Brentwood kitchen earns applause at Burn's fine-dining showplace

Nation's Restaurant News, June 26, 1989 by Richard Martin

Dinners, averaging $40 each, move out of the kitchen at the rate of 300 a night on weekends and nearly 200 nightly the rest of the week. Between 150 and 175 lunches, reaping about $19 each, are served each weekday. The positive public reception accorded BB & G has led management to project a minimum of $4 million in first-year sales.

The attractive wine room contributes definite merchandising advantages, Yosslowitz says. Thirty-five percent of BB & G's sales are in bar items, of which 52 percent are in wine from the 5,800-bottle cellar of more than 250 different labels.

Restaurateurs have been among the most ardent admirers of the dramatically designed and decorated Brentwood Bar & Grill, Yosslowitz reports. However, some food-service colleagues conclude a back-of-the-house tour by wondering why BB & G's owners and planners allocated fully 40 percent of the restaurant's 8,000-square-foot area to kitchen purposes instead of to additional seating.

"Some restaurateurs say we've used too much space for the kitchen," explains Yosslowitz, who, naturally, disagrees and swears by the generously proportioned and efficient kitchen layout. "If things aren't working right back here," he says, gesturing beyond the glass partition to the dining room, "they won't work well out there."

PHOTO : From left: Bob Burns Restaurants' direct or Selwyn Yosslowitz; executive chef Joseph Miller; and owner Bob Burns in Brentwood Bar & Grill's exhibition wine room. The kitchen is visible through the door.

PHOTO : Executive chef Joseph Miller preps alongside the oversized, two-sided grill.