Kenneth Berg Takes Control in the Early 1990sīerg first went public with Koo Koo Roo in October 1991, offering stock at $5.00 per share. I wanted knives and forks and fresh flowers on all the tables." I wanted no butter to be used and all the vegetables to be steamed. "I wanted the stores to be quick-service and not fast-food. "I wanted it to be a real dining experience," Berg explained to Restaurant Business. Then, wanting more, he took control of Koo Koo Roo, buying out the Badalians and assembling an expert management team to expand the restaurant chain.īerg visualized something different for the restaurants than the founding brothers had. He first invested $2.5 million as a silent partner. He became friends with the Badalian brothers and threw his financial support behind the concept. "It was the best chicken I ever had in my life," Berg told the Los Angeles Business Journal. "It was a little nothing store down on Beverly and Orlando, but it was filled with Beverly Hills people, in suits and ties and dresses, all eating chicken with their hands," he observed.īerg, a semi-retired real estate broker from New York, ordered a Koo Koo Roo carry-out dinner to snack on while watching the Academy Awards in his L.A. ![]() "The people in line were raving about how good it was and how healthy," Berg remembered in Restaurant Business. Berg saw a long line of people waiting outside Koo Koo Roo to place their orders. Within two years, the brothers were operating two outlets in Los Angeles-one on the corner of Beverly Boulevard and Orlando Avenue and one in Koreatown-until one Academy Awards night when the Badalians' chicken caught the attention of Kenneth Berg. restaurateur Mike Badalian founded and co-owned the restaurant with his brother Ray. The first Koo Koo Roo outlet opened in Los Angeles in 1988. Koo Koo Roo maintains several subsidiaries: Arrosto Coffee Company, which sells primarily to Koo Koo Roo outlets Color Me Mine paint-your-own ceramic studios and Hamburger Hamlet, a fast-food chain active in California and Washington, D.C. ![]() You walk into a Koo Koo Roo, and you're in a restaurant." Koo Koo Roo California Kitchen outlets offer dining in, carry out, and corporate catering services. ![]() "You walk into a Boston Chicken or a Kenny Rogers Roasters," observed Koo Koo Roo president Michael Mooslin in the South Florida Business Journal, "and you're in a chicken place. Seeking to distinguish itself among its competition, Koo Koo Roo restaurants feature a healthy menu of full meals-including a 26-pound turkey dinner with trimmings-and sophisticated decorating schemes. Doing business as Koo Koo Roo California Kitchens, the company competes with the American Restaurant Group, Boston Market, and Brinker restaurant chains. Headquartered in Los Angeles, California, Koo Koo Roo, Inc., oversees a restaurant chain specializing in flame-broiled skinless herb chicken, turkey, low-fat sandwiches, and such side dishes as tossed salads, pastas, butternut squash, baked yams, lentil salad, cracked wheat rice, baked goods, and other foods.
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