LEYE plans to take show on the road, revamp concepts

Nation's Restaurant News, August 31, 1998 by Amy Zuber

Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises is turning over a new leaf with several of its restaurants and branching outside Chicago with a few others. As LEYE begins more rapid expansion with some of its newest concepts, including Big Bowl and Wildfire the 27-year-old Chicago-based company also is transforming a few of its older establishments into new restaurants, such as Hat Dance a Mexican-themed dinner house that will be converted into a Latin restaurant later this year.

In addition, two of the yet-to-be-converted concepts will involve partnerships between LEYE and high-profile chefs Jean-Georges Vongerichten and husband-and-wife team Rick Tramonto and Gale Gand. "Very few restaurants last forever," says Steve Ottmann, president of LEYE. "Over time you need to bring in new ideas. There was no grand design to convert several concepts at once. It just happened that way. Over the past 27 years, there have been very few years we haven't done new things." Ottmann, a 21-year Lettuce veteran, was named president of the company in March after Richard Melman relinquished his president's title. Melman, who co-founded the company, remains as Lettuce's chairman and chief executive. LEYE will shutter Hat Dance Aug. 30 and reopen the restaurant around Thanksgiving. Ottmann said the Latin concept would be named in the near future, but he declines to estimate a conversion cost. "Hat Dance had a good run for about 11 years;" Ottmann says. "But restaurants nave different life cycles, and we think we have something more exciting." In June LEYE also transformed its classic French bistro, which was called Un Grand Cafe, into Mon Ami Gabi. Ottmann describes the concept as "a French steak house with quite a bit of seafood on the menu." LEYE initially planned only to modernize the 18-year-old Un Grand Cafe but then later decided to evolve it into an entirely new restaurant. "We felt that it [Un Grand Cafe] had just run out of steam, much like Hat Dance;" Ottmann says. "Just about everybody is doing bistros, and we wanted to do something different, something more focused." He adds: "It is one of the best locations in the city because the park [Lincoln Park] is right across the street. I am not sure we ever took full advantage of that before. We didn't seat it a lot of times in the past, but now we seat people out there. It is a matter of focus." The new concept was developed by Melman and Gabino Sotelino, the former chef-partner of Un Grande Cafe who now has the same title at Mon Ami Gabi. Sotelino, who was born in Spain, is also a partner in LEYE's Ambria -- a fine-dining restaurant that is located next to Mon Ami Gabi and Cafe Ba-Ba-Reeba, one of Chicago's first tapas concepts. Mon Ami Gabi serves such classic dishes as bouillabaisse Marseillaise, trout Grenoblois with capers and beef Wellington. The dining room features an authentic reproduction of a turn-of-the-century Parisian bar, a refurbished interior with large French windows and a renovated outdoor cafe with views of the Lincoln Park conservatory and gardens. Claude Gaty, a native of France, is the chef de cuisine. Under a new division of [EYE, Melman has teamed up with Vongerichten to open an outpost of the New York-based Vong in Chicago. The new restaurant, which is modeled after the French-Thai original in New York, is scheduled to open in early 1999. It will replace LEYE's Tucci Milan, a 12-year-old Italian dinner house that recently was closed. "We thought the location was right for Vong," Ottmann says. "Tucci Milan was doing fairly well, but there is probably too much Italian in downtown -- a lot of that being our own. We thought we could do even better." Melman also is working with husband-and-wife chef team Tramonto and Gand, who own a casual dinner house called Brasserie T in a suburb of Chicago. The group is developing a new high-end concept that will replace Avanzare, a 15-year-old Northern Italian eatery The contemporary restaurant, which has yet to be named, is expected to open at the beginning of next year. Ambria and Everest are LEYE's current fine-dining concepts. A division of LEYE is also a partner in Chicago Flat Sammies, a new counter-service concept featuring homemade sandwiches, soups and pastries. The 130-seat cafe, which has an outdoor patio with a view of Michigan Avenue, is located in Chicago's historic Pumping Station next to the Water Tower. Ottmann says LEYE remains open to forming future partnerships down the road. "We have lots of people who approach us, and as opportunities come through, we will evaluate each one," Ottmann says. "There is a great benefit that comes from working with partners. We are very big believers in partnerships." But not all of LEYE's recent remodels involve opening new concepts. In an effort to increase business at Ben Pao, LEYE recently made several design and operations changes to the 2-year-old Chinese dinner house. "When we first opened [Ben Pao], the room was a bit cold," Ottmann says. "We warmed it up and then went back and worked on the food and service. Nothing we did was a huge shift. Instead we made 100 little changes." Design modifications focused on adding warmth to the dining room and the exterior facade through the use of color and texture. In the dining room several gray, vertical support columns were painted red. The plain, white walls were spruced up with gold and green accents as well as plaster bamboo stems. The floor was lightened with Oriental carpet runners, and the room was given a brighter glow through five oversized rice paper disks that were installed as ceiling light fixtures. On the facade of the building, a number of red accents, including awnings, were added to Ben Pao. In addition, the original frosted windows, which blocked the view into the restaurant, were replaced with regular clear glass. Ottmann says the changes, which began about one year ago, have had a tremendous impact on business. "Of all of our restaurants, Ben Pao is week-to-week the most ahead of sales from last year," Ottmann says. While updating and opening restaurants around Chicago, LEYE also continues to expand outside Illinois. The company is taking Big Bowl, its Asian-American themed concept, to Minneapolis this fall. LEYE currently operates two Big Bowl restaurants in Chicago. The 5,400-square-foot location, which will be located in a mall in a suburb of Minneapolis, will feature a stir-fry bar and serve specialties, such as noodle dishes, potstickers and dumplings, as well as its signature beverages, including a homemade drink made with fresh ginger. Ottmann says LEYE is "close to signing a number of other locations" for Big Bowl. In addition, LEYE is building its third Wildfire, which is expected to open next year, in a suburb of Chicago called Lincolnshire. The first Wildfire is located downtown, and the second one, which recently opened, is in Oak Brook, a northern Chicago suburb. Wildfire is a steak and chop house that offers such items as prime rib, pork, ahi tuna and mussels, which for the most part are cooked over an open flame or roasted on a spit. "In the end, Wildfire is a version of a 1 940s steak house," Ottmann says. "People like basic American food when it is done exceptionally well." Wildfire's design features a sunken main dining room with leather booths as well as a dramatic open kitchen, which highlights the open-flame cooking. The dining room and kitchen are accented with honey-colored wood and stone.