Boulder Group launches space-age Elroys in SF

Nation's Restaurant News, May 26, 1997 by Alan Liddle

SAN FRANCISCO -- "Out of this world" might be the most appropriate way to describe the initial consumer response to Elroys, a massive new Southwestern-cuisine restaurant and bar sporting what its owners call a "futuristic" decor of "space-age lighting" and "neo-industrial finishes."

The first San Francisco project by the Colorado-based Boulder Group, the 12,000-square-foot multilevel Elroys seats 125 people in the dining room, 100 on a heated, outdoor terrace and another 75 in the bar and billiards area.

It cost $2.4 million to develop and is located south of Market Street on Folsom at Beale near two other high-grossing eateries, Gordon Biersch brewery and restaurant and Palomino Euro Bistro. The site is just a few blocks from where the San Francisco Giants are developing a new professional baseball stadium.

"Business has been phenomenal ... no, overwhelming," manager and co-owner Michael Plutino said, explaining why, two months after opening the doors, he and his partners recently upgraded their first-year-sales projection from $4 million to $6 million. "We sold 3,700 meals last week and 500 Cosmopolitans [cocktails] in the bar on Friday night alone."

Much of Elroys' appeal stems from its unique loft design and decor, featuring 20-foot-high ceilings, an illuminated two-story elliptical bar, a "virtual" video fireplace and aquariums, glass-art lighting and a giant mural of "pool balls in space." But Plutino credits a number of other factors for the restaurant's strong showing out of the gate, including chef-partner Tim Hartog's food, a strategy of selling all wines at cost plus $10; the decision to establish a promotional Elroys home page on the Internet's World Wide Web months before the actual opening; and the concept's dual nature.

"All along we wanted to create a restaurant space that stood out and a bar that could thrive and not feel like it was in the middle of a dining room," he said. Plutino indicated that his company's success at creating two distinct establishments under one roof is underscored by sales-mix reports showing that the bar generates a full 48 percent of total sales.

Guests who bypass the bar's value-priced wines, draft and bottle beers and traditional cocktails in favor of an Elroys' signature 3-ounce martini get to make a selection from the "olive bar" stocked with 12 different varieties.

The strong response to Elroys is reassuring to the Boulder Group in that it already has begun work on an adjacent 75-seat fine-dining restaurant called 301 Folsom. Plutino said 301 Folsom and Elroys will share rest rooms, the kitchen and key infrastructure, such as the phone and point-of-sale-computer systems. The targeted per-person average at 301 Folsom will be $45 to $50 at dinner, he said, compared with Elroys' $28 average during dinner and $15 average lunch ticket.

According to Hartog, who also will be the chef-partner at 301 Folsom, the second concept will sell foods created by combining "French technique with Asian ingredients." It is a style of cooking he used successfully in the past as opening chef at Baang in Greenwich, Conn., a critically acclaimed "Asian Fusion" restaurant given three stars by The New York Times.

The young chef is a Connecticut Culinary Institute graduate who has worked with chef Matthew Kenney at Alo-alo and Banana Cafe in New York City, among other jobs.

Besides Elroys and 301 Folsom, the Boulder Group already has scouted a second large building in San Francisco with an eye toward future development.

For now, however, Hartog is busy refining his Elroys menu, which he described as "contemporary American with a heavy, heavy Southwestern influence." Early best sellers, he said, include grilled red snapper with chili-and-corn-crusted oyster and avocado-papaya vinaigrette, $15; shrimp and New Mexico chili risotto with roasted roma tomatoes, corn and cilantro, $15; and grilled chicken with sauteed spinach, chile onion rings, roasted garlic and goat-cheese sauce, $13. Also on a recent menu was a wood-oven-baked pizza topped with smoked-chicken-and-apple sausage, dry-roasted corn, caramelized onions, blue cheese and toasted pumpkin seeds, $9.

"We use a lot of cilantro, cumin, black beans, tons of roasted corn -- we grill it on the cob and slice off the kernels -- jalapenos and other chilies, fresh and dried," Hartog explained. "I try to blend a lot of flavors, hot and mild, so that they come together. For example, the chile-corn oysters have a lot of spice, but I try to even that out with the sweetness of the avocado-papaya vinaigrette."

Five-year-old Boulder Group operates eight casual restaurants in the Denver area, including Wazoos and Bella Ristorante near Coors Field. Plutino, a veteran of Hyatt Hotels Corp., where he was named a hotel director of food and beverage post by age 29, said he and his partners were told they were crazy" to try a venture as large as Elroys in San Francisco.

"Even with all our fears based on talk that this is one of the most fiercely competitive markets in the country, we knew that if we created a visually stimulating space and offered value, such as our low wine pricing, and used common sense, we could do it," he remarked. "Now our goal is to make sure the restaurant has a good shelf life, that it settles in to become a stable player."