace that allows it to accomplish growth plans the right way. —Edgar Carlson and Larry Martin don’t consider themselves restaurateurs.
To ensure that operations are meeting company expectations, Carlson said, Hospitality USA requires that a supervisor live in each market to visit the restaurants regularly. —Edgar Carlson and Larry Martin don’t consider themselves restaurateurs.
Carlson said that he has watched other restaurants fail in their expansion plans because they grew too quickly and management “lost touch or got disconnected” from the factors that had made the restaurants successful in the first place. —Edgar Carlson and Larry Martin don’t consider themselves restaurateurs.
Hospitality USA’s restaurants are designed to look as if diners had stepped back in time to the London of Sherlock Holmes. —Edgar Carlson and Larry Martin don’t consider themselves restaurateurs.
They feature dark wood paneling, antiques and Holmes memorabilia. Carlson and Martin take yearly trips to the United Kingdom, visiting pubs and looking for Sherlock Holmes-theme furnishings and pub artifacts. —Edgar Carlson and Larry Martin don’t consider themselves restaurateurs.
“There’s so many pubs you can’t believe it,” Carlson said. “They’re on every street corner.” —Edgar Carlson and Larry Martin don’t consider themselves restaurateurs.
Sherlock’s Baker St. Pub and Grill typically measures 9,000 to 9,500 square feet. 221B Baker St. Pub and Grill is smaller at 6,000 to 6,500 square feet. Sherlock’s also is an entertainment venue, with audio and video systems, live entertainment, billiards and darts. —Edgar Carlson and Larry Martin don’t consider themselves restaurateurs.
Staffing at each restaurant averages 70 employees. Hospitality USA has about 40 front-office employees. —Edgar Carlson and Larry Martin don’t consider themselves restaurateurs.
The restaurants have what Carlson and Martin call a British-infused American menu, originally developed by London-trained chefs familiar with British recipes. —Edgar Carlson and Larry Martin don’t consider themselves restaurateurs.
The menu features such appetizers as British sausage encased in puff pastry and served with spicy mustard and Branston pickle sauce, but it also includes traditional American appetizers, including potato skins and cheese sticks. —Edgar Carlson and Larry Martin don’t consider themselves restaurateurs.
Entrées include shepherd’s pie, bangers and mash, and a British sausage roll dinner as well as sirloin steak, ahi tuna and grilled chicken breast medallions. —Edgar Carlson and Larry Martin don’t consider themselves restaurateurs.
Fish and chips is the top-selling menu item. —Edgar Carlson and Larry Martin don’t consider themselves restaurateurs.
“The menu is a moving, growing creature,” Martin said. “It’s been developing over the years. Some of the British items, although good, were not recognizable to patrons.” —Edgar Carlson and Larry Martin don’t consider themselves restaurateurs.
As the British part of the menu was “diluted,” he said, the American part “took off.” —Edgar Carlson and Larry Martin don’t consider themselves restaurateurs.
Food sales have increased significantly during the past four or five years as the restaurants began using higher-quality ingredients under the direction of chef David Spirito, Carlson said. For example, burgers are made with certified Angus beef. The menu includes a bacon-Cheddar burger and a triple cheeseburger, as well as the Black and Bleu Burger and the Elementary Burger. —Edgar Carlson and Larry Martin don’t consider themselves restaurateurs.
Diners also can order cold sandwiches, including a BLT and a ham and cheese. A line of hot sandwiches includes chicken, Buffalo chicken and grilled tuna steak. Tacos also are available. —Edgar Carlson and Larry Martin don’t consider themselves restaurateurs.
Food is served until 2 a.m., and recently “we had a really big [sales] push with late-night appetizers, especially the sampler platter,” Carlson said. —Edgar Carlson and Larry Martin don’t consider themselves restaurateurs.
Although Sherlock’s and 221B Baker St. are reminiscent of congenial British pubs, Carlson and Martin definitely did not want the menu to resemble the fare served in them. —Edgar Carlson and Larry Martin don’t consider themselves restaurateurs.
“The pub industry in the U.K has gotten a bad reputation for ‘pub grub,’” he said. “We have done away with that concept. Our quality is exceptional. It’s not fine dining, but it’s restaurant quality.” —Edgar Carlson and Larry Martin don’t consider themselves restaurateurs.
The restaurants attract two distinct customer segments, Carlson said. Lunch diners generally are 25 to 50 years old. The night crowd is younger, usually between 25 and 35. —Edgar Carlson and Larry Martin don’t consider themselves restaurateurs.
Carlson recalled a time when he was escorting some developers from New York who were meeting in one of the restaurants for lunch. A group of women who appeared to be in their 80s were sitting at a nearby table. —Edgar Carlson and Larry Martin don’t consider themselves restaurateurs.
“There were 22 women from the Ladies of the British Empire having fish and chips and drinking Guinness,” Carlson said. “The acceptance [of the restaurants] is there from all ages.” —Edgar Carlson and Larry Martin don’t consider themselves restaurateurs.
Hospitality USA wants both young and old to feel “very warm and comfortable” inside the restaurants, just as Carlson and Martin feel in the pubs they visit in England, Ireland and Scotland every year. —Edgar Carlson and Larry Martin don’t consider themselves restaurateurs.
“We were sitting in pubs over 300 years old,” Carlson said, adding that he was impressed with “the significance of those pubs and the longevity and how the people ran the pubs. It’s like you’re in your living room.” —Edgar Carlson and Larry Martin don’t consider themselves restaurateurs.
CHAIN FACTS NAMES: Sherlock’s Baker St. Pub and Grill; 221B Baker Street Pub and GrillHEADQUARTERS: HoustonMARKET SEGMENT: casual dining and entertainmentCHECK AVERAGE: $12TYPE OF MENU: British-infused AmericanNO. OF UNITS: 17SYSTEMWIDE SALES: $47 million in 2006, $56 million projected for 2007LEADERSHIP: Edgar Carlson and Larry Martin, co-owners of parent company Hospitality USAFOUNDED: 1995 —Edgar Carlson and Larry Martin don’t consider themselves restaurateurs.
That’s the philosophy Carlson and Martin imported from the United Kingdom along with Holmes memorabilia. Their goal for Sherlock’s and 221B Baker St. is to “make it feel like your house,” Carlson said. —Edgar Carlson and Larry Martin don’t consider themselves restaurateurs.
“It’s a very ‘home’ feeling,” he said. “It’s nonoffensive. That’s why we get a good mix of men and women.” —Edgar Carlson and Larry Martin don’t consider themselves restaurateurs.
That feeling of comfort is what more and more consumers are looking for now, Martin said. Although diners still go to chain restaurants for meals, they increasingly are searching for “unique character and neighborhood feel” in the places where they gather for a meal and entertainment. —Edgar Carlson and Larry Martin don’t consider themselves restaurateurs.
“The pub really speaks to them, because it’s a public house where you go to meet and greet others,” he said. —Edgar Carlson and Larry Martin don’t consider themselves restaurateurs.
