Atlanta Restaurateur Scours Las Vegas

"Some are new and some are expansions," he says, declining to identify any of them. "We're just in the negotiating phase," he says. "Mixed-use is the deal here; the trend is really pervasive."

Buckhead Life's founder, owner and CEO, Pano Karatassos, hired Carey specifically to implement an expansion plan for the restaurateur that operates 13 restaurants under a slew of brands in Atlanta. Karatassos began there with Pano's & Paul's, which opened in 1979. The initial Chops, a steak house, opened in 1990, and Lobster Bar was added to complement it in 1996. Others include 103 West, Buckhead Diner, Pricci, Veni Vedi Vici, Atlanta Fish Market, Corner Café, Buckhead Bread Co., Nava, Bluepointe and Kyma.

"Las Vegas has so many great restaurants," Carey says, "and we think a high-end steak and lobster one would do well here. If, for some reason, a Chops weren't appropriate for a particular location, we can go back into our bag of tricks and look for another concept. We have a great presence and following in Atlanta."

The company is currently opening a Chops Lobster Bar in Boca Raton, FL. "It is 9,600 sf, the prototypical size for a Chops, which contains two different visual concepts and can seat about 250 to 260 in both the lobster and the chop side with our signature piano bar. In Las Vegas, though, we'd look for between 12,000 sf and 13,000 sf.

"There's not a huge advantage in being bigger," he continues, "but that would allow us to obtain maximum capture rate of both residents and tourists here. Las Vegas has its own special demographic. We want to be the unique, high-end steak and seafood restaurant in the market. We don't need to be a regional chain, and we're not driven by the need to be a big-time company.

"There are 15 to 20 other restaurant companies looking to open in Las Vegas," he says, adding, "It's pretty expensive, and the demand is great." Construction cost for the Boca Raton prototype is $4.2 million, according to Carey.

Down the road, Chops "may someday be a national brand with one in every major city. For now, we're concentrating on the first five," he says. Other locations under consideration for the "five" are Miami, Orlando, "and maybe the West Coast a little bit. And it's my hope and desire to also be in Las Vegas."