WWW.NRN.COM
FINANCE:
Yum Brands
expects softer
domestic sales
for second half
of fiscal 2009
pg. 9
LEYEfounder
Melmanwins
NRN’sPioneer
Awardfor’09
Total sales growth falls as bankruptcies, credit freeze take toll
Economic forces batter
Second 100 companies
HUMAN
RESOURCES:
People Report
index shows signs
of job growth
for restaurants
pg. 16
DALLAS — Long recognized
as one of the pre-eminent developers of inventive and
profitable restaurant concepts, Richard Melman,
founder and chairman of Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises, will be celebrated as
Nation’s Restaurant News’
2009 Pioneer Award winner.
Melman will be honored
together with six multiunit
restaurant executives receiv-
BY SARAH E. LOCK YER
Richard Melman of Lettuce
Entertain You Enterprises
ing Golden Chain awards at
the 50th annual Multi-Unit
Foodservice Operators, or
MUFSO, conference to be
held at the Hilton Anatole
Hotel here from Oct. 4-6.
SEE MELMAN, PAGE 98
Upscale indies take page
from QSRs with $5 deals
BEER, WINE
& SPIRITS:
Beyond the shot:
The 10 steps to
achieving tequila
enlightenment
pg. 30
BY LISA JENNINGS
END QUOTES:
Having Words
With: Carl Howard,
chief executive
of Fazoli’s
pg. 102
At the sleek Stonehill Tavern
at the St. Regis Resort in
posh Dana Point, Calif.,
guests can now sit in the bar
area and feast on barbecued Berkshire
pork belly or
Maine lobster
roll sliders, or
snack on popcorn
spiked with truffles.
The price? Only $5.
In the quick-service and
casual-dining sectors, the $5
price point has emerged as
the sweet spot to win the attention of today’s spending-shy consumers, and now the
fine-dining world also is view-
ing the $5 mark as a way to
attract value-seeking guests.
Across the country, upscale eateries are proffering
their own $5 deals as the recession lingers.
And while operators note that the
$5 price tag hardly
covers the cost of
the food, they say
that the deals at least
induce trial and offer
servers the opportunity to
upsell at a time when customers are scarce.
At the elegant Asia de
Cuba in Los Angeles, guests
can enjoy dishes such as crab
croquettes, tuna tataki or
SEE UPSCALE, PAGE 6
The crop of growth-oriented
restaurant chains comprising this year’s Nation’s
Restaurant News Second
100 universe was hit harder
by the economic tsunami in
late 2008 than their larger
Top 100 counterparts. The
group’s aggregate 2008 sales
growth not only slowed like
that of the Top 100 set, but
also actually fell 0.43 percent from a year ago, marking the first real decline in
more than 10 years.
The Nation’s Restaurant
News 2009 Second 100
database of chains and corporations includes those
ranked Nos. 101-200 on the
basis of U.S. system sales
and food and beverage revenue for the year ended closest to December 2008. It is
the companion study to last
month’s Top 100 report.
The Second 100 chains are
the smaller operations, ranging from those with more
than 2,500 domestic units to
those with as few as 20 locations. Chainwide system sales
range from $433.5 million to
$180 million.
The businesses often
have smaller marketing
budgets, younger parent
companies and less capital
to deploy in the effort to
combat the economic forces
of tightened consumer
spending, growing unem-
ployment and declining
household wealth. Many
restaurant chains had to
halt growth in 2008 as the
recession and credit freeze
hit full force, and at least six
Second 100 chains were
touched by bankruptcy filings last year.
This year, the uphill
climb against the recession
will prove to be just as difficult, sources say.
“As a result of the negative comparable guest count
trends that have impacted
nearly every operator in the
industry, companies have relied on aggressive cost control in an effort to mitigate
the bulk of the margin decline,” said Chris O’Cull, senior restaurant analyst at
Sun Trust Robinson Humphrey Inc., an investment
bank based in Atlanta. “To
date, most have been fairly
successful, but as the downturn progresses each will be
left with fewer levers to pull.”
As it becomes harder to
contain costs further, the
task of driving sales with
SEE SECOND 100, PAGE 66
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