St. Elmo Makes Top 100 Highest Grossing Independents List

Restaurants and Institutions magazine just released their top 100 list, and while restaurants in the Top 10 are solidly in the $20-30 million range, check out our own St. Elmo Steakhouse at number 47 -- with a reported gross of $13,449,305. (Up from the $11.3 million reported in 2005 by the IBJ in their top grossing city restaurant rankings.) Some other stats on St. Elmo?

’07 sales: $13,449,305

Avg. dinner check: $74.08

Meals served: 181,550

Seats: 320 dining; 40 bar

Other notables on the top 100 list:
#6 -- DC's Old Ebbit Grill ($22,851,237 with an average dinner check of $24.00, and 800,000 meals served -- that's some turn! Also, 152 years old.)

#7 -- Gibson's Bar Steakhouse in Chicago ($20,846,253, with an average check of $35.95) Gibson's in Rosemont makes #22 on the list. Hugo's Frog Bar and Fish House (Gibson's version of Harry and Izzy's for overflow) makes #31 on the list.

#45 -- The Grand Central Oyster Bar in all it's cheesy, 70s glory -- and still a great meal.

#62 -- Shaw's Crab House in Chicago clocks in at $12.5 million

#69 -- Harry Caray's Restaurant in Chicago at $12.2 million.

and both Montgomery Inn at the Boathouse and the Montgomery Inn in Cincinnati clock in at 81 and 100 respectively making them to top two grossing rib joints in the US.

If you're looking for quality over quantity, then check out San Pelligino's annual Top 50 Best Restaurants in the World list. El Bulli and Fat Duck top the list with the French Laundry and Per Se coming in at 5 and 6. Other US restaurants named to the top 50 list were Jean Georges at 17, Le Bernardin at 20, Chicago's Alinea at 21, Chez Panisse at 37, Charlie Trotter's at 38, and Daniel at 41. A few US restaurants also made teh bottom 50 -- still good -- including Nobu New York (ranked 52), Masa (ranked 54), WD-50 (ranked 63), and the US L'Atelier Joel Robuchon (ranked 85). (The US-MGM Robuchon outpost also makes the top 10 but is listed differently, as if MGM is its own country. Full list is here. Makes for great travel planning! (all via Gut Check)

More from the James Beard Nominations

Digging deeper into the long list of James Beard Award nominees, there are a few more closer to home that might be of interest to Indianapolis folks.

Best Restaurateur: Along with the Mario Batalis, Laurent Tourdels and Wolfgang Pucks, there were also Larry and Richard D'Amico. They have six restaurants in Minneapolis (including D'Amico and Sons and Masa) but some Indianapolis folks may know them by their popular restaurants in Naples, FL --the southern outposts of their Minneapolis restaurants Campiello and Cafe' Lurcat and Bar Lurcat.

Odd, but true. Steven Ells, CEO of the Denver-based Chipotle Mexican Grill chain was nominated.

Best Chef -- Great Lakes. More from the category which includes Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and Ohio. A few additional competitors (including our own Steve Oakley and Dave Tallent) include Graham Elliot Bowles (Avenues, Chicago), Jean-Robert de Cavel (John-Robert at Pigall's, Cincinnati), James Sommerville (The Lark, W. Bloomfield, Michigan), and, of course, Michael Symon (Lola, Cleveland).

Best Chef -- Southern Region: Also close to home, Louisville chefs received three nods including Todd Richards (Oak Room), Edward Lee (610 Magnolia), and Jim Gerhardt (Limestone). The Oak Room also picked up a nomination in the Best Service category.

Outstanding Restaurant: Only two Chicago nominees this year in this particular category: Arun's and Spiaggia. (But it's an odd representation, the SF nominees in this category are Green's, Slanted Door, and Boulevard, an odd combo of choices.) Of course, Grant Achatz (Alinea) was nominated for Outstanding Chef as was Sanford D'Amato (Sanford) in Milwaukee, and Jean Joho of Chicago's Everest.

Best Pastry Chef: This one's a national award and a competitive category since it includes the NY and West Coast competition. But notable is one Chicago chef, Mindy Segal (Hot Chocolate) and the pastry chef from one of my favorite Dallas institutions, La Duni -- Dunia Borga.

Outstanding Wine Service: Bin36 of Chicago shows up on this list, as it should. For you wine geeks who get out a bit, also nominated were Slanted Door (San Francisco) and Vidalia (Washington DC), River Cafe (Brooklyn), and Aureole (Las Vegas).

Outstanding Wine and Spirits Professional: This group looks like a very tough category with sommeliers from almost every major restaurant entry nominated, but representin' for the midwest: Julian Van Winkle (of Pappy Van Winkle in Louisville) and Anthony Terlato of the Terlato Wine Group in Lake Bluff, IL.

Best New Restaurant: Must have opened in 2007. Nominated nationally: Basa (Louisville), Table 45 (Cleveland), Rue Domaine (Dayton), Dante (Cleveland). And as personal faves, Dean Fearing's new place in Dallas -- Fearing's -- and SPQR in San Francisco.