Investors who lose their shirts on Wall Street still need a place to sit down and drown their sorrows.
The owners of the Yard House restaurant and bar plan to open their second Orange County location in Irvine this June, despite a slowing economy, the energy crisis, layoffs and decimated portfolios. What’s more, Long Beach-based Yard House Restaurants LLC plans to relocate its headquarters to the Irvine Spectrum, adjacent to its newest location with 225 employees.
The company’s Triangle Square location has become one of the busiest restaurants in town. The Costa Mesa restaurant and bar is a popular watering hole featuring hundreds of taps for specialty and imported beers. The original Yard House started in Long Beach five years ago.
The restaurant derives its name from its signature three-foot-tall beer glasses. In Irvine, the Yard House plans to build its largest restaurant,a 17,000-square-foot facility that’s set to seat 460 people. Yard House executives hope to target 20- to 40-year-old customers with classic rock music, a 60-foot bar, 250-plus varieties of beer and ample outdoor space for smokers.
Long Beach-based Icon Restaurant Group, owners of Yard House and Tequila Jack’s Beach House Cantina, reported $20 million in 2000 sales, which were up 82%. By the end of 2002, the company is projecting $50 million in sales. Food accounts for 60% of revenue with beer, wine and other beverages making up the rest.
Officials expect the Irvine location to become their top location, generating annual sales of $8 million to $12 million, vs. $6 million to $7 million for its 10,000-square-foot, 280-seat Costa Mesa site. The original Yard House does about $9 million a year from its 12,000-square-foot, 320-seat location.
The goal is to build a new restaurant every six months, according to co-owner Steele Platt. The restaurants, which cost roughly $3 million to build, are developed with financial backing from local investors who sign into a 50-50 partnership with Icon. Landlords chip in about $1 million per location.
Standing inside the future site of the Irvine restaurant, owners Platt, Steven Reynolds, Harald Hermann and corporate chef Carlito Jocson recently discussed their plans for additional locations, including one at The River at Rancho Mirage near Palm Springs set to open in October and one in San Diego set for 2002. The company also is scouting a new location in Scottsdale, Ariz., they said.
The new Yard House planned for Irvine Spectrum Center will join a list of other popular nightspots, restaurants and bars. The Spectrum is home to Rock Bottom Brewery and Restaurant, Crazy Horse Steakhouse & Nightclub, The Cheesecake Factory, P.F. Chang’s China Bistro, Wolfgang Puck Caf & #233;, Dave & Buster’s and GameWorks.
While some restaurateurs say OC could be reaching a saturation point, the Yard House says the more the merrier.
“We believe in synergy,” Platt said. “We will bring more people to the Spectrum,not compete against someone else, but complement them.”
Last year, the Irvine Spectrum Center attracted roughly 9 million visitors.
Platt and Reynolds started the Yard House in 1995. The two first met in 1986. Back then, Platt was the 24-year-old owner of a Hawaiian-themed restaurant named Kailua in Denver. Reynolds serviced the restaurant’s beverage supply.
Platt, who grew up in Kailua, Hawaii, later opened a second Denver restaurant called The Boiler Room, an upscale beer hall that served as the prototype for the Yard House. A year later he launched his third venture, a nightclub called EFEX that closed after neighboring hotel owners complained it was too noisy.
By 1991, Platt was ready for a change. He moved to Orange County after selling off Kailua and The Boiler Room (which remains open today). Platt and Reynolds, who had moved here the prior year, rekindled their friendship and formed The Yard House Restaurants. Later they expanded the company’s ownership to include Herrmann in 1999. About six months later, Jocson joined.
The Long Beach restaurant opened in 1996 followed two years later by Tequila Jack’s, a Mexican-themed bar next door featuring 125 brands of tequila and named by Spirits and Cocktails Magazine as one of the “top 20 tequila bars in the country.” n
