by David DuBou » Mon Mar 30, 2009 1:56 pm
Phil,
i always enjoy reading your posts. Your writing is lucid and full of intelligent and entertaining metaphors and similes.
But i did want to clear up what seems to be a misunderstanding regarding Jeff Ruby's being a chain restaurant. They are actually not a chain. Jeff Ruby is an independent restauranteur from Cincinnati who owns and operates 7 restaurants in the area (4 in Cincinnati, 1 in Louisville, 1 in Newport and one at the Belterra Casino). He has many different concepts besides the Jeff Ruby's Steakhouse (Bootsy's, Carlo & Johnny, The Precinct, The Waterfront) but the Steakhouse is the only concept that he has been duplicated (Louisville & Belterra Casino). Granted this is a bit unknown to Louisville since we do not have an abundance of 'independent restaurant groups' like Atlanta (Buckhead Life), Chicago (Lettuce Entertain You), etc. But we also have more independent Louisville based/originated groups than many might realize. For example: The Bristol Group (4 in Louisville & 1 in Southern Indiana), The Z's Group (the steakhouse is in both Louisville and Indianapolis along with Z Fusion downtown), The owners of Basa just opened their 2nd concept with 732 Social, The owners of Asiatique have 2 concepts (Asiatique & August Moon) and so on and so forth.
My point here is that an independent restaurant group is not a chain and it is not uncommon for a successful restauranteur to open additional concepts or to take a successful concept to a nearby city.
For those who have a love of the independent restauranteur, chain is commonly an unsavory word or term and it is important to understand the distinction between what is defined as a chain and an independent restaurant group.