Grille of their dreams
Upscale chain is tapping area ripe for pricey steakhouses
At the Capital Grille in Burlington, it's all about the numbers.
There are the roughly 5,000 bottles in the wine cellar, or a tab for two that can easily climb higher than $200, or the nearby interstates 128 and 93.
Put them together, and the owners of the 27th outpost of this upscale steakhouse chain are convinced that when they open tomorrow, they'll succeed.
"I came out here right in the middle of Christmas season . . . and saw the traffic that was in this area," said David Icken, the restaurant's managing partner. "Right away, from the moment I drove into the parking lot, I said, 'You know what? This is going to be a great place for a Capital Grille.' "
The Capital Grille will be stepping into an area with few competitors at the high end of the price spectrum: Silks in Tyngsborough, Cafe Escadrille nearby in Burlington, Max Stein's American Steakhouse in Lexington, and Burton's Grill in North Andover. But restaurant industry analysts say the market is ready for pricey steakhouse s .
"I think why Burlington is so popular [is that ] it's between Route 93, the Mass Pike, Route 9," said Charlie Perkins, a Burlington resident and owner of the Boston Restaurant Group Inc., a restaurant brokerage firm. "You've got a major shopping center there and the proximity to some very wealthy communities -- Carlisle, Lincoln, Concord, Lexington."
"I always say 'demographics is destiny' in the restaurant industry," said Hudson Riehle, the National Restaurant Association's senior vice president of research and information services. "You really do look at the demographic growth patterns, where the job growth is, where the income growth is, and these units are sited for future growth opportunities."
Riehle added that "in the Northeast, Boston actually has the highest per capita restaurant spending among metropolitan areas . . . above New York City."
The new Capital Grille is located at the Wayside Commons, which opened last year on a former
Intended to resemble a New England village main street, broad sidewalks encourage strolling and shopping in stores such as L.L. Bean and dining in restaurants, with parking in front of the shops.
Serving lunch and dinner, the 230-seat Capital Grille will target shoppers, workers in the multitude of nearby office parks, business travelers, and special-occasion diners.
"What the Capital Grille is able to bring that an acclaimed local chef may not be as likely to bring is a national brand," said Peter Christie, head of the Massachusetts Restaurant Association.
"When your primary customer is a business customer, they like a national brand, they like the knowledge, consistency. The automatic following is in all those boardrooms, in all those offices off of the Route 3 area.
"If they're entertaining some people in their boardrooms, how nice is it to be able to have them stay locally and then just go down to a really first-class steakhouse?"
Steakhouses are part of a long-term trend, said Perkins. "It's expensive, it's very clubby, it's very masculine." And, " the service is usually very good."
The new Capital Grille's appearance fits the mold. Decorated with mahogany panels and oil paintings of notable Massachusetts residents, the restaurant is "a country club open to the public," said Icken.
That doesn't mean the customers, especially the baby boomer generation and their restaurant-savvy offspring, are ignoring the food.
"There is increasing sophistication in consumer knowledge of different beef cuts and beef preparation techniques," said Riehle.
For the Capital Grille, the technique is dry aging, a controlled decomposition process that improves flavor and tenderizes the meat.
To complement the meal, there's that big wine cellar, presided over by Icken.
Icken is a fan of Spanish wines that pair well with steak and provide good value. He also likes California wines such as the Flowers Winery's pinot noir or the Qupé Wine Cellars' syrah. These are easy choices for Icken, formerly the wine director of the Capital Grille in Troy, Mich., which earned the Wine Spectator magazine's excellence award.
Started in 1990 in Providence's downtown , the Capital Grille was purchased six years later, becoming part of
Among Boston's 40 most popular restaurants in the Zagat Survey, both Capital Grille locations on Newbury Street and Chestnut Hill are rated the best steakhouses, along with Grill 23 & Bar.
They are in the expensive category but perhaps should be in the very expensive group. Not including the tip, an average dinner for two people runs about $190, including a $50 bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon.
But this formula has worked well at the other Capital Grille in the suburbs, in Chestnut Hill.
"These steakhouses tend to do things in clusters," said David C. Shinney, restaurant consultant. Now they are targeting anyone coming down Route 93, he said.
