Cary tavern could multiply

Rocky Top Hospitality is venturing back into the business of opening new restaurants and is moving into Cary for the first time.

In February, the Raleigh-based restaurant developer will open a burger and microbrew joint called the Tribeca Tavern in the Stone Creek Village shopping center at High House Road and Davis Drive.

The company is behind a slew of popular Raleigh eateries, including Michael Dean's, The Red Room, Bogart's, Hi5 and the Twisted Fork - each completely unlike the others.

The Tribeca Tavern changes that strategy: It will be a prototype for a restaurant that could be replicated.

Having each restaurant be different is exciting but also presents challenges, said Rocky Top owner Dean Ogan.

"Just within the past couple of years, with the economy and food prices, you can't just fix it once and apply it seven times," he said. "I have to fix it seven times."

The Tribeca Tavern will be a casual restaurant that is child-friendly and is designed to fit with the current economy and needs of families.

It is very unlike Rocky Top's most recent venture and only failure in its 12-year history, 1705Prime. Rocky Top opened the chophouse in 2007 at Millbrook and Old Wake Forest roads but by 2008 had converted it to a catering facility.

"I have no problem saying we made a mistake," Ogan said. "The one thing we did was open a dry-aged $45-per-steak joint at thevery onset of a terrible economy. The economy started tanking toward the end of 2007, and we had just started to build the momentum at that time."

Rocky Top is among the few restaurant groups opening new restaurants now, said Bob Goldin, executive vice president for Chicago firm Technomic, which tracks the restaurant industry. Technomic estimates that more than 15,000 restaurants will have closed in 2009, accounting for more than 2 percent of the overall industry.

"I don't think there are too many restaurant operators who aren't reporting volumes are down," he said. "Yeah, I think it's kind of risky. But a lot of people who are failing are the marginal players. And, on the plus side, labor costs are low; leases are low; and you can cut great deals with landlords. ... On the cost side, it's a good time, but you still have to have customers willing to spend."

Traffic at Rocky Top restaurants remains strong, even if people are spending a bit more carefully, Ogan said.

"Sales certainly are not where they were two years ago, with the biggest factors continuing to be corporate and business dinners being down and our guest spending being more frugal," he said. "We have happily lowered minimums and accommodated our parties from a budgetary standpoint to get them in the door. This has resulted in a lower check average per person, but that's OK."

Rocky Top seems to be thinking about more restaurants as the economy improves. Ogan said that the company's expansion into Cary may be the beginning of more Triangle-wide growth. It does have one restaurant, The Mash House, in Fayetteville. But all of its other restaurants have been in Raleigh until now.

"I don't think I or my partners want to be involved in any restaurant we can't drive to and we can't touch in short order," he said.

"I don't know how much more we'll go outside the Triangle. Fayetteville, Chapel Hill, Cary, Wake Forest. There's several locations I'd like to get into."