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Serving Up Some Links
What some have labeled "the Wal-Marting" of the restaurant industry has been empowered by considerable cash reserves, volume purchasing and corporate direction that exhibits no small measure of imagination and bold decision-making.
The Olive Garden division of Orlando-based Darden Restaurants, that colossus of the market, the world's largest casual dining company, proves the point.
Olive Garden
Olive Garden is the leading restaurant in the Italian segment of the industry with 516 restaurants and close to $2 billion in annual sales. When the concept was being developed, it was easy to take cheap shots at the efforts. But Darden adjusted. It determined to make its Gardens as authentically Italian as its ads claimed. The company went back to the source.
In 1999, Darden established the Olive Garden Culinary Institute of Tuscany with its Riserva di Fizzano restaurant under the direction of executive chef Romana Neri, who has trained some 200 Olive Garden culinary managers, immersing them in the food and culture of the Old Country, while developing new menu items for Olive Gardens everywhere. This year that's meant the introduction of salmon piccata, three-meat ravioli and a pair of chicken dishes.
There's been a similar emphasis on improving the wine cellars of the Gardens. In 2001, the company established the Olive Garden Wine Institute of Napa Valley, in partnership with a trio of California wineries: Robert Mondavi Family of Wines, Trinchero Family Estates (Sutter Home) and Gallo of Sonoma, with the active participation of the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y.
More than 120 managers have participated in the institute's five-day curriculum, with classes at Mondavi concentrated on the history of wine. At Trinchero Estates, there's hands-on food and wine instruction, while the fundamentals and subtleties of wine service techniques are taught at Gallo of Sonoma.
Back home there's continuing education and training and various in-house promotions for Darden's 60,000 employees "designed to remove the intimidation guests may feel when ordering wine." This new approach to the fine art of improving liquid assets has been a resounding success. Last year more than 30 million Garden guests were served wine samples, and 5.7 million bottles were served. The prestigious Monterey Wine Festival gave the Garden "America's Best Casual Dining Wine List Award."
Olive Garden wine lists were expanded last March to 46 selections, 38 of them available by the glass. Twenty-three of the wines, including Poggio Salvi Brunello and Marchesi di Barolo, are Italian; 18 are from California; three from Washington state; and one each from France and Australia -- the Penfolds Thomas Hyland Shiraz.
Dan Marino's
Martinis, not wine, are the beverage of choice at the successful collection of taverns named for celebrateur Dan Marino. Not as successful as his Dolphins coach, however. There are now 16 Shula Steak House restaurants, including one along the beach in Fort Lauderdale and one in the upscale Dolphin Hotel in Walt Disney World, but only five Dan Marino's Town Taverns:
Coral Springs, 901 University Drive, 954/341-4658
Fort Lauderdale, Las Olas Riverfront, 300 S.W. 1st Ave., 954/522-1313
Miami, Shoppes at Sunset Place, 5701 Sunset Drive, 305/665-1315
Orlando, Pointe Orlando; 9101 International Drive, 407/363-5513
St. Petersburg, BayWalk, 121 Second St. N.; 727/822-4472, with a popular Marino's Martini Bar alongside with live music and DJs.
Dan Marino's is part of a stellar cast of restaurant chains that are all part of Fort Myers- and Fort Lauderdale-based LTP Management, which used the talented kitchen crew of Brasserie Max, founded by Dennis Max in 1989 and later bought by LTP, to develop menu items for its operations, including Dan Marino's and several south Florida Hooters, Adobe Gila's, Fresh Mouth, Lulu's Bait Shack and Ugly Tuna Saloona restaurants.
LTP has a total of 35 restaurants in the U.S., including the recently opened Hooters and Adobe Gila's in Las Vegas. The Brasserie's eye-popping caramelized almond pastry basket, replete with raspberry sorbet and peaked with real whipped cream, lives on at Marino's.
Firehouse Subs
Another Florida-boy-makes-good story is Jacksonville's Firehouse Subs, founded in 1994 by the brothers Sorensen, Robin and Chris, firefighters who expanded their quality concepts to Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, the Carolinas and Mississippi and boast over 100 locations.
Along the way they garnered well-earned recognition: The University of Florida School of Entrepreneurship and Innovation ranked it among the Top 100 Fastest-Growing Companies in the state for five consecutive years. Ernst & Young gave it the Entrepreneur of the Year award in 2001; Nation's Restaurant News included Firehouse Subs as one of 50 movers and shakers in its 50 Regional Powerhouses Special Edition.
