Olive Garden Takes No. 1 Spot

During the first half of 2003, the Olive Garden restaurant that opened in December took over as the No. 1 restaurant in Fayetteville and has apparently shattered the city’s six-month sales record.

The restaurant, which is owned by Darden Restaurants Inc. of Orlando, Fla., had $2.1 million in gross sales for the first six months of the fiscal year (which included sales from December 2002 through May 2003), according to city tax records. Olive Garden knocked Red Lobster from the top spot. Red Lobster, which is also owned by Darden, has held the top spot in Fayetteville since 1998.

“You have kids in here who really work toward goals, and they did a bang-up job,” said Chris Young, who took over on Aug. 6 as manager of the Fayetteville Olive Garden. Young, who had been manager of the Fort Smith Olive Garden since it opened in 1996, replaced Jerry Hodges, who left the company.

Shogun Japanese Steakhouse, which is owned by John Pak of Fayetteville, made its first showing in our top 10 list, vaulting to No. 8 with a sales increase of 28 percent when compared with the first six months of 2002.

Colton’s Steakhouse premiered at No. 10 on our list after opening in July 2002.

Nine of the top 10 restaurants on our list are in north Fayetteville in the general vicinity of the Northwest Arkansas Mall.

Jose Inc. was the only restaurant in downtown Fayetteville to make the list. Jose Inc., which is owned by Joe Fennel, includes Jose’s Mexican Restaurant and Bordino’s, an upscale Italian restaurant, under the same roof.

Jose Inc. ranked as Fayetteville’s No. 1 restaurant in 1996 and 1997, but since then Red Lobster has had the title with Jose Inc. close behind until last year when Chili’s passed Jose Inc. for No. 2.

Jose Inc. dropped to No. 4 during this six-month period and showed the largest decline in sales, 9.3 percent to $1.28 million. But Fennel, who has been adept at changing his restaurant since it opened in 1980, plans to construct a new building on Dickson Street that will house Bordino’s and lease space to other businesses.

The newcomers bumped Shorty Small’s, Ozark Brewing Co. and Powerhouse Seafood out of the top 10. Those restaurants ranked No. 8, 9 and 10 respectively at the end of 2002.

Top 10 Fayetteville restaurants*

Rank—-2002 sales–2001 sales–percentage change

1–Olive Garden–$2,102,695–NA–NA
2–Red Lobster–$1,948,082 –$1,926,741 –1.1%
3–Chili’s–$1,442,541 –$1,415,602 –1.9%
4–Jose Inc.**–$1,282,750 –$1,414,700 —9.3%
5–Ryan’s Family Steak House–$1,281,089 –$1,172,978 –9.2%
6–Chick-Fil-A (Northwest Village)–$1,028,491 –$955,155 –7.7%
7–Applebee’s–$953,526 –$970,153 —1.7%
8–Shogun–$929,600 –$726,175 –28.0%
9–McDonald’s (Joyce Blvd.)–$902,722 –$915,000 —1.3%
10–Colton’s Steakhouse–$890,800 –NA–NA

*For the first six months of the fiscal year, which includes December 2002 through May 2003.–**Jose Inc. includes Jose’s Mexican restaurant and Bordino’s. Both restaurants are located under one roof, so we are including them as one restaurant complex. In other cases, when restaurants have two separate locations, we count those as two spearate restaurants.

NA – Not applicable.

Source: Fayetteville hotel-motel-restaurant tax payments.