In a city that has a taste forwinners, few can top the track record of restaurateur Steve Hanson. He just doesn’t lose.
With seven thriving restaurants (opened in the past 14 years) under his belt, one opening next month and more to follow, his philosophy of teamwork and a treating the customer like a king (or queen) is reaping his privately held company, B.R. Guest, some handsome royalties.
If you haven’t heard of Steve Hanson, chances are you’ve heard of his places: Coconut Grill, Isabella’s, Park Avalon, Blue Water Grill, Ocean Grill, Atlantic Grill and Ruby Foo’s Dim Sum & Sushi Palace, where stars like Steven Spielberg and Kate Capshaw, Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger and most recently Conan O’Brien and his new girlfriend (identified only as “Stephanie”) frequently dine.
And soon everyone will be hearing a lot more about Ruby Foo’s as Hanson begins his quest to build a national chain of the David Rockwell-designed Chinese, Thai and Japanese fusion eatery.
Hanson hopes to have a lease signed in either Boston or Washington, D.C., in the next six months, and plans to be open in one or both locations in 2000.
A second Ruby Foo’s is slated to open in Times Square by the second week of January.
Meanwhile, two other non-Ruby’s restaurant are under construction in two adjacent spaces in the Triangle Building on 14th Street, in the hopping Meatpacking District.
The first one will be an, as yet unnamed, 6,000-square-foot jazz-sushi bar.
“The other space is going to be a gigantic project [possibly a steakhouse] of about 15,000 square feet on three floors,” says Hanson.
In an industry known for its overwhelming rate of failure, Hanson has known only success. B.R. Guest will have total sales of $55 million by the end of this year, and over $70 million in 2000.
“He seems to have a knack for knowing what the people want,” says Barry Wine, a consultant to Hanson, who’s best known as the former proprietor of the swanky (and now defunct) Quilted Giraffe. “He’s also the hardest working and most focused restaurateur I’ve ever met.”
“Basically, people want to have a good time,” Hanson says. “But they also want value. Listen, McDonald’s does unbelievably, it’s a tremendous value. On the other hand you have Bouley or Jean Georges, they do unbelievable as well, but at about four hundred times the price of fast food. There’s value there as well. It’s just on a different level.”
But value only comes from knowing your market very well. And Hanson sees to it he’s over-informed on virtually every detail of his business.
“Before he signed the lease at Isabella’s, he sat in his car and staked out the area around the space for days,” says a friend. “He was watching to see what type of people were walking by and what other restaurants were getting traffic. That was his form of demographic study. It’s just his hands-on way of doing business.”
The same goes with the quality of his products, like using the same fish purveyor as Nobu and the same chefs.
While attending New York University in the 1970s , Hanson had his first up-close restaurant experience when he took a job working for noted restaurateur Alan Stillman at the original TGI Friday’s. “Alan was something of a mentor to me then,” says Hanson. “I got a grass-roots understanding of the business from him.”
In 1974, Hanson and some college pals opened a nightclub/restaurant in New Rochelle.
The club, called Peachtree, was heralded by the New York press as having one of the best club scenes outside Manhattan. He sold his share in 1978.
From there, he went into the highly speculative futures business as a commodities floor trader on the Coffee, Sugar & Cocoa Exchange and the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Having done relatively well in the futures markets, Hanson, nonetheless decided his future wasn’t in commodities.
Did this disciplined man reinvest his winnings wisely? “Hell, no,” he laughs. “I spent it. I just took it and had a really great time. It was the ’80s, what can I say?”
To recoup his mispent fortune, Hanson returned to this roots and joined his family’s business (in Westchester, where he was born and raised), where his mother, Betty Hanson, reigned as a top sportswear designer.
But he never quite got food-service bug out of his system.
After spending four years in the garment business, Hanson opened the Caribbean-themed Coconut Grill in 1985 with, he says, “a whole bunch of commodity friends and fellas that had disposable income.”
A year later, he opened Isabella’s – named for Queen Isabella, for its Columbus Avenue location.
Isabella’s gained national prominance after it was featured on a Seinfeld episode. “He used to come in all time,” recalls Hanson. “And about two or three years into his series, he did a whole skit on Isabella’s, it was just unreal.”
His biggest venture, by far, was the 250-seat Park Avalon restaurant. “It opened a whole new set of dynamics because of the size,” he recalls. “The learning curve was in the kitchen, particularly how to get your product out correctly.”
In rapid succession came Blue Water Grill, Ocean Grill and Atlantic Grill.
“It’s a culture. We try to establish a B.R. Guest culture. That means being hospitable toward to clients. You always have to remember they’re the ones doing you the favor by coming into your establishment.
A lot of people lose sight of that, and that’s where they fail. Once you lose the understanding that the customer is King – and they are the ones paying everyone’s salary – you’ll harm yourself.”