Shula’s Steak Houses give hotels branded f&b option

MIAMI LAKES, FL— So you’re an owner who needs to go with a critical selection from a food and beverage operations menu. Should you go with the cantankerous Iron Chef in column A, the peripatetic, high-profile Celebrity Chef in column B or the two ex-football players/ coaches in column C who are hoisting a 48-ounce steak triumphantly over their heads? If your gut tells you C, go for it. You’re the kind of hotelier that sports greats Don and Dave Shula want to talk restaurants with. For the past 15 years, the Shulas have been doing just that, making their Shula’s Steak House concepts a fixture within the lodging industry. Currently, all 26 of their locations in 15 states are in hotels and in both branded properties, such as Hilton, Marriott, Starwood, Wyndham and Disney products, and independent hotels. This year, the branded concept— there are actually four tiers— is expected to expand even more, with several locations set to open this year in Jacksonville, FL; Providence, RI; and outside Philadelphia. There are also expectations to grow one to three units per year. The meshing of food & beverage, football teamwork tactics, really large hunks of meat and hotels apparently didn’t seem like a very tasty entrepreneurial dish in 1989, when legendary Baltimore Colts and Miami Dolphins football coach and former player Don Shula was approached by David Younts, who founded the company now held as Shula’s Steak Houses, LLLP and looked to Shula to attach his name to the concept. At the time, Younts was president of the Miami Lakes Golf Resort, which has since been reflagged as Don Shula’s Hotel and Golf Club. He was also in charge of the hospitality division for the Graham Cos., a family-run business that founded the master-planned community of Miami Lakes and that counts among its interests breeding registered Angus cattle for market. Younts was charged with improving his division, which consisted of two hotels, the restaurants in those hotels, a golf course and an athletic club. Younts wanted to create a destination restaurant and reached out to Shula, who had moved to the community in 1970 and frequented the hotel, along with the rest of the Dolphins, prior to home games. Both Younts and the Grahams considered Shula the ideal celebrity to carry a concept that revolved around steak and football and looked for him to lend his name to the enterprise. Shula refused at first, according to his son, David, who has served as the company’s president since 1997. Noting his father was still coaching at the time, David Shula said, “He was very concerned about lending his name to a venture he was not going to be hands on.” Eventually, his confidence in the Grahams and Younts won out and he agreed to join the venture and the concept took flight. The first effort brought aboard Walter Staib, now the renowned chef of Philadelphia’s noted City Tavern, who helped define what was expected to be a large endeavor. “David Younts, being the entrepreneur that he is, viewed this as more than just a one-time-only type of decision. He thought about right from the beginning about being able to make it into a concept that could be duplicated,” said David Shula. The restaurant became a success and was followed by a permutation of the steak house a few years later with the opening of Shula’s 2 (in 1992), also in Miami Lakes. This concept is a casual sports restaurant that has a lower price point. Eventually, Shula’s name was licensed to appear on the area’s athletic club and hotel and golf club. In 1994, Younts sought to expand in Florida and other states and brought the concept to the Sheraton Grand in Tampa, where it’s still going strong. From there, the steakhouses spread out and two new iterations were introduced: Shula’s 347 Grill (the name reflects Don Shula’s career victories), a mid-tier restaurant that serves hamburgers, seafood, salads and what are known as “Shula Cut” steaks, which are touted as “better than Prime”; and Shula’s on the