TheBuzz
TheBuzz
Roy’s and Randy’s
restaurants will go
their separate waysChef/owner Roy Yamaguchi and restaurateur Randy Schoch are parting companies.
Schoch's Desert Island Restaurants LLC has sold its two franchised Roy's Restaurants to Outback Steakhouse Inc., with which Yamaguchi has a partnership dating to 1999.
The breakup was not acrimonious, said Schoch, chief executive officer of Desert Island Restaurants.
"Roy is trying to grow his company and acquire his franchises. It's a good time for us to focus on the growth of our own concepts, so it's a good deal for both of us," he said.
Schoch owns the three Ruth's Chris Steakhouse restaurants in Hawaii and has opened three new "Thaifoon -- Taste of Asia" restaurants on the mainland. Yamaguchi's first Roy's Restaurant opened in Hawaii Kai in 1988; there are now nearly 30 from Tokyo to New York.
Schoch and Yamaguchi launched a joint venture and opened their first Roy's restaurant in Scottsdale, Ariz., in 1998, another in Newport Beach, Calif., in 1999, and a third in Phoenix, Ariz., in 2000.
The Scottsdale and Newport Beach restaurants changed hands Dec. 11; the Phoenix Roy's will remain under Desert Island's control and will close on Dec. 31 for remodeling. It will reopen in March as Franco's Italian Caffe, in which Schoch is an investor.
The location wasn't best suited for Roy's upscale casual concept, Schoch said. Additionally, the newest Roy's is located in the just-opened JW Marriott Desert Ridge Resort & Spa, a luxury resort also in Phoenix.
Randy and Roy will no longer have any business ties after the end of the year but they will be doing business in relatively close proximity to each other in cities other than Phoenix, including Scottsdale, Newport Beach and Irvine, Calif., and on Oahu and Maui as well. The next Thaifoon will open in March in Salt Lake City. There's no Roy's there, but there are in Denver and Dallas, where Schoch is also planning to open Thaifoon restaurants. "I hope to have 40 or 50 of them one day, if we can make them work," Schoch said.
"We had a great business relationship and I hope we played a nice role in bringing Roy's to the mainland."
Yamaguchi could not be reached for comment.
Erika Engle is a reporter with the Star-Bulletin.
Call 529-4302, fax 529-4750 or write to Erika Engle,
Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., No. 7-210,
Honolulu, HI 96813. She can also be reached
at: eengle@starbulletin.com