The direction in which multiconcept restaurant development was moving already was clear before May of this year, but the announcement then of a global partnership between Chef-restaurateur Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide crystallized the shift that has taken place.

This is big business, global business. The days of grass-roots entrepreneurship—when the success of a neighborhood restaurant emboldened its owners to open a second operation across town and then perhaps a third—aren’t gone by any means, but they’re in the rearview mirror for a new top tier of multiconcept operators (MCOs) that has emerged in the past decade.

For these companies, creation of new concepts and locations is heavily influenced by partnership opportunities brought by hotel and casino companies, and developers of business, retail, residential and mixed-use projects. The 1990s stampede of top chefs and major restaurateurs to Las Vegas began this new direction, and it not only has continued, it is accelerating.

“We’re quite bullish. There are many good opportunities; I see the business as solid,” says Michael Dellar, co-founder and principal of San Francisco-based Lark Creek Restaurant Group, which already has plans to open two restaurants in 2007 and another two the following year.

Casual dining and some quick-service chains have seen soft sales, but Dellar remains confident about the future of the white-tablecloth restaurant concepts Lark Creek and other MCOs create. “We believe that what we do is pretty timeless,” he says. Restaurants that pamper guests and provide high-quality food and service will do just fine, he insists.

“Diners want to be taken care of more now because they shop at places that take care of them less,” Dellar says. “I love warehouse stores, but God forbid you ask them a question or need help.”

This year’s 75 largest MCOs had aggregate 2005 food-and-beverage sales of $5.55 billion, a little more than 3% ahead of the $5.37 billion in total sales for last year’s ranking. These companies operate nearly 1,200 restaurants representing 718 different concepts. Counted among these are many of the most successful, most talked about and most influential restaurants. They are the hot destinations for diners, the trend-setting models for fellow restaurateurs.

Jean-Georges Vongerichten’s 45-seat Lagoon restaurant opened in June at the St. Regis Resort, Bora Bora, in French Polynesia. It is the first of what could be more than 50 restaurants developed over the next few years under Jean-Georges Management LLC’s partnership with Starwood.

Additional locations of Spice Market, Vongerichten’s Southeast Asian concept opened in New York City in 2004, could open in W, Westin or Le Meridien hotels as well as St. Regis properties, or entirely new concepts could be developed.

Daniel Del Vecchio, a former chef who now oversees cuisine and design development as Jean-Georges Management senior vice president, says global expansion has its risks—including overextending or diluting a brand—but adds that while the company has deflected some opportunities, it decided to work with Starwood because of its portfolio of proven prestige brands.

Risk is a reality in domestic development as well, as Jean-Georges Management discovered with V Steakhouse in New York City’s Time Warner Center. Although it was doing $8 million annually in revenue, inability to operate profitably forced its closure. The lesson learned there, Del Vecchio says, was, “Never sign a deal for more than $1 million a year in rent.”

Most MCOs find concept-development opportunities closer to home than Bora Bora. And, in fact, Vongerichten this fall opened 150-seat Chambers Kitchen and 60-seat Roof restaurant in Minneapolis’ new Chambers Hotel.

Still, many of the upmarket hotel- and casino-based concepts the Top 75 MCOs have opened this year or plan for the near future show how far most have come from their earliest days when they were creating neighborhood eateries:

• Stephen Starr, who opened a string of restaurants in Philadelphia before taking the Buddakan and Morimoto concepts to New York City (reportedly spending a total of $23 million to open the two restaurants), migrated to Atlantic City, N.J., where Buddakan and The Continental (another of his Philly originals) opened this fall at The Pier at Caesars.
  Baltimore-based Phillips Seafood Restaurants also is on The Pier with its latest Phillips location as well as a new concept, 80-seat Souzai Sushi & Sake.
• Atlantic City’s Borgata Hotel, Casino & Spa is home to Wolfgang Puck’s American Grille. Earlier this year, Puck’s Las Vegas-based Fine Dining Group opened its first steakhouse, Cut, in Los Angeles’ Regent Beverly Wilshire hotel.
  Also newly opened at Borgata is Seablue from Michael Mina, who opened Stonehill Tavern this year at the St. Regis Monarch Beach Resort and Spa in Dana Point, Calif.
• Orlando-based E-Brands Restaurants will open David Burke Las Vegas in The Venetian Resort Hotel Casino, where it already operates Aquaknox. New York City-based B.R. Guest teamed with Burke last year, opening David Burke’s Primehouse in its James Chicago Hotel.
  Another MCO outpost in the works at The Venetian is New York City-based Mario Batali’s B&B Ristorante e Enoteca.
• The W Dallas Victory Hotel & Residences will be home to Las Vegas-based N9NE Group’s Ghostbar, N9NE Steakhouse and NOVE restaurants, and Liquid Sky nightclub. New York City-based Chef-restaurateur Tom Colicchio’s next Craft restaurant opens this fall at the W Dallas.
• Chicago-based Harry Caray Restaurant Group ventures to suburban Lombard, Ill., to open a third Harry Caray’s Italian steakhouse plus a new seafood concept, Holy Mackerel, in the Westin Hotel & Convention Center.

A few MCOs are not content to secure locations in new hotels: they’re opening their own. San Francisco’s Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants has been pursuing this dual strategy for decades. Its most recent additions are Alba, a Mediterranean concept at Solé On the Ocean Resort & Spa in Sunny Isles, Fla., and District, a seasonal-American restaurant adjacent to The Muse Hotel in New York City.

Other MCOs are testing the lodging waters. In 2004, New York City-based B.R. Guest Restaurants opened its first James Hotel in Scottsdale, Ariz., complete with its signature Italian concept, Fiamma. It sold that property earlier this year to Morgans Hotel Group, but hasn’t given up on lodging.

Its James Chicago Hotel opened last year. Rather than replicate another of its restaurant concepts, B.R. Guest created David Burke’s Primehouse in the hotel.

Seattle-based Mackay Restaurants has taken over space above its flagship El Gaucho restaurant and opened the intimate, 18-suite Inn at El Gaucho.

At the other end of the ambition scale is the $400 million Charlie Palmer Hotel in Las Vegas. Scheduled for a 2008 opening, the 35-story structure won’t have a casino, but will have 400 residences, fine-dining, 24-hour restaurants and a nightclub.

Lark Creek Restaurant Group has operated The Lark Creek Inn in Larkspur, Calif., since 1989, but Dellar says similar projects aren’t where he sees the greatest opportunities.

Like several other MCOs, it finds new or renovated mixed-use developments—retail, office or condominium space anchored by high-profile dining spots—attractive options, if the deal is right.

Lark Creek Steak opened this fall at Westfield San Francisco Centre, which mixes high-end retail and dining options, such as Tom Colicchio’s ’wichcraft, The Slanted Door Chef-owner Charles Phan’s new Out the Door and others. The indoor mall is in a heavily trafficked area, convenient to tourists and locals alike.

“Westfield wanted us to do a steakhouse,” Dellar says of the concept decision. In return Lark Creek gets space in “an incredible environment” that will deliver upscale traffic. Lark Creek Steak features “farm-to-table American cooking” from Lark Creek Co-founder Bradley Ogden; dinner checks are expected to average $75.

One lure of mixed-use developments, as it is for hotel-based restaurants, is that such partnerships spread costs. “We like to use other people’s money,” Dellar says.

Buckhead Life Restaurant Group, which operates a dozen restaurants in Atlanta, next year opens its first location outside that city: a second location of its Chops/Lobster Bar concept in Royal Palm Place, an upscale retail-residential development in East Boca Raton, Fla.

Chicago’s Levy Restaurants next year will open a 9,000-square-foot restaurant as part of a $20 million makeover of Maryland Plaza, a retail-dining-office complex in St. Louis. Whether the site will get a new or existing Levy concept had not been announced at press time.

Restaurants-America this month opens Centro Italian Kitchen in an Indianapolis mixed-use complex because “the developers wanted an Italian concept they could grow with us and take to other locations in the future,” says Roger Greenfield, a principal in the Chicago-based MCO.

In 2002, Restaurants-America opened fine-dining One North Kitchen & Bar in a new Chicago office building designed by The John Buck Co. The relationship yielded an opportunity for space in Buck’s latest building a few blocks away.

Greenfield says Restaurants-America opted to go more casual with Townhouse Restaurant & Wine Bar, which opened last month. The menu features small-plate entrées, salads and sandwiches. A Cafe to Go section caters to morning grab-and-go commuters, and full breakfast service was added last month.

Like many other new concepts designed to meet young adults’ view of restaurants as places to socialize more than dine, Townhouse also has a large bar/lounge area.

“We learned at One North that when commodities traders get out at 3 p.m., they’re looking to have a cocktail,” says Greenfield. “Our bar was way too small. Big mistake. But we learned from it.”

Restaurants-America opened Virgin Lounge around the corner from Extra Virgin, an Italian restaurant it opened in Chicago last year.

Other MCO operators say they also are rethinking space allotments for bar/lounge areas within restaurants.

“We see a lot of interest in nightclub spots,” says Lark Creek’s Dellar. “Young people are moving to clubbing.”

Contact writer at shume@reedbusiness.com