The Tulsa Forum by TulsaNow

Economy???  There's lots of other restaurants still thriving in that corridor, I call BS.  More like the ownership change was probably the problem.

Used to go there all of the time when I was kid.   I haven't been there in year's though.

Ha, that figures. I just bought some restaurant.com certificates to there this morning. Oh, well.

E-mail restaurants.com and they will let you get another gift certificate.  We had the same thing happen a few months ago.

No doubt ownership/management played a role in its demise (is usually does for a failed restaurant), but the weak economy is particularly hard on restaurants and that patch around 51st and Yale has not fared well in the past year - Carraba's, Steak & Ale and Denny's in this area also closed.  I doubt this is the last long-time Tulsa restaurant we'll see fail before the economy picks up.

All those closed restaurants may have had poor management, but they probably had poor management for a long time yet survived until recently.  The biggest change is the economy slowed and folks cut back on dinning out.  The 51st & Yale area, where all of the listed examples were located, appears to be an area in somewhat overall decline.  The looming I44 expansion is probably a factor, which will hardly be good for anyone's business in that area in the short term, but it seems hard to blame it on that one factor.

My earlier point was every restaurant to recently close has been instantly chalked up to "poor management" by some on this board.  I don't think there has been a sudden rash of bad managers taking over every restaurant that has failed, but that a bad economy is making survival in an always tough business even tougher.  I'm sure well run restaurants offering good food and service at a fair price engender loyality among its customers that will probably tide it over through the bad times.  However, every restaurant owner I've spoken with has described 2009 as a year in which they've simply tried to survive.

Try again.  Lone Star, Marie Callender's, Picadilly, Applebee's, Outback, and Jamil's all appear to be doing great if you drive by at peak dining times.   In an economic downturn, the strongest and best will survive, the mis-managed and bland will fail.  Even in great economic times, mediocre will only play for so long.  As I understand the new owner was in the ad business, or at least a name I remembered from the ad business.  There's a big difference between knowing how to market a restaurant and knowing how to run one.  If you get the people in the door and the dining experience sucks, they won't return and they will engage in the most effective form of marketing: word of mouth.

However, every restaurant owner I've spoken with has described 2009 as a year in which they've simply tried to survive.

Ummm, hmmm. You must have, ahem, poor taste in restaurants. Really good restaurants will do more than just survive even during hard times.

Perhaps I dine only at poorly manged joints teetering on the edge of closure, but I have noticed that few restaurants I've been to this year are as busy as in the past.

Perhaps you do, which was my point.

Green Onion restaurant to reopen
 
By KYLE ARNOLD World Staff Writer
Published: 10/12/2009  6:58 PM
Last Modified: 10/12/2009  6:58 PM

The food and sounds of the Green Onion are returning just a month after the 23-year-old restaurant closed.

The new ownership, led by Max Doyle, plans to bring back the old menu, rehire the original chef and even give back the microphone and piano bench to Bob Clear when the restaurant reopens Oct. 21.

The Green Onion, 4532 E. 51st St., is known for its Long Island roast duck, stuffed mushrooms and other continental flavors.

“One of the reasons (Max Doyle) bought the Green Onions is the fact that it’s so well known,” said Shelbe Adams, marketing manager for Doyle’s restaurant company, Live to Eat Inc.

Doyle also owns the Chalkboard downtown and the Garlic Rose in Brookside.

Claude Donica closed the Green Onion in early September. When Doyle heard that it was on the market, he wanted to give it a chance despite the recession.

Doyle has historic connections to the restaurant that inspired his decision to revive it, Adams said. Doyle worked with the Green Onion’s founder, David Ingram. That pushed Doyle to bring back the original executive chef, John Fard, and even pianist Clear, who had crooned at the restaurant since 1986.

“We’ve had a lot of requests to keep certain things on the menu, like the Brown Derby and Texas Toast,” Adams said.

The reopened restaurant will look somewhat different, though, with repainted walls, new carpet and a general aesthetic face-lift. However, Adams said the new owners plan to maintain the restaurant’s classic mood.

She also said Live to Eat will keep some of the Green Onion’s staff. It will have about 50 employees.