Phil Romano

Nation's Restaurant News, Jan, 2000 by Richard L. Papiernik

"My wife's a pretty good judge of character, and after we met, she said to me, 'Harry, I think you're in good hands with these people; I like them.' So we went ahead and went in business with him, and it didn't take me long to see why he has such a great reputation.

"Let's face it. He's one of the best in the business, and we think this is going to be going big time."

Romano says Romano Concepts acquired Wild About Harry's, after having a team study the product quality and the numbers, and plans a rollout that will market Coley "like the Col. Sanders of the custard business."

"Besides this terrific product, Harry has a great personality. He can be the Elvis Presley, and I'll be glad to be Col. Parker on this one."

Romano says he called his first restaurant, begun in 1965 in Lake Park, Fla., Gladiator because he was always fighting his way uphill.

Educators along the way, he recalls, from his early school days in Auburn, N.Y., through attendance at Palm Beach Community College and Florida Atlantic University in West Palm Beach, gave him little encouragement for any future success. They pretty much wrote him off "because I was a daydreamer and because I was different."

Romano, who has an extensive art collection and has begun painting himself, now rails against an educational system that tries to get everyone "coloring within the lines."

His own appreciation for art continues to grow, and he says he believes that society will suffer without a constant infusion of creativity in our culture and in the business world."

With a personal collection built over the years, Romano says he is inspired by such artists as Jackson Pollock, Salvador Dali, Peter Max, Mark Rothko, Vincent van Gogh and Robert Motherwell.

He paints as a hobby in a small studio loft in uptown Dallas and often has his son, Sam, along just so they can spend that time together.

One of the problems, he says, is that major work projects sometimes keep him away from that studio more than he would like. But his support of young artists is ongoing, he points out. To help "spur the creative process," he says, he recently bought out the works of three young artists pursuing master's degrees at Southern Methodist University.

"The most successful entrepreneurs march to a different beat," he notes. "If you think like everybody else, then you're going to do what everyone else does. When planning a restaurant, don't think conformity. Step out of the box; create a new culture. Give the crowd a new place to congregate."

Name: Phil Romano

Age: 60

Occupation: Chief executive/founder of Romano Concepts and Eatzi's; creative partner for Brinker International; venture capitalist

Career Highlights: Opening first restaurant, Gladiator, in Lake Park, Fla., 1965; opening first national concept, Fuddruckers, 1980, followed by other national chains such as Romano's Macaroni Grill, 1988, Cozymel's Mexican Grill, 1992 and Spageddies, 1992

Hometown: Auburn, N.Y.

Personal: Married, one child

Education: Palm Beach Community college; Florida Atlantic University