May/June 2007
By Hope S. Philbrick
Choosing the cover subject for each issue of Restaurant Forum-Georgia isn’t always easy. There are many folks who we think deserve the attention. But ask any Atlanta restaurateur who they admire and Bob Amick’s name routinely makes the list, a fact that makes our coverage of him seem long overdue. We recently caught up with Amick at TROIS to learn more about what drives him and some secrets behind his success.
“It gets in your blood,” says Bob Amick when asked what led him to a career in the restaurant industry. “It’s all I’ve ever done.” This kid who started selling hot dogs in a stadium has grown into one of Atlanta’s most respected industry leaders with a long list of successful restaurant ventures to his credit, currently including ONE.midtown kitchen, TWO.urban licks, piebar, Lobby at Twelve and TROIS. Several more developments are underway including the gastro pub TAP and the sports bar STATS.
“I’m probably unemployable anyway, so it’s nice working for myself and doing what I want to do,” he jokes. But Amick didn’t start out on his own. After a stint at the Bavarian Alpine Inn, which he describes as “a little beer joint sandwich shop,” Amick joined Peasant Restaurants in 1974. He created Mick’s Restaurants, named for his father, in the 80s. After growing the Peasant and Mick’s companies to over 42 restaurants nationwide, in 1998 Amick sold his interests and launched his first solo venture, Killer Creek. He sold that company in 2001 and started developing a series of chef-driven restaurant concepts and a consulting business with partners Todd Rushing and Mary Reynolds.
Concentrics Hospitality Solutions, the consulting arm, boasts clients like Tom Murphy of Murphy’s; Jim Borders, CEO of the Novare Group developers of the TWELVE Hotel and Residences; and Brian France, CEO and Chairman of the Board of NASCAR. The restaurants are under the Concentrics Restaurants umbrella. “It’s an interesting business model,” says Amick, and one with organic roots. “We didn’t sit down with a pen and paper and plan. Demand creates opportunity.” The magic comes in recognizing opportunity and in knowing when and how to leverage it. “You can’t think, ‘I’m going to do five restaurants,'” says Amick. “You think about opening one restaurant and doing it well. If you do it well and if you’re lucky enough for it to be successful, it could lead to other things.”
In Amick’s case, the path led to consulting. “We’re hired by folks who want to get into the restaurant business but don’t necessarily have the wherewithal or the time to do that. We can do everything from site location to contract negotiation, lease negotiation, hiring architects, designing and building concepts. We can take clients to the opening day and hand them a set of keys or we can run that business.”
“The public doesn’t know necessarily what I own or what I’ve developed,” says Amick. For example, for nearly six years Concentrics has operated Murphy’s under a management agreement of which many people may not be aware. “Tom Murphy still owns the restaurant; we manage his business.” One trick to creating a seamless brand identity is keeping such underlying business arrangements invisible: “Even though a restaurant may be under contract, I treat it and run it like it’s mine.”
For Amick one reward of a large company is the chance it gives him to focus on his favorite part of the job. “I like to develop concepts. It’s fun to do one-of-a-kind restaurants. It’s fun going into a new market and trying to figure out what the climate in that city is and what will work there,” says Amick. “Because what will work in Los Angeles doesn’t necessarily work in Atlanta.”
Another plus is that employees can benefit with expanded career opportunities. “The tough thing when you only have one restaurant is that it can be a dead-end for people,” says Amick. “By having a larger company people can move and develop and see a future.” As an example, Concentrics recently expanded to Florida with Luma On Park, a restaurant that was named ‘best new restaurant’ by Orlando Magazine and Florida Trend Magazine.
A successful large company can also attract high-profile talent. “If I had four restaurants I wouldn’t have the luxury of a pastry chef in each restaurant let alone a corporate pastry chef of Jonathan St. Hilaire’s stature-we think he’s one of the top talents in the city.” Amick lured Jeremy Lieb from Le Cirque Vegas to join TROIS as Executive Chef. While Concentrics is large enough to warrant the Chief Financial Officer and human resources executives on staff, Amick says, “I’m not a big infrastructure guy. I had a big corporate office. I don’t believe in it. It’s not about me; it’s about the talent I put in the kitchen. If we want to do a French restaurant because we think there’s a void in the market, we bring credibility to it. The credibility isn’t Bob Amick; it’s Jeremy Lieb.”
Amick does believe in emphasizing the kitchen. “The world has changed from when I ran that last company. It wasn’t a chef-driven society [back then], you had kitchen managers and a corporate staff that developed recipes and then went out and trained people to cook those recipes. Now we really build the success of each restaurant around culinary talent because we’re in the food business-and if we can’t do that well, we can’t do anything.” The front of the house is not overlooked. “We find operational talent to run each restaurant as its own entity. Each restaurant stands on its own and is successful because it’s a successful restaurant and not because it’s part of a successful company.”
Though his focus is on one-of-a-kind restaurants, Amick admits in some ways he has it easy: “I have huge respect for chef-owned restaurants that have 40 to 50 seats. They have to be there every day and the only way they get a day off is to close the restaurant. That’s an incredible commitment, but it’s not the way I choose to do restaurants. Restaurants have to be a certain size and in the right location to be financially successful.”
But each one is ultimately a calculated risk. “There’s a lot of insecurity in the restaurant business,” he says. “There’s this fierce competitiveness and turf territory. But I’m a big believer that anybody who’s good at anything-I don’t care if you’re a clothier, a hotelier, a restaurant operator or a lawyer-if you’re good at what you do, you will survive. There’s always room in the marketplace for people who do things well. And if you do things well, you don’t have to worry about what’s going on around you. This is a business that can get affected by a lot of things, but what you do between your own four walls really affects it. If you do a great job and really understand your concept and who your customers are, there’s comfort in that.”
Still “there’s no guarantee you’re going to be successful ever,” he says. “You build it and don’t know if they’re going to come. And then when they come you don’t know if they’re going to like it or not. There’s going to be rejection. A lot of people go into it for the wrong reasons. The restaurant business is like gambling. It’s scary and dangerous. It can be incredibly rewarding but we’re at the whim of other people. Everybody has an opinion in this business. Everybody thinks they know food or service or restaurants. The great American public is a very dangerous way to earn a living.”
 The public is fickle. “It’s very hard in this business to keep the focus and energy on one location for a long period of time. By having a company that’s growing and continuously offering new things, there’s a great residual benefit back to other restaurants and they get reinvigorated. When [the media mentions] TROIS, they mention ONE.midtown kitchen and so on. That’s a huge benefit and so we’ve spent a lot of time and energy this year branding Concentrics Restaurants.”
Despite being part of a group, each restaurant targets a specific clientele. “People say all the time, ‘TROIS is so different from your other restaurants.’ Well, yeah, it’s supposed to be. It’s a different location. It was designed to be that way. My job is to make sure that whatever restaurant I do has an audience.” As part of his market research, Amick finds answers to key questions: Who are the potential customers? Where are they coming from? Where do they live? Where do they go to eat now? “You have to understand your customer and play to that customer. Just because you’ve got a great concept in your head and you think it’s going to be great doesn’t mean anybody else thinks it’s going to be great.”
When someone approaches Amick to discuss the possibility of his consulting on their first venture into the restaurant business, what’s the content of the first meeting? “The first thing we try and do is talk you out of it,” says Amick. “I don’t think anybody should go in the restaurant business. The hours are long and the reward most the time is not good. You can be a slave to this business and it’s hard. I didn’t encourage any of my children to work in it-they’re sort of all getting involved in it, but it wasn’t my choice. You have to like working 16 hours a day seven days a week. It doesn’t matter what level you’re at, if you want to be good at it it’s a constant thing.”
He may have reservations about recommending it to others, but there’s no denying the industry is a perfect fit for Amick. “It’s great to be 57 and feel like you’re 21 in terms of the opportunities. Life’s a funny thing. You get an opportunity to reinvent yourself and do it all over again and that’s pretty thrilling. Most people my age are downsizing and stepping back; I’m stepping up and doing more things than I ever did. I wouldn’t have it any other way. It’s exciting, it’s fun and it’s nice to be active. I can’t see myself playing golf. Work is my play.”
Behind Bob’s Back
What makes Bob Amick successful? We asked two of his colleagues.
“Besides passion, Bob begins every project like a puzzle and every piece must fit exactly. Every item plays a role in the guest experience whether the guest realizes it or not: the color of a server’s shoes, his belt, her earrings, the height of the host stand, the flowers in the bathroom, the coffee cup, the votive candle. Bob’s mind is always going over each detail because it makes the difference.” -Todd Rushing, partner Concentrics Restaurants
“I think Bob’s willing to put in the effort. It’s a consistency. Various people can have the ideas. Bob is able to consistently pull off quality, day in and day out. And of course he has some great, cutting-edge ideas.” -Steve Nygren, former owner of Peasant Restaurants
Amick On…
…Location
“When choosing location, the key is a visible landmark that people recognize.”
…Midtown
“I think it’s really going to be the heart of Atlanta from an art standpoint. It’s only lacking retail and I think that’s coming.”
…Atlanta
“Downtown is further behind the curve. It’s more government and education based. There’s a huge amount of development, it just needs density in residential, retail and basic conveniences. They’re coming.”
…People
“Atlantans have not proven that they’re willing to go downtown just to eat. They’ll go downtown for an event and look for a place to eat, but they’re not making downtown a destination. STATS will be a great experiment with that.”
…The National Scene
“Atlanta is a major player. I think it doesn’t get credit sometimes because it is in the South. Vegas has a reputation for great restaurants but I wouldn’t say it has the cultural fiber to be a great restaurant city; it’s gone out and gotten celebrity chefs and dumped them there.”
