Coney Beach Open For Business

Camille's Sidewalk Cafe is a homegrown success story. From a single restaurant in Tulsa it's grown to hundreds of franchises worldwide. Now The News On 6â€™s Steve Berg reports the same Tulsa

Thursday, July 19th 2007, 4:50 pm

By: News On 6

Camille's Sidewalk Cafe is a homegrown success story. From a single restaurant in Tulsa it's grown to hundreds of franchises worldwide. Now The News On 6â€™s Steve Berg reports the same Tulsa couple has opened the first of what they hope will be another successful chain.

Rock N' Roll oldies play in the background, bamboo and corrugated metal line the walls, and burgers, hotdogs and milkshakes are in abundance at Coney Beach. Owner David Rutkauskas says he wanted something close to the feeling he had when visiting a beachside hot dog stand in Southern California.

"I was shooting for a 70s kind of Southern California vibe, and I think that's what we accomplished," restaurateur David Rutkauskas said.

Just 14 months after he got the idea, Rutkauskas is standing in the first Coney Beach restaurant. He's carving out another niche in what's known as the fast-casual environment. It tries to combine the service of fast food with the quality of a casual dining restaurant.

"You go to a Chili's on a Friday night, it's an hour wait, it's 20 minutes to get your food, it's 10 minutes waiting on a waitress. A family can get in and out of Coney Beach in 25 minutes. And when the kids are happy, mom and dad are happy," said Rutkauskas.

For a brand with no previous name recognition, he's been amazed by the results. He says in the first week they did 50,000 in business, which he says far exceeds the average sales of a larger, casual dining restaurant like Chili's or Applebee's.

"Tulsa's always been real good to us,â€ said Rutkauskas. â€œAnd I think there's a market for gourmet dogs, gourmet burgers and gourmet fries, served in a fast-casual environment."

He says they won't sustain those numbers every week, but he says it bodes well for the Tulsa company's new brand. So far they've sold 15 franchises, eight just on Thursday in Alaska, not where he expected.

"No, not at all, I thought it would be in this part of the country, but you follow the leads, you follow the money and you follow the deals. So if that takes us to Alaska, then that's where we go," said Rutkauskas.

The corporate headquarters in Tulsa employs about 50 people. Rutkauskas says the way that Camille's and Coney Beach are growing, it could employ hundreds in the not-too-distant future. Each one of the Coney Beaches, by the way, will have about 50 workers.

Watch the video: New Restaurant Brings The Beach To Tulsa

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1/5/2007 Camille's Kicks Off A New Brand