Theme Restaurants

1
Theme Restaurants

• A new model?

2
What is a theme restaurant?

• Arent they all a theme?
• The Eatertainment concept
• What is extreme?
• The wow! factor
• servicescape
• The entire surroundings in which service
  transpires.
• The package
• People
• Music
• Architecture
• Overall feeling

3
The Wow! factor

• What makes your restaurant different?
• Being just mediocre kills!
• Sea of Sameness

4
The Wow! factor

• Food?
• Specialty food
• Overpriced portions
• Service?
• Zagats
• Stars,
• Diamonds
• Setting?
• Location
• Show

5
Theme History

• Hard Rock Café
• 1971
• (first?) famous
• Rainforest Café
• legendary
• Dinner and a Show
• Difficult, few survive
• Currently
• Ubiquitous
• NYC Las Vegas
• Jekyll and Hyde Club, Mars2112,
• Most have an aspect of a theme.

6
Traditional Restaurant Model

• Projected Life as long as they can
• Construction costs
• 250K - 2 million
• Half-life
• 10-15 years
• Years 1-3
• Hot, new, trendy
• Moderate sales
• Paying off big bills
• Years 3-???
• Becoming old, tired
• Earning some money
• Doing the same thing
• Establishing a loyal customer base

7
A Benchmark Comparison

• Bars
• Half-life of 2-3 years
• Initial cost of renovation
• 200-300K
• Years 1-2
• Hot, new, trendy
• High Sales
• Paying off big bills
• Years 3-5
• Becoming old, tired
• Earning money
• Looking for a new theme

8
New Restaurant Model

• Restaurant Comparison
• Half-life of 2-3 years
• Initial cost of renovation
• 200K - 2 Million
• Years 1-2
• Hot, new, trendy
• High Sales
• Paying off big bills
• Years 3-5
• Becoming old, tired
• Earning money
• Looking for a theme

9
New Restaurant Model

• Location
• Hot-spot
• Marketing
• Aggressive
• Servicescape
• Incredible
• Out-doing each other

10
New Restaurant Model

• Food
• Traditionally
• secondary to theme
• tourist trap
• Now
• Need for entire quality package
• Food
• Service
• Price
• Still very high

11
Can they last?

• Some are lasting longer.
• Those in high traffic areas
• We are seeing duplications across the country.
• Beginning to build repeat customers.

12
Are consumers changing?

• Reasons to Dine
• Traditionally
• They needed a reason
• Filling station
• Business
• Special occasion
• More Recently
• Newness of restaurant
• No occasion, nothing else to do
• Increased travel
• Lazy, convenience
• Dont know how to cook
• (traditional reasons still hold true)

13
Employment

• Issues
• Huge turnover
• Tired of theme
• Uneven sales
• Bad performers
• Not taken seriously
• Standards

14
Can the Traditional Restaurant Adopt?

• Does a grand re-opening work?
• How do you get people talking?
• Add a WOW factor
• Special Events
• Tastings
• Versions of Tableside Preparation
• Artwork
• Architecture