Irvine-based Yard House Restaurants LLC has sold a 70% stake to San Francisco-based private equity firm TSG Consumer Partners.
Steel Platt, a company founder and chief executive, plans to continue running the restaurant operator.
Platt and some other roughly 100 investors, including employees, sold stakes in the company.
It’s unclear how much the company was valued at in the deal or how many people from TSG will sit on Yard House’s board.
Yard House hopes to grow into a national brand that can compete with companies such as Cheesecake Factory Inc. of Calabasas Hills.
The company runs restaurants built around hundreds of beer taps and a classic rock theme. Yard House has 16 restaurants in California, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Kansas and Nevada.
It has restaurants in Brea, Irvine and Costa Mesa.
Yard House plans to open three restaurants in the next six months, including an 8,000 square-foot restaurant at Newport Beach’s Fashion Island.
Platt opened the first Yard House in 1996 in Long Beach with partners Harald Hermann and Carlito Jocson.
The Yard House is similar to the Boiler Room in Denver, Colorado, a restaurant that Platt started and later sold before moving to California. It offers a wide selection of draft beer and American food. It hails its name from the signature 3-foot tall glasses it uses to serve beer.
The company generates about $115 million in yearly sales and employs 600 workers in OC.
TSG, which invests in beverage, food, personal care product, drug pet care companies, has made other deals here.
In 2004, TSG acquired a stake in Irvine’s PureOlogy Research LLC, an upscale hair care company. PureOlogy sold to L’Oreal SA in May.
It’s unclear how long TSG will hold its Yard House stake. The company could end up going public or selling to a larger restaurant company.
