Yard House sells for $585 million

The 39-unit Yard House USA Inc. restaurant chain founded by 1977 Our Redeemer Lutheran School graduate Steele Platt has been sold for $585 million to Olive Garden restaurants’ parent company, Darden Restaurants Inc.

A sale had been anticipated since 2007 when TSG Consumer Partners LLC acquired 67 percent of Yard House, Platt told the Star-Advertiser. "That’s their mantra, that’s what they do."

The sale is set to close around the end of August, Platt said.

Yard House will join Darden’s Specialty Restaurant Group, which includes Bahama Breeze, The Capital Grille, Eddy V’s and Seasons 52 restaurants. Darden also operates Red Lobster and LongHorn Steakhouse chains across the United States.

Yard House reported systemwide sales of $262.4 million in fiscal 2011, up 23.3 percent from 2010, according to restaurant industry publication Nation’s Restaurant News.

Darden Chairman and CEO Clarence Otis told the publication he estimates the addition of Yard House will bring the Specialty Restaurant Group to nearly $1 billion in annual sales.

The magazine’s website reported the Florida-based and publicly traded Darden saw sales at Olive Garden and Red Lobster dip by 1.8 percent and 3.9 percent, respectively, for the most recent quarter, which ended in May.

The sale to Darden should have no impact on Yard House employees, including the roughly 200 that work at the 11,500-square-foot Waikiki Beach Walk location, said Platt, 53. He anticipates a "great transition."

Platt’s partners, Harald Herrmann and Carlito Jocson, as well as Craig Carlyle, likely will stay with the company.

Herrmann is president and chief executive, Jocson is the chef-partner and Carlyle is executive vice president of operations. "Those three people are critical," Platt said.

Platt’s future role is unclear.

"I was chairman until two hours ago," he said Thursday, "now I’m just the founder employed by Yard House. … We’ll see."

He said it might be time to come up with a "new idea."

Platt had turned down a location at Ala Moana Center in his search for a hometown spot for Yard House, partly because of the fond memory of eating prime rib seated next to his dad at Chuck’s in Waikiki in 1967.

The Waikiki restaurant generates revenue that puts it in the chain’s top 20 percent, along with the Staples Center location in Los Angeles; the Boston restaurant, near Fenway Park; the San Jose location; the Irvine location, where corporate training is done; "and the Long Beach store, the flagship first store," he said.

The Long Beach Yard House opened in 1996 after Platt established two other restaurants in Colo­rado and walked away from them in a dispute with the landlord.

"It’s been a good ride for me, growing up in Hawaii, starting (the restaurant) 17 years ago. It’s great to see an idea come to this point. It’s really exciting for me," Platt.

Platt attended Pearl Harbor Kai Elementary, Aikahi Elementary, the school formerly known as Kala­heo Intermediate School and Our Redeemer Lutheran School in Honolulu.

Hawaii "definitely" will be an option for him to return to in retirement. "Maybe I’ll open a mana­pua stand," he said with a laugh.