| Restaurants work to feed the suburbs Chains rush to build in fast-growing cities 05/27/2001 By Steve Quinn / The Dallas Morning News
One recent weekday lunch hour, Allison Yee was reviewing the restaurant
options she could see from a parking lot near Preston Road and State
Highway 121 – and she was startled by the choices.
How about Gloria's? Or Café Crisp? Chipotle, maybe? She briefly
considered the Down Under Pub and Grub and then decided on Bennigan's
Irish American Bar and Grill.
Last year, none of them was there.
Today, at least 19 restaurants are open in the Preston-Highway 121 area,
and eight more are under construction.
"Three years ago, there was just an Albertson's and a doughnut shop –
and you had better get there before 10:45 or you would be out of luck,"
Ms. Yee said. "This could be another Addison 'restaurant row.'"
Frisco, like a number of suburban cities, is becoming a restaurant
destination. It's a welcome development for residents who once had to
drive to Dallas or Addison to get a good restaurant meal.
"You used to hear how people living in Highland Park would never drive
north of LBJ," said Frisco resident John Beasley. "Well, pretty soon the
people of Frisco won't drive south of LBJ. They'll stay up here."
Most of Frisco's new restaurants belong to chains, which are driving the
suburban boom. These companies are especially attracted to the Dallas
area because people here lead the nation in dining out.
Last year, Dallas-area residents spent $1,146 per capita at restaurants,
according to research by the National Restaurant Association in
Washington, D.C.
San Francisco is second at $1,100 per capita, and Minneapolis-St. Paul
is third at $1,091. The national average is $846.
Even with those impressive figures, the industry is watching to see
whether Frisco can support the restaurants that have located there, most
of them clustered near the Stonebriar Centre shopping mall that opened
in August.
"Everybody has got their eyes on Frisco to see how it goes and what
happens," said Tracy Evers, executive director of the Greater Dallas
Restaurant Association. "They are experiencing a lot of growth just as a
city. They've had to learn as they go, and now all of the sudden, these
restaurants are moving in."
Throughout D-FW
The story is the same in Southlake, where Mi Cocina, Thai Chili, Rockfish
and Corner Bakery opened in the last several months at Southlake Town
Center, with an eatZi's Market and Bakery and Nick and Sam's Steakhouse
coming soon.
And a dozen restaurants have opened in the last year and half at Las
Colinas Village, a 135,000-square-foot retail center at MacArthur
Boulevard and State Highway 114 in Irving.
These chains like the suburbs for three reasons: They all have growing
populations, substantial employment bases, and they are retail centers.
"Our role is to stay on the edge of where all three dynamics merge and
create the right amount of synergy," said Jeff Wood, vice president of
real estate development at Brinker International. The Dallas-based
company – best known for its Chili's Grill & Bar chain – has opened five
restaurants in Frisco in the last year.
Dennis Lombardi, executive vice president of Chicago-based food-service
consulting firm Technomic, said such clustering is a well-used tool in
suburban markets.
"It helps them with their management," he said. "What's a good market
for one is usually a good market for the other. Plus, no matter how much
someone likes a restaurant, they'll eventually want to eat somewhere
else."
By locating several restaurants on the same parcel of land, companies
also can secure a site with better visibility and street access than
they could with just one restaurant, Mr. Lombardi said.
"It tends to bring more people into that area," Mr. Lombardi said.
"People will tend to gravitate to a place where there are several
choices."
Restaurants also like to use the suburbs to launch new concepts.
Metromedia Restaurant Group opened its new Steak & Ale concept last fall
along the Dallas North Tollway in Plano. And Brinker opened its first
Dallas-area Big Bowl, an Asian restaurant, in Frisco this month.
Dallas-based Carlson Restaurants Worldwide – which has new Taqueria
Cañonita and Migñon restaurants in Plano – likes the city because "it's
not a big city, but it's not a far-out suburb anymore," said Jo El
Quinlan, the company's vice president of real estate.
Growing industry
The suburban restaurant boom is helping to fuel the restaurant industry's
growth nationally, analysts say.
Last year, U.S. households spent 46 percent of their food dollars in
restaurants. That number is expected to climb to 53 percent by 2010,
said Hudson Riehle, head of research for the National Restaurant
Association.
The increase can be attributed to an increase in household income, Mr.
Riehle said.
"Between 1995 and 1999, the number of households with an income of
$100,000 or more jumped by 44 percent," he said. "That's the prime
restaurant market."
Staff writer Steve Quinn covers business news in Plano. He can be
reached at 214-977-6844 or by e-mail at . Staff writers Suzanne Marta in Irving and Jenni
Smith in Southlake contributed to this report.
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