RUI targets convenience, value with new Pantana

Nation's Restaurant News, Jan 13, 1992 by Alan Liddle

SEATTLE -- In a strategic break from its contemporary dinner-house roots, Restaurants Unlimited Inc. has launched a new convenience and value-driven concept called Pantana Pizza-Pasta-Now.

Open since late November on the third floor of a new mixed-use high-rise known as Newmark, the 144-seat Pantana peddles a moderately priced assortment of mild to wild pizzas prepared in a woodfired oven, pastas and salads.

The multiuse complex -- which houses apartments, retail shops and a multiscreen cinema -- is situated in a previously undesirable downtown Seattle neighborhood that has been targeted for gentrification.

The full-service Pantana, with its limited menu of quickly prepared foods, marks a dramatic change for the Seattle-based company that has built its reputation on operating eclectic restaurants selling everything from aged beef and hand-shaken margaritas to sushi. Entree prices at the company's dinner houses can be two to three times higher than those charged at Pantana.

"It's an 'eating' place, not a 'dining' place," Restaurants Unlimited president Ray Lindstrom said of the new concept. "The niche is convenience, speed and nutrition."

R.U.I. is best known for its high-volume dinner houses, which often offer a waterfront view and almost always seat from 250 to 350 people. The company also operates or franchises to others 165 Cinnabon quickservice bakeries nationwide and is fine-tuning a food-bar concept for franchising called Zuppa.

While R.U.I. dinner houses have been known to generate annual sales in excess of $4 million, they have proved expensive to develop in recent years. The company and its landlords spent more than $7 million in opening the last two such restaurants.

R.U.I. officials stressed that the company's dinner-house concepts -- including Palomino, Cutters and Kincaids -- continue to be solid to excellent performers that remain relevant in certain markets and situations. However, they indicated, given the increasingly conservative nature of consumers and the difficulty in acquiring capital and landlord concessions during a recession, other simpler and smaller concepts appear better suited for expansion in the foreseeable future.

"We knew we needed to be in the neighborhood [restaurant] business," Lindstrom said.

Neighborhood restaurants, Lindstrom indicated, seem to fit the needs of many of today's busy young professionals, empty nesters and mortgage-holding double-breadwinner families. They appeal to people, he explained, because "they cost less and are closer to home."

Pantana is serving between 150 and 250 covers daily after its first full month of business. And, with the exception of a few bottles of wine, nothing on the Pantana menu is priced above $9.95. The establishment's per-person average, including beverage, is about $9 at lunch and between $10.25 to $13 at dinner.

"We think there is an existing and growing opportunity for restaurants positioned between quickservice and [traditional] fullservice," remarked Rick Giboney, an R.U.I. vice president of operations.

Giboney's point was echoed by Larry Flax, chairman of 6-year-old California Pizza Kitchen Inc. of Los Angeles. It is the leader of the gourmet pizza-pasta-and-salad niche, with 23 company-owned restaurants spread out from Hawaii to Washington, D.C.

"There is a lot of demand for it," Flax said of the concept. "Our own experience has shown you can open a mile and a half from an existing store [and do well]."

R.U.I., for its part, had previously investigated the possibility of franchising the California Pizza Kitchen concept. But Flax -- who has known Lindstrom since their days as students at the University of Washington -- said the two companies "couldn't reach a deal."

Flax and his partner, Rick Rosenfield, have since decided not to franchise. He said it is only a matter of time before Puget Sound pizza eaters have the opportunity to compare the products of R.U.I. and C.P.K. because he and Rosenfield consider Seattle "a great market."

Chef-consultant Kathy Casey, who attracted national attention while she was working at the Seattle Sheraton and Maxwell's Plum in New York, helped develop the Pantana menu. It features seven salads, including a gazpacho-inspired pasta-shrimp offering; eight pasta dishes; and nearly two dozen "individual-sized" pizzas divided into three categories: Traditional, No-Cheese and Pantana Originals.

Peanut Butter & Jam (with bananas), Bacon, Lettuce and Tomato, spicy Buffalo Chicken and Clam Chowder are just a few of the 11 "original" pizzas sold at the restaurant.

Among the cheeseless pizzas are Albacore Tuna Salad, and a "ratatouille" concoction topped with roast eggplant, yellow squash, julienne zucchini, roasted red peppers, Kalamata olives, sliced roma tomatoes, red onion rings and marinara.

"The pastas are getting rave reviews; they account for about 30 percent of sales," said Jim Simonson, the R.U.I. vice president of operations with responsibility for Pantana.

Ike Van Skike, one of four Pantana co-managers, said the most popular pasta dishes were the chicken fettuccine and Spahetti Alla Pantana, or spaghetti with Italian sausage, Canadian bacon, pepperoni, fresh mushrooms and marinara sauce.