Month-long Cajun promo boosts American Grill sales

Nation's Restaurant News, March 25, 1985 by Patricia Stoll

GLENVIEW, Ill. -- During a month when cold, nasty weather and postholiday restraint caused a downturn in restaurant traffic in the area, a restaurateur in this tiny north Chicago suburb employed a hot southern cooking craze to stabilize sales.

While many operators complained that the February decline had exceeded last year's by anywhere from 10% to 20%, Roger Greenfield says sales at his American Grill were boosted anywhere from 20% to 40%, thanks to a month-long Cajun cuisine promotion.

"Normally slow nights weren't slow," remarked Greenfield, who says that since the 160-seat restaurant opened six months ago it has been operating at a sales pace which should double his initial projection of $1.2 million.

Although the restaurant's regular menu features mesquite-grilled seafoods, roasted fowl and pizzas cooked in wood-burning ovens, Greenfield says the addition of Cajun-style foods during the promotion were in keeping with the American Grill's name and theme.

"We're trying to bring the cuisine of different American regions to our clientele, so they, can try them without having to go anywhere," he continued, calling the American Grill's offerings "a gastronomic tour of the country."

Featured on a special "Mardi Gras Month" dinner menu during February were two appetizers--Cajun gumbo ya ya ($3.25) and spicy Cajun fried oysters ($4.95)--and five main courses ranging in price from $12.25 to $15.75: bayou duckling, grilled veal chop with Creole salsa, pecan breaded grouper with lime butter, blackened prime rib and blackened redfish in the style of K-Paul's.

Also featured on the special menu were such desserts as sweet potato pecan pie, praline ice cream and bread pudding with bourbon sauce and three "eye openers"--a Cajun martini (hot peppers steeped in vodka), ramos gin fizz and Sazerac cocktail.

At lunchtime, said Greenfield, three Cajun items were offered as "teasers"--gumbo, blackened redfish and grouper.

Of the Cajun items, only blackened redfish had been on the restaurant's regular menu.

However, Greenfield is planning to incorporate those dishes that proved most popular--gumbo, fried oysters, blackened prime rib and the redfish--onto the new regular menu.

"The popularity of Cajun cuisine won't die out," he insisted. "It's good food."

AMONG FOODS that the restaurant serves on its regular menu are pizza with duck sausage, basil, thyme and bell peppers ($5.95), roast fresh baby pheasant with two-color pastas ($14.75), herb-flavored fettuccine with fresh grilled baby salmon ($12.50), baby pork chops with jalapeno jelly and blue corn dressing ($11.75) and the highest-priced item, a grilled veal chop with onion marmalade and natural juices ($15.95).

Appetizers, which range in price from $3.75 to $4.95, include wild mushroom and duck ravioli served with three-color vegetables, angel hair pasta tossed in olive oil and served with seasonal mushrooms and spicy black bean soup.

Greenfield closed his American Grill for a month in January and took chef David Jarvis to New Orleans, where they visited a number of restaurants. In addition, Jarvis--who came to American Grill from the Bel Air Hotel in Los Angeles--consulted via phone with the head chef at Commander's Palace in New Orleans.

To promote Mardi Gras month, Greenfield took out advertisements in the Chicago Tribune and the suburban Pioneer Press. However, he said many of those who visited during that period were regular customers who had noticed signs promoting the event in the restaurant's entryway. "They made a decision to come back for it," he noted.

Taped Dixieland music was also played at the restaurant, adn servers wore "I Love N'awlins" buttons.

IN ADDITIONS to food, the promotion featured two grand celebrations--on Mardi Gras' "Fat Tuesday," Feb. 19, when a costume party was held, and on Valentine's Day, when customers received complimentary "Le Grand Passion" liqueur and were serenaded at their tables by a three-piece Dixieland band.

"It was crazy in here," recalled Greenfield, who is the former owner of Le Rendezvous and 50 East in Chicago and gained inspiration for his American Grill from such California restaurants as Spago and Chez Panisse.

His next project is a "southern" restaurant, scheduled to open in early June in Chicago's hottest new area for restaurants, the River North section. The restaurant not only will expand on the Cajun-Creole theme but also will offer foods indigenous to such places as Tennessee and Key West, said Greenfield.