Despite all the speculation, here's the bottom line.
We want to become an "every occasion" place, not just special occasion. We created a reputation for special occasions because of our quality, decor, and price point. We know our competitors in the upscale segment very well and know that they face the same challenge. Although we have an extremely brisk business with faithful clientele, we want to broaden our demographic appeal by becoming more casual.
We still get comments, EVERY DAY, that we have the best steak the guest has ever had. Upon learning that we are changing to seafood, they shudder and ask if we will still have steaks, and the answer is yes, we will have a couple USDA Prime cuts from Ruffino locally. We will cease using our supplier from Austin so that we can lower the price to the customer. The supplier in Austin is markedly more expensive than Ruffino's. We did exhaustive research on beef leading up to the steakhouse opening. We know the product and process we use are elite and expensive. We also know that most palates appreciate it, and there are a few that do not, and that's okay. The cost of that process is justifiable in larger cities where the alcohol sales are triple BCS, to supplant the investment. So, it just turns out to be a business decision and nothing more.
Lastly, in our endeavor to become an "every occasion" place, we want lunch business. As a steakhouse, guests are not prone to consider us at lunch, and we want that business too. We realize that you can't make everyone happy all of the time, but we do feel this change will increase our ratio of crowd approval due to affordability, uniqueness, and approachability. We purposefully designed the new menu to drop the fish entree prices at lunch by $3 each to entice lunch traffic. You can view our new menu online. I won't post the web address because I've been encouraged not to by the ownership of mybcs. I'm confident you all know how to find it.
So, the new restaurant is basically a Seafood style Bodega upgrade. This evolution is less an eccell product and more a Bodega product.
Thank you all for your interest.
[This message has been edited by Costa and Andreas (edited 5/15/2010 9:52a).]