Restaurant Chains Take Top 10

For the first time since the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal began tracking Fayetteville restaurant sales in 1997, national chains made a clean sweep of the top 10 in our annual ranking.

The Olive Garden remained No. 1 as it has every year since the restaurant opened in December 2002. Sales at The Olive Garden were up 3.8 percent to $4.1 million in 2005 after a 3.1 percent drop in 2004.

Red Lobster remained No. 2, although its sales slipped by 3.8 percent this year after a 4.6 percent decline in 2004.

Olive Garden and Red Lobster are both owned by Darden Restaurants Inc. of Orlando, Fla. Red Lobster often led the rankings in Fayetteville before Darden opened The Olive Garden.

Golden Corral vaulted to No. 3 with $3.4 million in sales after premiering on our list at No. 6 last year with $2.4 million in the seven months it was open that year.

Chili’s dropped from No. 3 to No. 4 with a 7 percent decline in sales.

Two restaurants that were built in 2004 in Fayetteville’s CMN Business Park appeared on the list for the first time this year: Logan’s Roadhouse at No. 5 with $2.7 million in sales and Smokey Bones Barbecue at No. 8 with $2.5 million.

Mathews Management Corp. of Springdale had two of its McDonald’s restaurants rank in the top 10 — one on Joyce Boulevard, near the Northwest Arkansas Mall, at No. 7 with $2.5 million and one on Sixth Street at No. 9 with $2.3 million.

Historically, locally owned Jose Inc. has been in the top five. But Joe Fennel sold Jose’s Mexican Restaurant to Neal Crawford in 2004. Fennel kept Bordino’s Italian restaurant, which was part of Jose Inc., and moved it to a new two-story 13,000-SF building he constructed at the corner of Dickson Street and Campbell Avenue.

Since Fennel’s two restaurants were housed in the same building at 324 W. Dickson St. before the move, and because he wouldn’t divulge separate sales figures for them, the Business Journal counted Jose’s and Bordino’s as one business. But now they are two, according to the city’s hotel-motel-restaurant tax collections.

Jose’s Mexican Restaurant, incorporated as Dickson Dining LLC, brought in $1.5 million in gross sales for fiscal 2005, which began in December 2004. Bordino’s sales were $1.6 million during the same period. Together, the two restaurants would have ranked as No. 4 on our list.

Since Bordino’s move, Crawford has opened Toothpicks Saloon & Chop House in the 3,200-SF space that previously housed Bordino’s.

When an owner commingles sales-tax payments from two separate eateries at different locations, we exclude them from our list because they obviously include more than one restaurant. Examples include Penguin Ed’s BBQ, which has two locations, and Kirby Walker’s Noodles Italian Kitchen, which includes sales from Bizy’s Café.

Ryan’s Steak House, now called Fire Mountain, and Ruby Tuesday were bumped out of the top 10 list this year by the competition.

Click here for a list of the top 10 restaurants in Fayetteville.