PGA Tour Grill chain tees off
ROCKVILLE, Md. – You need not know the difference between a birdie and a bogey to get a table at the new PGA Tour Grill.
The low-key, modern design of the restaurant is a far cry from the more heavily-themed Planet Hollywood or Hard Rock Cafe. There are widescreen TVs in the bar, mostly set on The Golf Channel. Lighting design just inside the door is meant to suggest the flight of a golf ball.
Located in the suburbs north of Washington, D.C., it is the first of what backers hope will eventually be several dozen such restaurants. The prototype, aimed at middle to upper-income customers, recently opened quietly under a licensing pact between the Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla.-based tour and a Rockville venture, Tour Dining Concepts.
The idea behind the soft-sell is to provide a backdrop that customers don’t quickly tire of, said Leo McCullagh, vice president of retail licensing for the PGA Tour.
“This is not faddish, it is not intended to be something like a sports bar. It is not a place where you could go and there’s paraphernalia hanging from the ceilings, or oversized race cars or anything like that,” said McCullagh.
Industry expert Ron Paul says the more subtle approach should help the concept endure.
“It is good to get the brand out there because it is a way to get trial and differentiate yourself from the competition,” said Paul, president of Teknomic, Inc. a Chicago-based food and restaurant consulting firm. He also believes the PGA projects a quality brand.
“As long as they keep it subtle, keep it classy, because I think that is what the PGA wants to be known for,” Paul said.
Other attempts at themed restaurants have failed because they have appealed primarily to tourists, who may or may not want to return, he said.
“If you really want to get beyond just tourist locations, where you aren’t dependent on regular customers, then you have to go back to the basics… very definitely play down the gimmicks, play down the museum aspects of what you are doing,” says Paul. “Make it a different enough restaurant that there’s some reason to try it, and if everything else is good, customers will come back.”
Like its themed predecessors, however, the PGA Tour Grill is selling merchandise, such as golf shirts and glassware, with its unique logo. Despite the temptation, the menu is not filled with golf-related double-entendres. There’s no Wedge Salad, but there is a Rotisserie Club sandwich.
“This is not based on any of the, what we’ve come to call ‘eatertainment’ concepts. Quite the opposite,” said McCullagh. “We’re trying to be family restaurants in local communities, where there’s an opportunity for people to form a bond over many years.”
Dinner entrees run from about $10 for a pizza from a wood-burning oven to about $20 or more for a steak.
If things go well, the tour and the local operators hope eventually to have as many as 50 or 60 of the restaurants across the U.S., through the licensing agreement.