Cities that Sizzle

Nation's Restaurant News,  Jan, 2001  

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Boston

Robin Lee Allen

It hasn't exactly been a tea party, but operators are finding out that this city is a booming restaurant town

Charlie Perkins is incredibly hard to reach these days. While the commercial real-estate broker who specializes in restaurants tries to schedule some time each week for office work, he is more often than not on the road showing sites to representatives from the numerous national foodservice chains looking to open in Boston and its surrounding suburbs.

The same is true for Jim Holmwood and Michael Kent. Both longtime restaurant brokers in the Boston area the past few years, the men have found themselves inundated with requests from the rising tide of operators seeking to enter a market that was once neglected and now is increasingly difficult to crack.

"There are a million people knocking on the door now," says Kent, president of Boston-based National Restaurant Brokers. "And there's not that many spaces or licenses available."

That is especially true in Boston, where older architecture makes it difficult for many national operators to find spaces large enough to do the volumes that would make the sites appealing. Furthermore, limited quantities of liquor licenses, high construction costs and scarce labor all create daunting obstacles for those wanting to become a part of the historic city's annals.

But while the hurdles are many, perseverance can be lucrative. Given an affluent residential and business population with a penchant for dining out and a thriving tourism industry, the potential for striking it rich makes Boston hard to ignore.

"Because it is a market in big demand, finding the right real estate is a challenge," acknowledges Doug Schmick, president of Portland, Ore.-based McCormick & Schmick's Seafood Restaurants. "We had been targeting Boston for the past three to three and a half years."

The company's persistence paid off in the fall of 2000 when a McCormick & Schmick's opened in Boston's theater district, in a space vacated by local seafood competitor Legal Sea Foods, which moved across the street. Because crowds have warmly received the newcomer and the company was able to secure another downtown location, a second McCormick & Schmick's is scheduled to open in the fall of 2001 at nearby Faneuil Hall. The restaurant's dinner check average is about $35.

"When you find the right opportunities, you need to take advantage of them," Schmick notes. "We believe that a market such as Boston has the demand out there. It's strong enough and diverse enough that a second location will be a positive."

Serveral Other national operators also have debuted in Boston in recent years. Brasserie Jo, Maggiano's Little Italy, Marche Movenpick, P.F. Chang's and Fleming's have all set up shop alongside a healthy assortment of local restaurateurs and chains likewise eager to profit from the area's enticing demographics and economy. The city's first Houston's is slated to open soon, also at Faneuil Hall.