Harvey & Company LLC history

The company grew to operate 80 restaurants, and was acquired by Cara Operations in 1979, which has since rebranded as Recipe Unlimited.

William Ledbetter, who married the couple's only daughter, became Harveys' vice-chairman in 1983 and has described the two as "complementing each other." She was a "woman of action"; he had a "plodding business nature." In their gaming escapades, she was acknowledged as the driving force.

On a borrowed budget of $70 million, he moved to double the size of the casino and triple the number of rooms by 1985.

Three years after Gross's death, in 1986, the project was slightly less than about three-quarters complete and the money gone.

In 1988 Yturbide approved a $10 million marketing budget, five times more than Harveys had ever spent.

He then took the company public in 1993, selling 2.25 million shares of common stock (and another 1.2 million that belonged to the heirs of Harvey Gross) to raise capital for the planned ventures.

The Wagon Wheel opened in Central City in 1995.

When New York State appeared about to open its doors to big-time gaming in 1996, Harveys took out an option on 27 acres of land in upstate Greene County.

The company as a whole posted 1997 net revenues of $283,563,000 and net income of $30,775,000.

In 1998 Harveys also reached a second agreement with Hard Rock Cafe International to bring the Hard Rock Cafe brand to Harveys Resort Hotel and Casino in Lake Tahoe.

After going through four different flagship burgers in twenty years, Harvey's introduced the Great Canadian as its flagship burger in 2010.

In February 2012 the first Harvey's location was demolished to make way for condominiums.