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Q's Restaurant history
Q's Restaurant company history timeline
The history of Long John Silver's (LJS) can be traced to 1929, when Jerome Lederer, the company founder, opened a six-seat hamburger stand he called the White Tavern Shoppe in Shelbyville, Kentucky.
1946: Lederer regroups, establishing Jerrico Inc. and launching a new restaurant called Jerry's Five and Dime.
In 1947, realizing that people were not willing to pay that much for a roast beef sandwich, Lederer converted Jerry's menu to focus on hamburgers.
As he rebuilt his company, Lederer hired Warren W. Rosenthal to manage his restaurants in 1948.
By 1957, Jerrico was operating seven Jerry's Restaurants and was one of the first companies to use the franchise concept as a means of stimulating growth.
1971: Having become Jerrico's most successful chain, Long John Silver's (LJS) has expanded to more than 200 units.
By 1973, the chain's name was changed to Long John Silver's Seafood Shoppes to reflect this expanded menu.
By June 1976, there were 621 LJS restaurants in operation.
In May 1978, Jerrico consolidated its operations from four buildings scattered around Lexington to a new $7 million headquarters.
In 1982, Renaud was named president of parent company Jerrico in addition to his duties as LJS president, while Rosenthal retained a role as chairman of the board.
1984: Vincent F. Orza, Jr., opens the first Garfield's Restaurant in Oklahoma City.
To further expand his chain of stores, which were located in Oklahoma City, Norman, Edmond, and Stillwater, Orza turned to the stock market for expansion capital, completing Eateries' initial public offering of stock in 1986.
Jerrico also opened its first fast-food Italian restaurant--called Gratzi's--in 1988.
In 1989, Inc. magazine ranked the Eateries chain as the 19th fastest growing small public company in the United States, vindicating Orza's decision to start the company in an uncertain economic environment.
Jerrico was taken private in 1989 through a highly leveraged management buyout, and one year later the other restaurant concepts were divested in order to focus on Long John Silver's.
LJS, which reported sales of $826 million in 1989, became a subsidiary of Pisces Inc.
Clinton A. Clark, a partner at Castle Harlan, joined the board of LJS during the buyout and became the company's president in 1990.
In late 1991, Q’s Restaurant opened in the Hotel Boulderado to the rave comments of some critics saying this was one of the best kitchens in the state.
In 1991, the company introduced three hot meals, baked rather than fried and all priced at around $4, during Lent season.
The quick service growth area in 1991 came from other nonseafood chains, which were adding some seafood items to their menus.
In October 1993, Clyde E. Culp, a member of the company's board, was named president and chief executive officer.
The company signaled its readiness to push ahead aggressively by turning to Wall Street again, completing a secondary offering in February 1994 that raised $7 million.
Approximately 40 Garfield's Restaurants were in operation in 18 states when, in November 1994, the company announced it had agreed to acquire a 150-seat Italian restaurant named Pepperoni Grill from Val Gene Associates Restaurant Group.
Beginning in 1994, however, the company showed its first signs of turning to external means to expand its scope of operations.
1994: A secondary offering of stock provides Eateries with the resources to pursue expansion.
Nine months later, Jax Fish House opened in late 1994 on Pearl Street near the Mall.
In July 1996 LJS announced a streamlining that involved the elimination of 160 corporate positions and the shuttering of three divisional offices in Atlanta, Dallas, and Kansas City, Kansas.
Jax Denver found a home in November of 1996 in the old Terminal Bar in LoDo near Union Station in an old building that Jack Kerouac used to live in and Tom Waits wrote a song about.
In November 1996 new product development efforts yielded the introduction of Wraps, a line of handheld wrap sandwiches featuring shrimp, fish, or chicken fillings and five different sauces.
The nonfried line never caught on with customers, however, and by early 1996 it made up only 1 percent of total sales.
In August 1997, Eateries agreed to acquire 17 restaurants from Phoenix-based Famous Restaurants Inc.
He perceived the purchase of the 17 restaurants as 'a safer bet than building from scratch,' according to his interview with Nation's Restaurant News on December 15, 1997.
In 1997, the company unveiled Garfield's Café, an urban version of the company's predominantly small-town, rurally based chain.
In September 1999 a new era began for Long John Silver's when the chain was bought out of bankruptcy by the owner of A&W Restaurants Inc. in a $227.5 million deal.
There were no plans to establish additional Café units in 1999.
Cafe Rhumba opened in Boulder on Pearl Street in the summer of 1999 on the same block as Jax.
While occasionally entering negotiations on a sale of the company, most notably with CKE Restaurants, Inc., owner of the Carl's Jr. hamburger chain, CSFB focused on improving LJS's financial performance and its balance sheet in advance of a possible public offering by the year 2000.
The first dual A&W/LJS outlet opened in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in early 2000; by the end of the year there were about a dozen such units.
2000: Yorkshire begins dual-brand tests pairing Long John Silver's with A&W, KFC, and Taco Bell.
The deal was completed in May 2002, and soon thereafter Tricon changed its name to YUM! Brands, Inc.
In 2009, Jax Boulder Chef Hosea Rosenberg won Season Five of Top Chef.
Mark won the prestigious International Cocktail competition held in New Zealand in 2010 representing the United States.
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Q's Restaurant competitors
| Company name | Founded date | Revenue | Employee size | Job openings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Buffalo Wild Wings | 1982 | $2.0B | 44,000 | 1,382 |
| Bandana's Bar-B-Q | - | $4.4M | 50 | - |
| Ruby Tuesday | 1972 | $952.0M | 32,100 | 1,066 |
| East Coast Wings | 1995 | $13.0M | 258 | 2 |
| Spanky'S Restaurant | - | $2.0M | 75 | - |
| Buffalo Wings & Rings | 1984 | $145.1M | 300 | - |
| Cozumel Inc | 1987 | $49.0M | 550 | - |
| Genghis Grill | 2002 | $350.0M | 7,500 | - |
| Jerry's Famous Deli | 1978 | $98.0M | 1,800 | - |
| Leona's Restaurants | - | $18.0M | 400 | - |
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