Restaurant List

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Executive Summary

Creating a list of top-grossing restaurants poses some challenges because several restaurant chains, like Planet Hollywood and The Cheesecake Factory, do not break out sales for individual locations. Other popular establishments choose not to disclose their sales and therefore do not make the list.

Gladstone’s 4 Fish retains its longstanding spot atop the list with 1997 sales of $13.8 million. And for the second year in a row, six Jerry’s Famous Deli outlets are on the list. However, there are signs of trouble at Jerry’s; five of the six had declines in sales last year, and the company’s stock price hit a 52-week low last week, closing at $1 a share on Aug. 25.

This year’s list has a new feature: the letter and numerical grades given to restaurants under the county Health Services Department’s new grading system. Implemented Jan. 1, the law requires restaurants to prominently display the letter grades received after their most recent health inspection.

Brent’s Deli in Northridge is the cleanest restaurant on the Business Journal list, receiving a perfect 100 score when inspected on June 24, 1998. Georgia in West Hollywood received the lowest rating, a 53, when inspected last November, before the current grading policy went into effect.

The Pacesetter

Already one of the most popular restaurants in Southern California, Gladstone’s 4 Fish is making changes to both its building and menu. The Pacific Palisades establishment is undergoing a $3 million renovation so that more groups and private parties can be accommodated.

Alan Redhead, chief executive of Gladstone’s, said the restaurant has had trouble in the past meeting demands for private dining rooms and parties on the beach. The renovation includes adding a new kitchen to serve the beach seating area, redoing the current kitchen and rearranging seating. Overall seating capacity will not change.

Gladstone’s 4 Fish had 1997 gross sales of $13.8 million, down slightly from $13.9 million in 1996. Its parent company, California Beach Restaurants Inc., licenses the Gladstone’s name to the Universal City location, L.A. County’s second highest-grossing restaurant. Redhead, who said Gladstone’s is planning to add a new location, noted that lobster, crab and fresh fish remain the most popular items.

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