Restaurateurs across the nation are conducting focus groups, cooking up promotional campaigns and generally struggling in vain to get their old diners to start eating out again.
Then there is Mary Harrigan, whose small local chain of five Stonefire Grill restaurants seems to be operating in some alternate world where there is no recession, no burst housing bubble and plenty of disposable income in consumer wallets. A recent Friday in West Hills was typical, with a sizable lunchtime crowd of old regulars and relative newcomers.
Harrigan's small-business success comes in part from remembering how she grew up in a San Fernando Valley family that stretched every dollar to send all nine children to private school and college. Her low-cost, no-frills eateries, which she runs with sister Maureen, strike a chord with customers who are worried about the worsening economy and their own financial futures.
"We had to be very selective about how we spent money, and that is how everyone feels today," said Harrigan, number eight in the brood.
The Westlake Village-based fast-casual chain is doing well enough to proceed with plans for a sixth restaurant in Pasadena. That's unusual in an industry that's hungry for business.
"Nearly 2 out of 3 restaurant operators reported negative same-store sales and traffic levels in September, while 50% expect their sales in six months to be lower than the same period last year," said Hudson Riehle, the National Restaurant Assn.'s senior vice president of research and information services.
Technomic, a restaurant research and consulting firm, said the industry was suffering from several problems.
Restaurants overbuilt by opening eateries faster than they were gaining customers. That left them with too many seats to fill and too few customers to go around when the economy tanked. Restaurant supply costs also have gone up faster than operators can raise prices, said Darren Tristano, executive vice president of Chicago-based Technomic.
But Stonefire seems well-positioned to take advantage of some of the trends that are hurting many restaurants. More people who used to eat out are building meals using less expensive prepared foods from supermarkets. Stonefire's main dishes -- mesquite-grilled tri-tip or chicken cooked with lemon and garlic, for instance -- go well with supermarket side dishes, some of the restaurant's customers say.
Here's how Harrigan describes Stonefire:
