AMERICA'S TOP 100 INDEPENDENT RESTAURANTS
BY RESTAURANTS & INSTITUTIONS MAGAZINE

Salty’s on Alki ranks 85th in America’s Top 100 Independent Restaurants in Restaurants & Institutions, April 2006. Here’s an excerpt from their story on our nation’s most successful restaurants:

Third-Time Charmer

Salty’s on Alki Beach in Seattle is one of three Salty’s locations, but it wasn’t the original. Or the second. Owner Gerry Kingen opened Salty’s Seafood in Portland, Ore., in 1980 moving north to Des Moines, Wash., the following year with Salty’s on Redondo Beach. Seattle’s Beach Broiler restaurant on Alki Beach was doing about $1 million annually when Kingen purchased it and transformed it into the third and largest Salty’s….

Bonnie David, managing partner of the Alki Beach location, credits its growth to Kingen’s understanding that a restaurant needs to provide more than a view. “I think Gerry’s brilliant. He understands guests; he’s very involved in each of the restaurants,” she says. Addition of Saturday brunch helped the location increase sales by 8%. “Seattle’s a great food city; there are lots of wonderful restaurants,” says David. “It keeps us on our toes.”

Some of that competition comes from chains, but Kingen understands multi-unit strategies well. In 1969 he purchased Seattle’s Red Robin tavern and transformed it into a restaurant with a new menu of 28 different burgers. He began franchising the Red Robin Gourmet Burgers concept in 1979, later selling it to a Japanese company. Red Robin had more than 300 units at the end of 2005.

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