Allen J. Bernstein 65 Morton’s Restaurant Group CEO

[MWB]

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-11-02/allen-bernstein-former-morton-s-steakhouse-ceo-dies-at-65.html


Nov. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Allen J. Bernstein, who took the Morton’s of Chicago
steakhouse chain from nine to 69 restaurants as chairman and chief executive
officer from 1989 to 2006, has died. He was 65.

He died yesterday at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, New York,
after an extended illness, according to Castle Harlan Inc., a New York-based
private-equity firm that backed his ventures. He was a resident of
Manhasset.

Once described by Nation’s Restaurant News as “a prolific deal-maker,”
Bernstein wrote his college thesis on restaurant branding and then made a
career of it.

With Castle Harlan, he created Quantum Restaurant Group Inc. in 1988 to
build national chains. Bernstein, as CEO, made Atlanta-based Peasant
Restaurants Inc. Quantum’s first purchase.

In May 1989, Quantum bought Morton’s of Chicago for an undisclosed price
from Lexington Capital Co. of Morristown, New Jersey, and Alex. Brown & Sons
Inc., now a unit of Deutsche Bank AG. At the time, there were two Morton’s
steakhouses in the Chicago area and one each in Washington, Philadelphia,
Boston, Denver, Dallas, New Orleans and Atlanta. In a news release,
Bernstein hailed Morton’s as “one of America’s finest restaurant
establishments.”

To focus on the brand, Quantum in 1996 became Morton’s Restaurant Group Inc.
By the time Bernstein stepped down at the end of 2005, becoming chairman
emeritus, Morton’s ran 65 steakhouses in the U.S. as well as one each in
Hong Kong, Singapore, Toronto and Vancouver. The Chicago Tribune reported
that Bernstein’s retirement package included a payment of $7 million, in
addition to a 2005 salary and bonus package of $1.2 million.

Leading Trend

Morton’s was on the leading edge of a wave of upscale, expense-account
steakhouses that opened new outlets around the U.S., including competitors
Ruth’s Chris Steak House and Smith & Wollensky.

“We created this segment,” Bernstein told the Orange County Register in
2005, when Morton’s was expanding into lunch service and happy hours.
“Flattery is very nice -- all these other people have come after us. We
said, let’s see what they are doing and see if we can adapt some things.”

John Castle, chairman and chief executive officer of Castle Harlan, said in
an interview today that the success of Morton’s proved high-end restaurants
can work as chains.

“If you go to a Morton’s restaurant anywhere in the world, the menu is
essentially the same, the staffing is the same, the restaurants look
basically the same,” he said. “The benefit of that is that you know what you’re
getting.”

Morton’s was publicly traded from 1992 to 2002, when Castle Harlan spent $71
million to outbid Carl Icahn for ownership. It went public again in 2006,
raising $161 million in a stock offering. Castle Harlan currently owns about
one-third of the company.

Allen Jay Bernstein was born on Nov. 22, 1945, in Brooklyn. He graduated in
1968 from the University of Miami with a degree in marketing. He began
buying franchises in such restaurant chains as Hardee’s, Long John Silver’s,
Wendy’s, Godfather’s Pizza and Le Peep, according to Castle Harlan.

Survivors include his wife, Lori Waltzer Bernstein, and two children.

At a memorial service in Manhattan today, Castle said, friends and family
members recalled the unique experience of eating at a restaurant with
Bernstein.

By meal’s end, “you would have tasted every item on the menu,” Castle said.
“After a while I learned how to be artful doing this with Allen, ordering 25
different things without the waitress thinking you’d gone crazy.”