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| Restaurants |
Gastronomic Proportions
Stewart Kampel
07/01/2004
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Peter Glazier, whose restaurants include Michael Jordan’s Steak House
in Grand Central Terminal in New York and Strip House locations in New York, New
Jersey and Texas, likens running a restaurant to working in show business. “In
fact,” he says somewhat ruefully, “every day it gets closer and closer to show
business. You need a great chef, a great location, panache, music, public
relations, filters on the lights, computer systems, etc.”
VALUE JUDGMENT
The gastronomes among us are often intrigued by the opportunity to own or invest
in our own restaurants. But the journey from gourmand to gaffer is fraught with
financial peril that has laid low the plans of even the most experienced
investors. |
When he took over
the fabled Monkey Bar restaurant in 1994, Glazier had one partner, Burton P.
Resnick, the head of one of New York’s largest development and construction
companies, who put up less than $1 million. Because the restaurant, with its
decor evoking the 1930s and ’40s, was an instant success, Glazier was able to
repay his partner in a relatively short time. But today, he acknowledges, the
restaurant is making less money, which he attributes to the recession and to a
diluting of the market.
A Three-Star is Born
Persistence is also crucial.
When New York City shut down a bar that catered to transvestites in Chelsea,
Mills, a 30-year-old Cleveland-born restaurateur, saw his opportunity. By law
the premises had to be closed for two years. He finally persuaded a reluctant
landlord to lease the space for what became the thriving and frantically hip
Biltmore Room. With a highly regarded chef and partner, Gary Robins, in the
kitchen, the well-connected owner and chef soon attracted a with-it crowd, as
well as a three-star review in the New York Times. The restaurant is expected to
gross more $5 million in its first year in business.
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