Test your Design IQ
MANILA, Philippines - Who is the prominent American restaurateur who was responsible for exciting new dining concepts like the salad bar?
He was born on June 3, 1931 in Denver, Colorado, and as a child took odd jobs like creating a rabbit farm at the age of 10, managing a paper route, and buying and selling horses to make ends meet.
He began his career in the 1960s with the fast food company Jack in the Box, rising to oversee its expansion into a regional food chain in the US. When he left the company, he opened Steak & Ale in 1966, with the intent of providing steak dinners to the middle class.
With Steak & Ale, he originated the concept of the modern casual dining restaurant that is now ubiquitous in the marketplace. There, he introduced the concept of the salad bar, having customers leave their tables to help themselves in a salad buffet.
The Dallas-based chain also created the common stock introduction of “Hi, my name is ________, and I will be your waiter tonight.” Over the next 10 years, he went on to establish a niche industry that was situated between the fast food and higher-priced gourmet segments of the restaurant. By 1976, the chain had 109 restaurants, and he then sold his company to Pillsbury, where he was given the position of executive vice president, as well as a seat on the board.
At the height of his tenure with Pillsbury, he oversaw the creation of the company’s Bennigan chain, as well as the operations of Burger King and Haagen Dazs. It was when he left Pillsbury in 1984 to purchase a small gourmet burger shop called Chili’s that he saw his greatest business success. The company eventually became one of the largest restaurant holding companies in the world with five chains operating 1,900 restaurants in 25 companies, employs 100,000 people, and has system-wide sales exceeding US$4 billion annually.
Beyond launching several restaurant chains and the creation of one of the most emulated restaurant formats in the market today, he had another indirect impact on the food industry. Over his nearly 50-year career, he worked with, hired, or trained many executives who have gone on to establish themselves within the modern restaurant industry in the US and Canada. Outside of the restaurant business, former colleagues have taken the lessons they learned from him, and gone into divergent fields like human resources management, corporate and private investigations, and market research services, using such programs as customer satisfaction surveys and mystery shopping.
He died on June 9, 2009 while on vacation in Colorado.
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Last week’s question: What was the first building of the Silliman Institute, built in 1901 by Silliman’s Filipino students?
Answer: Silliman Hall
Winner: Sharon Santos of Caloocan
Text your answer to 0926-3508061 with your name and address. One winner will be chosen through a raffle of texts with the correct answer. The winner will receive P2,000 worth of SM gift certificates for use at Our Home, SM Department Store, or SM Supermarket. They can claim their prize at Our Home in SM Megamall. Bring photocopies of two valid IDs and a clipping of the Design Quiz issue in which you appear as winner.
