Bom Apetite - Rodizio Grill brings Brazilian food to the US - Brief Article

Latin Trade, June, 2000 by Claire Poole

Rodizio Grill's Ivan Utrera brings Brazilian-style churrascarias to the United States.

IN 1995, IVAN UTRERA WAS AN UP-AND-COMING EXECUTIVE at PepsiCo. The Sao Paulo native had just finished a three-year rotation as international marketing director for Pizza Hut, which included opening 300 fast-food pizza restaurants in Brazil as well as others around Latin America. He was shifted back to PepsiCo's Purchase, New York, headquarters as director of U.S. marketing for Pizza Hut, which sees US$1.5 billion in sales annually.

Yet Utrera was frustrated. "It got really stifling," he says. "If you wanted to do anything, [even] change the color of the napkins, you needed two years worth of research to see if it was going to impact anything."

So Utrera chucked it all in 1995 to start Rodizio Grill, a chain of Brazilian-style steak houses, or churrascarias. He's opened six restaurants around the country, from Houston, Texas, to Arlington, Virginia, and employs 500 people. With revenues of $14 million a year and operating profits somewhere in the 10% to 20% range, he's now planning to open three more eateries in the next 12 months (possible sites: Arizona, Texas and Illinois) and four more the next year.

"Brazil doesn't do a very good job of marketing. So one of my goals is to bring a little more knowledge about Brazil into the U.S.," he says.

Utrera is just one of many entrepreneurs capitalizing on the increasing popularity of Latin American cuisine in the United States. (See "Pass the Chimichurri," November 1999.) What's generally been dubbed the Nuevo Latino movement has now branched off into sub-segments, with Argentine and Brazilian restaurants becoming especially popular.

Brazilian bistros are popping up all over the country, from Churrascaria Plataforma in New York City to Rhumba in Chicago, Illinois, to Yolies Brazilian Steak House in Las Vegas, Nevada. "There is no point in being prudent at a churrascaria: It is a Rabelaisian experience," The New York Times restaurant critic Ruth Reichl has written. "And if you are not prepared to throw caution to the winds, eating more than you have ever eaten before, it is not the place for you."

'Meat lover's paradise.' Utrera's version is taking off. His restaurant chain based in Littleton, Colorado, was recently declared one of six "Hot Concept" winners by Nations Restaurant News, a trade publication. "Carnivores, come hither. Welcome to a 'meat lover's paradise,'" the magazine suggested as Rodizio Grill's slogan last year.

The 38-year-old Utrera became a restaurateur via a circuitous path. Born and raised in Sao Paulo of entrepreneurial parents (his father and mother run Utreplas, which makes plastic components for GTE phones and Whirlpool washing machines), he earned his undergraduate degree in communications from Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. He worked in advertising for three years, but returned to Brigham Young's Marriott School of Management for an MBA.

After business school, Utrera joined Pizza Hut, rising from marketing manager to director of international marketing for Latin America and the Caribbean and finally to the top marketing spot for one of its U.S. operations.

While he was in Brazil, though, he noticed that family-oriented steak houses from the provinces were growing popular in Sao Paulo. He also noticed that North Americans who ate at them wished they had something similar back home. Part of Utrera's extended family was in the restaurant business in Sao Paulo, so he tapped them for information on how to set up a churrascaria in the United States. "I was the only one in my family to follow a corporate career," he says. "It was time to go out on my own."

It wasn't easy without a giant like PepsiCo behind him. Indeed, he couldn't sell anyone in the United States on the idea. "They didn't understand the concept," he says.

Turning to friends, relatives (his mother bought in) and some Pizza Hut franchisees in Brazil, he scraped together $1 million in six months. His first restaurant debuted in Denver, Colorado, in 1996.

Why Denver? "I had used [Denver] extensively for Pizza Hut as a test market," he explains. "It didn't have a heavy ethnic influence, especially Brazilians, and I didn't want that to affect the results. If we could succeed in Denver, we could succeed anywhere."

Where's the potato? Rodizio Grill opened to rave reviews from Denver food critics--including one who recommended Utrera hire industry veteran Scott Henley as director of operations. (He did.) But the restaurant was criticized by diners for several oversights, from not offering mashed potatoes, grilled vegetables and sandwiches to its layout, which many thought looked too much like a cafeteria.

The feedback did not fall on deaf ears. Utrera has added items to the menu even though they're not traditional to Brazil. He has installed half walls and decorative ironwork so his customers feel more comfortable, Indeed, he still actively solicits customer suggestions with a review card on every table; on the front is an old snapshot of his family celebrating his grandmother's birthday. (Utrera's the big-eyed 3-year-old sitting on a woman's lap near the front of the shot.) "Based on that feedback we've changed and added a few things to improve customer satisfaction," he says.