October 19, 2015
Contributed Art/Instagram
Restaurateur Stephen Starr with Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter. (Source: @starrrestaurant)
A Rittenhouse Square restaurant has made the list of top 100 highest-grossing independent restaurants in the nation.
Parisian bistro Parc, a creation of culinary titan Stephen Starr, made more than $14.5 million in sales this year, according to Restaurant Business Online.
With customers shelling out an estimated average of $51 per meal, Parc was #61 on the list of money-making eateries and the only Philly restaurant to make the cut.
Starr might be disappointed to see two of his restaurants leave the list: Buddakan Philadelphia was #92 last year and The Continental Midtown was #97. Both had revenues of over $10 million.
But he'll no doubt be cheered to see that Buddakan New York was #12 on this year's list at over $21 million in sales. On top of that, his New York restaurant Morimoto was #96 with over $12 million in sales.
Steakhouses were well-represented on the list, including Hugo's Frog Bar and Fish House of Chicago, which plans to open a new location in Philly's own Sugarhouse Casino. The casino's developers will no doubt salivate over the fact that Hugo's brought in over $15 million in sales in its Windy City location.
Related story: Sugarhouse announces first new restaurant is a steakhouse
To be a grand-grossing restaurant, it seems, you don't have to necessarily cater to gourmands. Take #35 on the list, Guy's American Kitchen and Bar in Times Square. It has three stars on Yelp and once got zero stars from a thoroughly disgusted New York Times reviewer, who declared that there was little on the menu "that can be eaten without fear or regret."
Sorry, New York Times. Guy Fieri's restaurant made $16.5 million in revenue anyway.
See the full list here.
