Connor Concepts prefer to come to our places , rather than some of the other higher-end steakhouses because they love our atmosphere ,” Mike details . “ They love the culture we ’ ve created , and that ’ s before they get to look at our menus . We ’ ve got a fantastic lunch menu , which is reasonably priced , and our evening time offerings aren ’ t listed in your typical fashion . The menus feature categories for $ 11 , $ 12 , $ 13 , $ 14 , and $ 15 items , and there are so many options in each of the areas . You can also order from this selection during the lunch service , and it just works really well , that time of day is always very busy .
“ We ’ ve got an incredibly broad range of dishes ; whenever I go next door to eat the bar staff always say ‘ I ’ m sure you don ’ t need a menu ,’ but the fact is , I do . Especially in The Chop House , I want to order something different every single time . More recently , in CSS , I ’ ve been going for the 8oz prime fillet , which is melt-in-yourmouth delicious . However , on the seafood side , the salmon on mesquite wood is also divine , the mesquite flavor carries so well , and if not , you can ’ t go wrong with the twelve-ounce , cold-water lobster tails .”
Over the last three decades , Mike has weathered the numerous different storms that have worried the industry . However , the most recent occurrences have required a different tactic . As he explains : “ We made it through the recession in 2008 , which was obviously a difficult one , but the events of the last few years have been different . We ’ d had a record February before COVID kicked in the following month , which obviously killed things until we got to the summer and places started to open up again . By the time we got to the fall , we were doing as much business as we had been in 2019 , which just continued to grow .
“ Into 2021 , we were 20 percent up on 2019 ’ s sales , but we simply couldn ’ t make any more money , with the increases in costs that we were facing in every avenue .
So , we decided to take action , in a way that we had never done before . We ended up raising our prices four times over the year to catch up with things . We ended the year very well , especially on the revenue front . Profitability wasn ’ t quite where we ’ d like it , but it too was better than previous years .
“ We don ’ t want to have to raise prices like that again , ideally it would only be once a year to match inflation ,” he concludes . “ But it ’ s been such an unusual time , watching prices everywhere steadily rise . It ’ s not even just on goods anymore , it ’ s also on the equipment and materials we require for investing in new locations . That ’ s the thing that made it very difficult for us , but at the same time we had to act in the face of adversity .” ■
www . connorconcepts . com
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