What's Hot, What's Not at North Allegheny Area Restaurants?

Ron Sofranko has seen it all when it comes to restaurants.

After building the local Red River Barbeques into an attractive chain, he sold them to a national firm, Famous Dave's. He began a restaurant advisory group and hospitality brokerage service, which he runs out of his Wexford office.

Since then, he's also a partner in several North Hills area restaurants, including Ziggy's Tavern on Perry Highway in McCandless, the Walnut Grille restaurant on Route 19 in Wexford and Jergel's Rhythm Grille in Warrendale. 

"The category that's hot right now, I call it casual, upscale dining," he said. "Our kitchen (Ziggy's) has a chef, not a cook. It's not an Applebee's, Chili's or Friday's. Everything is made fresh from scratch daily. Soups are made fresh. We don't buy prepared products. Most of the dressings are made fresh. But it's not high-end."

A common complaint among many hard-core foodies everywhere is that there are too many chain restaurants. Sofranko said it all comes down to economics.

"With development costs these days, the little guy can't afford it," he said. "An acre in Cranberry is $800,000 to a million. A restaurant needs up to two acres, then you have to build the building and the equipment. Not too many independents can afford a $3 to $4-million-dollar investment. But the chains sure can." 

Sofranko says if one chain moves in, more are bound to follow.

"The thing that chain restaurants want is to have multiple units around them. They don't want to build by themselves," he said. "The chains want restaurant parks, where there are four or five within walking distance of each other. Restaurants like other restaurants. That's why McCandless Crossing will have five of them to start."

Like it or not, Sofranko says one age group will dictate which restaurants survive and flourish and which ones fail.

"One of my concepts is pushing the 25-to-35 year old. That's the audience. I'm 52, and even in the last five years, I don't go out as much anymore," he admits. "If you want to win with a concept, you've got to hit that 25-to-35 year old demo, like Burgatory (does)."

Trends that were popular just a decade ago are fading fast, Sofranko said.

"My kids now are eating healthier. They're eating more sushi. They're eating differently that we ate," he said. "Big portions are out. Massive portions, unless you want to take a meal home, are really not the thing anymore. Most of the older people just want a decent meal, I don't need an 8-ounce chicken breast, give me a 4- or 6-ounce one."

Sofranko says finding that successful concept is very much a science.

"There are so many dynamics to our industry, that's one of the reasons there's such a high failure rate," he said. "There are so many pieces to the puzzle, it's a niche, who are you appealing to?

"It's so much more of a science than people realize," he said. "There's all these pieces, but figuring out the demographics, then the metrics, dollars per-seat, dollars per-square-foot, investment dollars and returns, all of those kind of things play into when you build a concept." 

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