Legal Sea Foods takes walk on the wild side; chain debuts new menu featuring Alaska wild salmon, readies launch of 2nd concept, with 'seafood component'

Nation's Restaurant News, June 14, 2004 by Paul Frumkin

BOSTON -- Augmented by the appointment of Darryl "Chip" Wade, a veteran Darden and Carlson executive, as chief operating officer, Legal Sea Foods Inc. is charting a more ambitious course for growth that includes the launch of a secondary concept by early 2005.

The Boston-based upscale seafood chain recently strengthened its presence in the New York metropolitan area with the opening of two new suburban outlets, bringing its regional total to six restaurants--a move that helps prepare the company for a possible plunge into the Manhattan marketplace.

Meanwhile, executives of the 30-unit company are putting the finishing touches on a new restaurant concept that is scheduled to debut in the Boston area in the next six to nine months. While president and chief executive Roger Berkowitz declined to provide many details, he did say the new full-service concept would be a little more casual than Legal Sea Foods and would feature "a seafood component."

"It's a concept that is consistent with who we are and dovetails nicely into what we're doing," he said.

The trendsetting seafood restaurant operator also kicked off a major menu initiative last month featuring Alaska wild salmon. The company expects that the move will reduce Legal's use of farm-raised salmon, which has been criticized by some environmental groups and food activists as being less healthful and more polluting than the wild-caught variety.

"There's nothing wrong with farmed salmon," Berkowitz insisted. "It's perfectly fine to serve. But wild salmon has different flavor characteristics. It's more interesting. And we're in the fish business--it's incumbent upon us to offer products that others would have trouble getting."

Legal Sea Foods--which has operated in the Boston area since 1950, first as a fish market and later as a restaurant brand--has been reinforcing its infrastructure in preparation for more aggressive growth, Berkowitz said.

Last October the company moved its corporate headquarters from Allston, Mass., to a new facility in the Marine Industry Park in Boston's Seaport district. The $14 million, 75,000-square-foot headquarters and quality control center includes refrigerated receiving docks, a test kitchen, a bakery, fish-processing areas and a state-of-the-art inspection laboratory.

The creation of a chief-operating-officer post and the hire of Wade mark another step in the restaurant company's march forward. "We had de facto COOs in the form of senior vice presidents," Berkowitz explained, "but as we continued to grow, I decided we needed one person dedicated to that."

Wade previously was senior vice president of development for Smokey Bones, Darden Restaurants' casual-dining barbecue concept. Before that he contributed to the revitalization of Darden's Italian concept, Olive Garden. Before joining Darden, Wade spent nine years at Carlson Restaurants Worldwide. parent of T.G.I. Friday's.

"Chip has been involved in development, particularly at Darden," Berkowitz said. "That level of expertise is what we're looking for here. He'll certainly help develop the new concept."

Berkowitz said Wade also would help guide the brand as it continues to expand along the East Coast, notably in such mid-Atlantic markets as Washington, D.C.; Maryland: and Virginia.

The chain's most recent openings, in White Plains and Garden City, N.Y., "both have hit the ground running," Berkowitz said of the 2-month-old stores. The White Plains restaurant ix housed in the newly opened, 650,000-square-foot multiuse City Center, which features such major retail tenants as Target and Barnes & Noble, residential units and several other restaurant concepts, including Applebee's and Zanaro's.

The Garden City Legal Sea Foods is located in the Roosevelt Field Shopping Center, near a Houston's outlet. Each new unit encompasses about 7,500 square feet of space, which Berkowitz said is about average for a Legal Sea Foods restaurant. The concept's annual average-unit volume is in excess of $5 million, with average per-person lunch and dinner checks running $21 and $38, respectively.

Noting that the new units are in good markets where Legal has strong brand awareness, Berkowitz said the company is looking closely at opening in Manhattan. "New York City is a very interesting and challenging market," he said. "It's very enticing, but I want to make sure I'm solid in suburban markets before we venture into the city."

McCormick & Schick's, the Portland, Ore.-based upscale seafood chain, recently opened its first Manhattan location, in midtown, while Red Lobster opened a unit in Times Square in 2003.

Legal Sea Foods' other New York-area restaurants are located in Nyack and Huntington, N.Y., and Paramus and Short Hills, N.J.

The company's system wide sales for the fiscal year ended last Dec. 31 rose 8 percent to $157.2 million, from $145.3 million in 2002. Two new units were opened last year as well.

While readying its next growth moves, the high-end seafood concept continues to explore new menu opportunities. The decision to showcase Alaska wild-caught salmon chain wide has met with positive results, Berkowitz said. Even though wild salmon is more costly than the farmed variety, "customers have really taken to this," he added.