LOS ANGELES Daily Grill and fine-dining Grill on the Alley concepts across the country and is testing other potential growth vehicles. —Bolstered by $14.1 million raised in a private offering earlier this month, Grill Concepts is accelerating openings of its casual
The Los Angeles-based company, which currently has 22 Daily Grill eateries and five Grill on the Alley units, is poised to debut a quick-service grab-and-go outlet at the Sheraton Seattle, to be called In Short Order. The outlet will offer menu items from the full-service Daily Grill that opened at the hotel earlier this year. —Bolstered by $14.1 million raised in a private offering earlier this month, Grill Concepts is accelerating openings of its casual
Company officials also hope to boost sales by adding a full breakfast menu to certain Daily Grill locations that are not in hotels, as is currently being tested at a unit in downtown Los Angeles. Though nine hotel locations offer a limited breakfast menu, most units are not in hotels and offer only lunch and dinner. —Bolstered by $14.1 million raised in a private offering earlier this month, Grill Concepts is accelerating openings of its casual
If all goes as planned, Grill Concepts will open four restaurants by the end of 2007, with some in new markets like Memphis, Tenn.; Seattle; Fresno, Calif.; and Austin, Texas. Another six restaurants are scheduled to open next year in such cities as Phoenix, Boston, Dallas and Tulsa, Okla., for a total of 34. Company officials plan to open four to six restaurants annually thereafter. —Bolstered by $14.1 million raised in a private offering earlier this month, Grill Concepts is accelerating openings of its casual
For Philip Gay, who this month marks his first anniversary as Grill Concepts president and chief executive, it’s all part of his philosophy of “extending the brand and keeping it simple.” —Bolstered by $14.1 million raised in a private offering earlier this month, Grill Concepts is accelerating openings of its casual
Gay has spent the past year building investor relations for the relatively small, publicly traded company, which reported revenues of $80.7 million last year, up more than 14 percent over the previous year. Net income was $3 million applicable to common stock, or 48 cents per diluted share, up from $889,000, or 14 cents per diluted share, the previous year. —Bolstered by $14.1 million raised in a private offering earlier this month, Grill Concepts is accelerating openings of its casual
Of the 22 Daily Grill units, 13 are company-owned and the rest are licensed or operated under management contracts or partnerships. The five Grill on the Alley restaurants are majority-owned by the company, but three involve partnerships. —Bolstered by $14.1 million raised in a private offering earlier this month, Grill Concepts is accelerating openings of its casual
The partnerships grew out of a need for expansion funds, said industry veteran Bob Spivak, a co-founder and director of the company who stepped down as chief executive last year to launch a consulting firm. —Bolstered by $14.1 million raised in a private offering earlier this month, Grill Concepts is accelerating openings of its casual
“We didn’t have access to capital the way people do now,” he said. —Bolstered by $14.1 million raised in a private offering earlier this month, Grill Concepts is accelerating openings of its casual
Future growth will focus solely on company-owned restaurants and management contracts with hotels, Gay said. —Bolstered by $14.1 million raised in a private offering earlier this month, Grill Concepts is accelerating openings of its casual
With the “keeping it simple” mantra in mind, the company last year bought for $2.7 million Hotel Restaurant Properties, or HRP, a company that scouted and managed hotel locations for Grill Concepts. The move brought four managed units more directly under corporate control, Gay said. —Bolstered by $14.1 million raised in a private offering earlier this month, Grill Concepts is accelerating openings of its casual
Earlier this month, Grill Concepts and Spivak sold 2 million and 100,000 shares of common stock, respectively, for $7 per share, along with warrants for up to 735,000 additional shares of common stock at $8.05 per share. —Bolstered by $14.1 million raised in a private offering earlier this month, Grill Concepts is accelerating openings of its casual
The private offering raised $13.1 million, after expenses, giving Grill Concepts equity capital for the first time in its history, Gay said. —Bolstered by $14.1 million raised in a private offering earlier this month, Grill Concepts is accelerating openings of its casual
Grill Concepts began in 1984 with the opening of a restaurant in Beverly Hills, Calif., that was then simply called The Grill. Spivak and his partners designed it as a fine-dining version of a classic 1930s-style grill serving straightforward American fare. Because of its location on an alley, the restaurant soon became known as The Grill on the Alley, and it remains a popular power lunch and dinner spot. —Bolstered by $14.1 million raised in a private offering earlier this month, Grill Concepts is accelerating openings of its casual
In 1987, the partners created the Daily Grill concept as a more affordable variant of The Grill on the Alley. By 1995, there were six Daily Grills around Los Angeles, and the company merged with New Jersey-based Magellan Restaurant Systems. The merger created Grill Concepts Inc. and put the company on the Nasdaq. —Bolstered by $14.1 million raised in a private offering earlier this month, Grill Concepts is accelerating openings of its casual
In 2001, White Plains, N.Y.-based Starwood Hotels bought a 12-percent stake in Grill Concepts, later upping that ownership to 15 percent. The fruits of that relationship resulted in the openings of Daily Grill units in Seattle and Memphis this year, both in Starwood hotels. —Bolstered by $14.1 million raised in a private offering earlier this month, Grill Concepts is accelerating openings of its casual
This spring Starwood transferred its common stock in Grill Concepts to acquire an 18-percent stake in Eaturna LLC, a concept with an emphasis on healthful foods launched by financier-philanthropist and once-infamous junk-bond-trader Michael Milken and other partners. —Bolstered by $14.1 million raised in a private offering earlier this month, Grill Concepts is accelerating openings of its casual
The move has made Eaturna the largest shareholder of Grill Concepts, with a 15-percent stake. Eaturna operates one retail location in Los Angeles International Airport and has plans for more airport locations. —Bolstered by $14.1 million raised in a private offering earlier this month, Grill Concepts is accelerating openings of its casual
Meanwhile, Daily Grill restaurants are testing items like wrap sandwiches that might end up on In Short Order’s menu, said John Sola, the company’s senior vice president of culinary. —Bolstered by $14.1 million raised in a private offering earlier this month, Grill Concepts is accelerating openings of its casual
Daily Grill overhauled its menu in 2005 to re-emphasize steaks, chops and seafood. The average check at Daily Grill is $26.89 at dinner, compared with $51.65 at Grill on the Alley. —Bolstered by $14.1 million raised in a private offering earlier this month, Grill Concepts is accelerating openings of its casual
Daily Grill last year averaged sales of $63,731 per week, for an annual average-unit volume of $3.3 million, Grill Concepts officials say. Same-store sales were up 5.5 percent for the year. Grill on the Alley showed a weekly sales average of $92,124, or $4.8 million annually, with same-store sales up 12.3 percent. —Bolstered by $14.1 million raised in a private offering earlier this month, Grill Concepts is accelerating openings of its casual
Tests of breakfast in the downtown Los Angeles area have been very encouraging, Sola said. The next restaurants to add breakfast will likely be a hot “business breakfast” location in downtown Washington, D.C., he said. —Bolstered by $14.1 million raised in a private offering earlier this month, Grill Concepts is accelerating openings of its casual