Sure,
Kaskaid Hospitality’s growth strategy hinges on great real estate. But
its lasting success rests on major investment in kitchen leadership.
When the Eden Prairie-based
Kaskaid Hospitality
announced in July that it was launching its Union restaurant in
downtown Minneapolis, it revealed its intent to become the leading
culinary name in Minnesota—and among the top in the country. It’s an
ambitious, multi (multi)-million dollar concept—three levels, two
kitchens and rooftop dining beneath a four-seasons retractable glass
roof, with a major talent leading the kitchen.
Kaskaid also announced in that month it was resurrecting one of the
Twin Cities most iconic restaurant names: Figlio. Kaskaid founder and
CEO Kam Talebi (pictured above) secured what outwardly appears to be a
coup of sorts, contracting the brand via a licensing arrangement from
its owner,
Parasole Restaurant Holdings.
Those two major announcements came on top
of another this summer: Talebi’s company opened its eighth Crave
restaurant in Cincinnati, Ohio, the fourth state for that expanding
brand. (The first Crave restaurant opened in the Galleria, an upscale
shopping mall in Edina, in 2007.)
Throw in with those restaurants the
Urban Eatery,
located at the Calhoun Beach Club in Minneapolis, the casual observer
might think that Kaskaid and Talebi is pushing hard for growth.
It’s an observation that Talebi dismisses to a point—he says he’s
more an opportunist than expansionist. Which explains why Crave’s growth
has led from Minnesota to Florida, Nebraska, Ohio and soon to Missouri,
instead of a more linear path to, say, Wisconsin. “Great real estate is
limited,” Talebi said. “When a great opportunity comes up, you must
react.”
The ninth Crave, which will open in Kansas City, is only a two-hour
flight away, Talebi explained. “It’s not that big of a difference. …
“We’ve proven we can travel and overcome the challenges of getting out
of state.”
To manage the growth, he’s staffed the company with capable people—he
rattled off the names of a dozen at the corporate end, and more at the
restaurants, that he said were indispensable. “We have a great team, and
we’re able to attract great people with talent,” he said. “And we have a
wide spectrum of talent.”
Talebi said he’d like to grow the company—primarily with the Crave
brand—by two to three units per year. But he hasn’t written that in
stone. “Our methodical growth is driven by great real estate,” he said.
“If it’s not available, we won’t grow. We grow when it makes sense.”
Locally, his real estate decisions have been solid. Galleria was a
safe environment to test-drive Crave, an upscale-casual restaurant that
blends chic design with comfort in the dining room and sushi with
globally inspired American fare on the menu. Mall of America was next,
followed by the new St. Louis Park commercial development Shops at West
End, and then a prime downtown location vacated by the long-tenured
Palomino. Each restaurant has its own GM and executive chef—“Someone
making decisions, taking responsibility,” Talebi preached—and each
restaurant brand is it’s own entity at the corporate level.
Financing is equally methodical, a cocktail of internal capital, some
personal investment, and bank financing. “A combination of equity and
debt,” Talebi said. “It’s never easy.” But, he pointed out, they’ve gone
through it many times.
It’s about the food
It’s easy—and accurate—to call Kaskaid another ambitious restaurant
company looking to capture market share. But industry observers agree
that, where most growing restaurant companies simply say the food is the
most important piece of the machine, it appears Kaskaid is one of the
few that honors that mission statement. When Talebi hired chef Jim
Kyndberg as culinary director in 2010, those in the Minnesota food scene
who scoffed at the budding Crave restaurant chain began to take a long
look.
Kyndberg owned and operated the much-swooned-over Bayport Cookery,
and is a “chef” in that sense that one would never see him working with a
multi-unit restaurant company. Yet there he went, and there he remains.
The company also reeled in some other local big-name talent: J.P.
Samuelson and, most recently, Jim Christiansen. (Kaskaid also recently
hired Bill King, the executive chef who worked for McCormick &
Schmick’s and opened about 60 restaurants for that upscale chophouse
chain. “It’s just the experience we need for growth,” Talebi said.)
Samuelson’s name looms large in the Twin Cities from his work at
D’Amico Cucina and Solera to his own restaurant, jP American Bistro.
Christiansen’s is well known in the tight foodie community for his work
as a protégé of James Beard-winner Tim McKee at La Belle Vie and Sea
Change. McKee appointed him to head the kitchen at the failing Il Gatto
for Parasole Restaurant Holdings. Christiansen’s food earned great
reviews from critics and the dining public (he was also named an FSN Top
Chef in 2010, as was Samuelson). When Il Gatto closed, Christiansen
travelled, cooked, and landed a stage at Noma in Denmark, the world’s
current culinary Mecca.
He appears the perfect candidate to head the kitchen at an ambitious,
food-first restaurant. Which is precisely what Talebi offered him with
Union. Talebi said the restaurant, located on Eighth Street and Hennepin
Avenue in the building the most recently housed Schinders, fills a void
in that area of downtown: “A chef-driven restaurant. It’s an eclectic
menu, but with an approachable component, not pompous or overwhelming to
customers.”
The casual, four-seasons dining experience on the roof will inspire a
changing seasonal menu, he added, while the dining room on the first
floor will be “more upscale, formal and traditional,” Talebi said.
The new fine dining
While the food in that dining area might be more “upscale” and
“formal” than on the rooftop, the design throughout Union will not
contain the stodgy elements of traditional fine dining. Instead, it
will highlight the character of the building, which was built in 1947,
said David Shea, principal and founder of Shea Inc., the Minneapolis
architecture and design firm behind many restaurants in the Twin Cities
and across the country, including all the restaurants under the Kaskaid
umbrella. Shea added that the era of formal fine dining is likely over.
(Evidence points to that, with the success of restaurants like Victory
44, Tilia and Travail to name a few—the food is as technically refined
as one can find, but jeans-wearing diners are welcome.)
“(The building) had terrazzo floors in it, so we’re saving and
preserving the terrazzo floor,” he said. “It may be beat up in a few
places, but we’re saving it. There are existing concrete columns in the
space. We’re leaving those things. We’re trying to leave the character
that grew of the building be part of the future of the space itself.”
Union’s design will not detract from the restaurant’s primary focus:
the food. “It’s very chef-driven, so it’s going to be quality material,
but it’s kind of more subtle atmosphere,” said Cori Kuechenmeister,
senior interior designer at Shea Inc. “(It’s) kind of a warmth in the
wood tones, and kind of a mid-tonality to everything, so nothing is
‘look at me’ pieces, it’s small subtle unique details I think are going
to make the space.”
On Union’s first floor, a bar and lounge will seat about and 70
people, and a dining room another 80. But that large capacity will be
broken up, the bar separate from the dining area. The third floor—the
6,000 square foot rooftop (and the piece de resistance of the
restaurant)—will seat about 170 people. About 115, Kuechenmeister said,
will be within a retractable glass enclosure that will be the first of
its kind—and size—in the country.
“This is the first one that’s actually going to basically telescope
out and retract completely, so there’s no frame up above at all,” Shea
said. “It has this kind of appeal of being totally out below the sky.”
Manufactured
in Germany, the glass is developed for efficiency and year-round
use—the space will be heated in winter and air-conditioned on those
summer days when there’s rain or murderous humidity. It’s that
wide-open, seated-in-the-seasons experience that will inspire
Christiansen’s menu, Talebi said. “Jim understands the vision,” he said.
“He has diverse talent and culinary base.”
Kaskaid invested in two fully-equipped open kitchens adjacent to
their respective dining areas, and the staff to fill them. “That was
really implemented at the start,” Talebi said, no staff running between
floors or partial menus.
Planning for Union began about a year ago, he added, and he kept
things under wraps because he “wanted to assemble the core elements of
the concept.”
Part of that core is the basement club, the Marquee Lounge, which
will be fueled by DJs and cocktails developed by Twin Cities master
mixologist Johnny Michaels (who is developing the drinks throughout
Union). Its capacity is 80 to 100 people, mostly standing room and the
bar. Patrons can enter through the restaurant—or the alley, similar to a
Manhattan club, Shea said.
Figlio redux
Talebi was handed the decades-old Figlio brand after a week’s worth
of conversations with its creator, Phil Roberts, Parasole Restaurant
Holdings’ CEO.
Roberts
(pictured above with Talebi), rather than renovate the still-popular
icon that anchored the corner of Lake Street and Hennepin Avenue for 25
years, closed it in 2009 and installed the doomed Il Gatto. That closed
during December 2011, and Parasole lost the corner real estate, which is
now filled by the Chicago-based Primebar.
Parasole did not respond by FSN’s press deadline as to why Roberts
licensed the brand to Talebi, but Parasole has focused on operational
efficiency throughout 2012, such as consolidating vendor contracts. “We
were on an expansion tear the last two years,” Parasole’s VP of
Marketing and Business Development Kip Clayton said in May, adding that
the company was focused on paying down short-term debt, systems and
personnel. A licensing arrangement generally means a steady revenue
stream.
Shea said he introduced Roberts and Talebi to start discussions.
“They hit it off together, and that was fun to see—the next generation
of restaurateur. Both of them are creative in unique and different ways,
a good thing to have.”
Kaskaid shut down its
Sopranos Kitchen
restaurant on July 29, and is set to reopen Figlio in that West End
spot after a remodel in mid-September. Samuelson, whom he hired to open
Sopranos in 2011, will remain in the Figlio kitchen. Talebi said the
licensing agreement for Figlio fits the direction he’s taking the
company: “Develop great brands, geared toward an experience—Crave-type
restaurants with great food and energy. Figlio mirrored what Crave’s
personality is.”
But won’t Figlio simply cannibalize the Crave West End audience?
No, Talebi said, because the culinary experience will be
distinct—northern Italian food with its rustic techniques. (Classic
Figlio dishes will make their return also, including the wood-fired
pizzas and signature calamari.)
Talebi said he also looked at the “dynamic” of the West End, and its
development with more office space, parking and a clientele less
interested in a formal dining experience. “Sopranos was fine,” he said.
“But it was more of a fine dining experience. Guests felt uncomfortable
in there. I wanted to introduce a concept that fit the demographic to
what the west end has become—Figlio was the right answer in all
respects.”
The former Figlio customers (including himself), he added, “have
grown up and moved to the suburbs, and that type of cuisine is missing
here.”
It will resemble the old Figlio, with a patio similar to the former
location’s dining room that opened to the street—“an inside, outside
kind of a thing, as much as the city will allow us to have it open,”
Shea said. There are also the Figlio “artifacts,” such as the billboards
with attitude, that will be used creatively indoors, plus familiar
signage, and trademarks such as the circular bar, open kitchen and
wood-fired pizza oven.
It appears to be a great deal for Talebi. He has near total control
of the brand, including expansion rights if it works well at West End.
But no matter how successful the design of the renewed Figlio, the
extra-ambitious Union, the growth of Crave and its new catering
division, Talebi, for all the action swirling at the moment, keeps
returning to the essence of his restaurants: “If it’s all about the bar,
it gets tiring,” he said. He should know. His first forays into the
hospitality arena was as an investor in the South Beach Nightclub and
Bellanotte. “That’s not a loyal crowd. …Food is the critical driver.
It’s all about the food.”
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