CHICAGO Bull & Bear the day Chicago White Sox pitcher Mark Buehrle threw a perfect game, the principals of Twilight Traffic Control LLC couldn’t help using the obvious metaphor. —Sitting in a booth at their upscale bar and grill
“We’re doing more than double what our conservative estimate for weekly sales was,” said Luke Stoioff, one of Twilight’s three 28-year-old founders. “What would have been a grand slam turned into a perfect game. It’s the first time we’ve been happy about being really wrong—to call our investors and say our projections were off, and we’re paying them back in half the time.” —Sitting in a booth at their upscale bar and grill
Bull & Bear opened Jan. 20 in Chicago’s River North neighborhood, serving such high-end bar food as truffle fries, and Kobe beef and wild-boar sliders. It has an average dinner check of about $30, Stoioff said. —Sitting in a booth at their upscale bar and grill
But Twilight’s triumvirate of Stoioff, Brandon Zisman and David Rekhson does more than operate Bull & Bear and three-year-old nightclub Stone Lotus. Like neighboring operator Rockit Ranch Productions, Twilight is an entertainment development company built upon creating restaurant concepts, consulting with other operators on everything from training to image marketing, and enabling product placement for vendors. Company-wide, Stoioff said, Twilight is on pace to do about $11 million in revenue. —Sitting in a booth at their upscale bar and grill
Executives of both companies credit their start in Chicago’s nightlife and promotions industries, and the subsequent relationships they formed throughout the city, for making them better restaurant operators and marketers. —Sitting in a booth at their upscale bar and grill
Twilight’s origins began in 2003, when childhood friends Stoioff and Zisman formed Hypewise Entertainment Marketing Group, a nightclub promotions company, while Rekhson, a college buddy of Zisman’s, worked his way up the management ranks at Sushi Samba Rio. Inevitably, they asked themselves years later why they still were working for other people, given their overlapping industry expertise—Zisman in marketing, Rekhson in operations, and Stoioff, an attorney, in liquor licensing and permitting. —Sitting in a booth at their upscale bar and grill
In 2006, they got Twilight off the ground and took over a struggling French bistro in Chicago’s Near North Side. They turned it into Stone Lotus, a high-end nightclub with bottle service and gourmet small plates. —Sitting in a booth at their upscale bar and grill
Next came Bull & Bear, whose name is a pun on Chicago’s pro sports teams and financial markets. Executive chef David Blonsky, a Culinary Institute of America graduate, developed the menu. Rekhson said Bull & Bear’s decor, including ubiquitous flat-screen TVs and personal beer taps at the leather booths, has appealed to a wide demographic, from the Sunday brunch to the happy hour crowds. —Sitting in a booth at their upscale bar and grill
Twilight is developing Bull & Bear locations in Lincoln Park and Wicker Park and a new concept in River North, all hopefully opening by next spring, Stoioff said. —Sitting in a booth at their upscale bar and grill
Several blocks away from Bull & Bear lies the headquarters of Rockit Ranch, a restaurant and nightclub developer that also integrates marketing, promotions and some consulting into its business model. The company operates two Rockit Bar & Grill units, nightclub The Underground, and Sunda, a high-end pan-Asian restaurant that opened in March. Rockit Ranch is on pace for companywide foodservice sales of about $25 million, officials said. —Sitting in a booth at their upscale bar and grill
Like Twilight, Rockit Ranch is led by three young guys who cut their teeth in Chicago’s nightlife scene: chief executive and founder Billy Dec, chairman and founder Brad Young, and president Arturo Gomez. Dec, who had opened successful clubs like Solo and Dragon Room in the 1990s, first partnered with Young in 1998 to open the club Circus. In 2002, they formed Rockit Ranch and, after bringing in Gomez, took over operations of club Le Passage. —Sitting in a booth at their upscale bar and grill
The group opened the first Rockit Bar & Grill in River North in 2004. —Sitting in a booth at their upscale bar and grill
“We saw a void in the marketplace,” Young said. “There were a lot of restaurants that fell into the $50 or the $15 check average range. But there wasn’t some place where you could go and have a great meal, hang out, and not break the bank.” —Sitting in a booth at their upscale bar and grill
Rockit Ranch followed up with chic nightclub The Underground in 2006 and this year opened the second Rockit Bar & Grill and the gleaming new Sunda, developed with chef Rodelio Aglibot. —Sitting in a booth at their upscale bar and grill
Between restaurants and its expertise in marketing and self-promotion—Dec starred in YouTube commercials directed by “Friends” star David Schwimmer to promote The Underground back before the site was snatched up by Google—Rockit Ranch moves fluidly between foodservice and branding. The company does a little consulting, Gomez said, but most of its energy outside of serving food is spent promoting products or hosting events for such companies as Mercedes-Benz, Nike an GQ magazine. —Sitting in a booth at their upscale bar and grill
“Anyone who wants to get our demographic and get in their ear as well,” Dec said, referring to the thousands of customers in his restaurants and his e-mail databases, “we let them know how to do that.” —Sitting in a booth at their upscale bar and grill
The recession may have dented bottle service at The Underground, Gomez says, but opening the club for a fourth night has led to sales totals still greater than three years ago, while dinner check averages of about $26 at Rockit Bar & Grill and $60 at Sunda are making for “a remarkably good year.” Above all, aggressive marketing has been key, he added. —Sitting in a booth at their upscale bar and grill
“We’re spending more money on marketing this year than we ever have,” he said. “Everything has to have a return on investment and has to be trackable. Right now, there’s no set amount [for marketing spending]. If I can spend $100 and make $500, it’s a good investment.” —Sitting in a booth at their upscale bar and grill
Twilight Traffic Control’s trio reiterates the importance of integrated marketing and partnering with promoters. Zisman said smart promotions make them better owners of Bull & Bear and Stone Lotus. —Sitting in a booth at their upscale bar and grill
“We know what the promoters need,” Zisman said. “We’re in the trenches with them. Other owners may have just a manager who doesn’t give them the feedback they need. We’re seeing what needs to be done. If we’re not doing well with Thursdays, let’s bring in this guy who has a nice Thursday promotion.” —Sitting in a booth at their upscale bar and grill
That team approach led Twilight and some outside partners to develop Sunday night hospitality industry parties, kicking off the “weekend” for Chicago’s servers and bartenders, that keep Bull & Bear packed while nearby bars close up shop. —Sitting in a booth at their upscale bar and grill
“We went from closing at 11 to generating another $10,000 to $12,000 because we know guys who can bring people in on a Sunday night,” Zisman said. “We’ve created an extra $500,000 a year because we know the right people to do it.”— [email protected] —Sitting in a booth at their upscale bar and grill