Restaurant Themes
In August 2007, Ruby Tuesday Inc. ventured back into other concepts with their newly acquired Asian dining restaurant, Wok Hay. The company proceeded to convert the concept from self-service to full-service dining. In October 2008, a second location was opened in a former Ruby Tuesday restaurant building. The company's 2011 Annual Report noted an additional franchised Wok Hay restaurant in Trinidad, bringing the emerging chain to three operating restaurants.
In September 2010, Ruby Tuesday Inc. continued its venture into other concepts with an agreement to license the Lime Fresh Mexican Grill brand. Earlier the same year, Ruby Tuesday also acquired the development rights to Truffles Grill and introduced their home-grown Marlin & Ray's Seafood & Sunsets concept. As of 2011, the company is researching conversion of poorly performing Ruby Tuesday restaurants into some of these concepts. An excerpt from the 2011 Annual Report:
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- As of May 31, 2011, we owned and operated one Marlin & Ray’s, one Truffles, and two Wok Hay restaurants. We are currently evaluating the conversion of certain lower performing Ruby Tuesday concept restaurants to these concepts. We currently anticipate converting approximately six to eight company-owned Ruby Tuesday concept restaurants to the Marlin & Ray’s, Truffles, or Wok Hay concepts in fiscal 2012. Additionally, we anticipate opening one to two new restaurants and approximately seven to nine smaller, inline Lime restaurants in fiscal year 2012.
The company has also experimented conversion with the Alabama-based Jim 'N Nick's Bar-B-Q chain. However, a year after remodeling a Ruby Tuesday restaurant into the company's first Jim 'N Nick's, company spokeswoman Meridith Hammond indicated they would no longer explore that particular concept. On April 4, 2012, Ruby Tuesday Inc. announced that it had purchased fast-casual chain Lime Fresh Mexican Grill for $24 million cash. The announcement by Sandy Beall went on to add that "...John Kunkel, Lime’s founder, will be joining our Board of Directors following completion of the acquisition."
Read more about this topic: Ruby Tuesday (restaurant), History
Famous quotes containing the words restaurant and/or themes:
“A restaurant is a fantasy—a kind of living fantasy in which diners are the most important members of the cast.”
—Warner Leroy, U.S. restaurateur, founder of Maxwell’s Plum restaurant, New York City. New York Times (July 9, 1976)
“I suppose you think that persons who are as old as your father and myself are always thinking about very grave things, but I know that we are meditating the same old themes that we did when we were ten years old, only we go more gravely about it.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)