At the Connecticut Hospitality Expo at Mohegan Sun this month, the Connecticut Restaurant Association named Andy Pforzheimer and Sasa Mahr-Batuz the state”™s “restaurateurs of the year.” The group recognized Barcelona Restaurant Group”™s rapid expansion in Connecticut ”“ over 14 years ”“ as well as outside the state, as the company readies to open sites in Atlanta.
Since its 1996 launch, the company has now absorbed two recessions ”“ with the partners closing a new credit line in August 2008 on the eve of the market collapse that took many Fairfield County restaurants with it.
It was one of multiple moves the company undertook heading into the Great Recession, including a revamping of its wine list with an eye on reducing prices by 15 percent on average; and general menu price reductions the following year.
In a recent survey of more than 1,500 chefs, the National Restaurant Association identified locally produced wines and beers and “artisan liquors” as among the top industry trends of 2011, along with smaller portions at a smaller price.
“We lowered prices in ”™08, when a lot of people were going ”˜yee-haw!”™ and raising them,” Pforzheimer said. “At the same time, we worked on improving our service; making it a little more formal. ”¦ We saw that some of our business was going to be coming from a certain (income) level, with people wanting to spend less. You don”™t want to remind people that they are in reduced circumstances.”
In addition to its original Norwalk location, Barcelona today has restaurants in Greenwich, Stamford, Fairfield, New Haven and West Hartford. The company has more than 400 employees today; and Pforzheimer and Mahr-Batuz also are opening new BarTaco Taqueria and Tequila Bars next year in Stamford and Port Chester, N.Y.
Pforzheimer said the company has no plans to open restaurants in New York City, but is interested in the Boston market if an ideal location could be secured.
The company”™s first attempt to expand did not go quite as successfully, according to Pforzheimer. He said that after launching the flagship Barcelona, they were co-investors in a Greenwich restaurant that “bombed.”
“It tanked for a number of reasons,” Pforzheimer said. “We still had the lease, so we made it a Barcelona, just because we knew how. When it took off, we looked at each other and said, ”˜These are easy.”™”
That came during a sustained company expansion, culminating in the West Hartford location when Pforzheimer and Mahr-Batuz took stock.
“By the time we finished that one, we were getting to be close to a $10 million company, and we brought in a layer of ”¦ professional people,” Pforzheimer said.
That included a director of operations and a group executive chef who oversaw the overhaul of the Barcelona Restaurant Group menu.
If the Connecticut Restaurant Association award represents a major milestone for Barcelona, Pforzheimer and Mahr-Batuz still hope to copy what they see as an even greater accolade ”“ the top rating in Zagat Survey L.L.C.”™s guide to the most popular restaurants in Connecticut, with Barcelona a rung behind the Frank Pepe Pizzeria Napoletana chain, which has a Fairfield location and is planning to open a Danbury restaurant in January.
“We keep creeping up,” Pforzheimer said.
