Daily Grill sees silver lining in 'turnaway' woes

Nation's Restaurant News, Oct 7, 1991 by Richard Martin

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. -- Bob Spivak, the co-founder of Beverly Hills' swank bastion of meat and potatoes, The Grill, is not entirely happy about the crush of customers attracted to the third and newest branch of his downscale Daily Grill chain.

"We're in a serious 'turnaway' situation at Newport Beach," grumbled Spivak, whose Los Angeles-based Grill Concepts Inc. launched its first Daily Grill spin-off three years ago in Brentwood and followed that debut with a high-volume La Cienega Boulevard branch a year and a half ago.

However, Spivak isn't complaining about the way "bidding wars" have erupted in Southern California between rival regional-mall developers who are offering whopping $200-a-foot leasehold-improvement incentives to land a traffic-boosting Daily Grill as an anchor tenant.

Nor are he and partners Dick Shapiro and Mike Weinstock perturbed that their newest branch of the old-fashioned, tablecloth-garbed grill concept is one of Orange County's hottest dining attractions. That fact only bolsters Daily Grill's national expansion plans and raises the three-unit chain's projected annualized sales to nearly $10 million.

Still, Spivak is dissatisified. Each day at the 110-seat Fashion Island mall branch "we fill up and have a wait before noon," he complained. "Everybody wants to eat between 12 and 1" p.m.

Concerned that overflow crowds of would-be lunch patrons may leave the 5-month-old restaurant never to return, Spivak is hastily readying a dining patio and negotiating with his Newport Beach landlord, the Irvine Co., for 1,500 square feet of adjacent space in which to add 60 more seats.

Meanwhile, Grill Concepts is plotting the April opening of an Encino branch Spivak hopes will keep San Fernando Valley fans of Daily Grill's "traditional" fare on their side of the Santa Monica Mountains and away from the chain's 90-seat Brentwood flagship. That restaurant, too, "runs at such a high level of turnaway," Spivak moaned.

Best equipped for Daily Grill's no-reservations format and drop-in popularity is the $4 million-a-year La Cienega branch, whose 140 seats accommodate a daily average of 700 covers and have held single-day guest counts as high as 650 at dinner and 250 at lunch.

Clearly, customer traffic poses a strategic challenge for the Daily Grill's owners, who seldom face that problem at their 7-year-old Beverly Hills restaurant, The Grill, which takes reservations and plies a more upscale trade inside its alley-entrance location off Rodeo Drive. According to a tried-and-true formula, the 120-seat Grill takes 12 bookings for 6 p.m. and nine more for each of the next three half-hour periods until 7:30, when the first-occupied tables begin to turn over.

Daily Grills, too, usually perform efficiently, thanks to their first-come, first-served format. Typically, booths and freestanding tables turn over every 45 minutes to an hour while the counter seats that surround the open kitchen turn in 30- to 45-minute cycles.

Because of more frequent turns -- made fastes because management doesn't have to hold idle tables for reservations -- Daily Grill can offer attractive prices on a wide-ranging menu of fare that is similar to the Grill's but less costly. The chain's check average runs about $12.50 at lunch and $16 at dinner.

Popular dishes are shrimp cocktail ($8.25), Caesar salad ($6.25, $8.75), chicken pot pie ($9.25), chicken hash ($8.50), chicken piccata ($11.25), sauteed sanddabs ($11.25), eggs Benefict ($9.75), char-broiled top sirloin steak ($15.50) and fried potatoes and onions ($4, $6.25). Most main courses on the 130-item menu come with steamed broccoli only, encouraging a la carte ordering of soup, salad and vegetable side orders.

Desserts ($2.50-$5.75) include a signature rice pudding, sourdough bread pudding, tapioca pie and banana cream pie.

Unlike The Grill, which has a full bar, Daily Grills have further streamlined operations by running only service bars and offering only beers and wines.

"The concept would seem to be really easy to copy, and yet there's not one really like it," said Spivak, adding that Grill Concepts has never shied away from a prospective expansion site because of the similarity of a competing restaurant.

Moreover, he said, it is somewhat ironic that the Daily Grill's no-nonsense cuisine seems to be as trendy as that of any ethnic or eclectic concept if one judges by the chain's guest counts and growth profile.

Despite Daily Grill's focus on traditional fare, Spivak stressed, "this is not an easy concept. We don't open any cans, and we don't use frozen foods. We make our own bechamel for potpies and our own bordelaise. I think that's probably unusual for a restaurant with as low a check average" -- about 30 percent, he said -- "as ours."

Chicken is about the trendiest commodity on the chain's menu. "We've really expanded our use of chicken; it seems to fit the dietary needs of the '90s," Spivak said, noting that the Daily Grill's $6.75 grilled chicken burger accounts for an equal one-third share of total burger sales, alongside those of a hamburger and a cheeseburger.