For Dolce Group, Sky’s The Limit
Why does every developer want a Dolce Group restaurant in its project? High energy, great food and a reputation as a celebrity hangout top the list.
Randall Shearin

How do you take restaurants that have become known in Los Angeles for being filled with celebrities (and good food) and create the experience elsewhere? You recreate the restaurant elsewhere in the most high energy developments in the market. That’s what The Dolce Group, operated by co-CEOs Mike Malin and Lonnie Moore, is doing by taking its chain of celebrity-owned upscale restaurants national.

Inside Geisha House, Hollywood, California.

Shopping Center Business recently met with Moore and Malin at The Dolce Group’s headquarters in its Geisha House restaurant in Hollywood, California.

Moore, a former television executive, and Malin, an actor, are lifelong friends whose first restaurant and bar, Belly, was quite the celebrity haunt when it opened in Hollywood in 2001. Recruiting several celebrity friends like Ashton Kutcher, Wilmer Valderrama, Jamie Kennedy and many others as investors, the pair opened their second restaurant, Dolce Enoteca e Ristorante in April 2003. The Italian restaurant was a smash success, earning as many accolades in the food press as it did in the celebrity watching pages. Malin and Moore — and their cache of celebrity investors — have gone on to open three other concepts, Geisha House, Les Deux and Ten Pin Alley. In 2006, the company began expanding nationally. Sales for 2006 topped $20 million for Dolce.

Malin and Moore have always succeeded, despite the attention their investors receive, in getting The Dolce Group’s restaurants noticed for their food, ambiance and service.

“This is not Planet Hollywood or All-Star Café,” says Malin. “It is incredible ambiance, incredible food, and incredible service. We’re not hanging our hat on the celebrity theme.”

Inside Dolce Enoteca e Ristorante at Atlantic Station, Atlanta.

National expansion is now the target for the concept. In 2006, the company expanded to Atlanta, first opening Dolce at Atlantic Station. The company’s new bowling concept, followed in early 2007, and Geisha House recently opened a unit at Atlantic Station. Simultaneously, the company opened a Dolce restaurant in Reno, Nevada, at the Grand Sierra Resort. Deals have been signed for Victory Park in Dallas, where Dolce plans to open a new sports bar concept, National Harbor in Washington, D.C., Bridge Street in Huntsville, Alabama, and Santa Ana, California, where Dolce will open at City Place. Phoenix and Las Vegas are also target locations for the company within the next year. The company recently opened its latest concept, Ketchup, on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, California.

A club-like atmosphere and great food keeps diners coming back to Dolce Enoteca e Ristorante. Pictured is the Atlanta restaurant.

“Every developer in the country is coming to us,” says Moore. “We get more press than any restaurant group in the country because we have celebrities attached to us. When you have Lindsay Lohan speaking to Justin Timberlake in one of your restaurants, every entertainment media outlet is going to mention us. As a result, every developer calls us from Nashville, Tennessee, to Des Moines, Iowa. We have a lot on our plate right now, but we’re always interested in the right locations.”

Dolce Group handles its own leases. It has in-house lawyers and advisors that analyze deals. It is not to the size yet where it requires full-time real estate counsel.

The company currently has six concepts that it is opening in various locations. Dolce is an Italian restaurant that concentrates on northern Italian cuisine, with some regional favorites on the menu based on location. Bella Cucina Italiana is a smaller Italian restaurant with a more neighborhood feel. Les Deux is a nightclub that is currently only operating in Hollywood. Geisha House is a sushi and Japanese-style restaurant. Ketchup has cuisine that is American-inspired comfort food. Ten Pin Alley, open only in Atlanta, is a bowling alley, bar, pool hall and lounge.

Inside the first Ten Pin Alley, located in Atlantic Station, Atlanta.

“We don’t sell food, we sell experiences,” says Moore. “We want to give you more than a steak and a vegetable. We give you music, good service, fireplaces, dee-jays, and great food. It’s the true definition of eatertainment.”

The Dolce Group’s restaurants, bars and entertainment venues are built on one premise: energy. They create places where the ambiance is that this is the most happening place in town.

“We build places where people want to go, not to feel dead at 35,” says Moore. “Bowling didn’t stop becoming fun, the bowling alley did. We combined it with billiard tables, a great menu and a huge bar. You can go to Ten Pin Alley, not bowl and have a good time.”

The company has two new concepts that it wants to roll out when the timing is right. One is a Mexican food concept and the other is a Chinese food concept.

Dolce Group recently opened its latest concept, Ketchup, on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, California.

“Whatever market comes calling dictates what concept we will locate there,” says Malin. “Some places aren’t ready for a sushi restaurant that’s as upscale as Geisha House. Some places may not respond to the truffle oil mac-and-cheese that we serve at Ketchup. We can’t open a bowling alley in Las Vegas because of the size.”

The key for Dolce’s national expansion is to be a big fish in a small town. It likes cities such as Atlanta and Dallas, that already have a great restaurant scene, but of the right size where Dolce can still find a home. In Atlanta, for instance, Dolce has quickly become one of the most difficult tables to get, despite the city’s thriving restaurant industry.

Ketchup has American-inspired, upscale comfort food.

“We want to be a big fish in a small pond,” says Moore. “Atlanta we love because of its size. It’s not as big as Miami or L.A., but it’s still a big city.”

Dolce is also considering some smaller markets where it can make an even larger mark. Columbus, Ohio, has been discussed, for instance. Deals have also been signed at O&S Holdings’ Bridge Street project in Huntsville, Alabama, and at O&S’s new project in McKinney, Texas.

“Another key to our expansion has been the wave of mixed-use properties being developed around the country,” says Malin. “The live-work-play environment fits our high-energy atmosphere. The typical customer for that type of living situation is our customer. They’re young, they’re on the go. They want it all in one place. We can give them dynamic concepts so that they don’t have to drive and find that.”

Dolce is only expanding in markets where it can open between two and four concepts. Since the company is still relatively small, when it has to pay for a corporate chef and other corporate staff to live in temporary housing while the restaurants are being opened, it makes sense to open more than one in a given location. The company is opening four concepts at The Peterson Companies’ National Harbor project near Washington, D.C., for instance.

The typical size for one of The Dolce Group’s concepts is between 5,000 and 10,000 square feet. Certain markets and developments require larger locations than others. The company likes its restaurants to have between 130 and 230 seats. Ten Pin Alley requires between 15,000 to 20,000 square feet.

After locations are set, Dolce tries to find local chefs to partner with for its restaurant. It looks for young, up-and-coming chefs to open the restaurants with.

Dolce Group founders Lonnie Moore (left) and Mike Malin (right) at Geisha House in Hollywood, California.

“We want to grow together with our chefs,” says Malin. “One mistake a lot of restaurants make is that they are too chef-driven. Sometimes people want to eat what they want to eat, not what the chefs want to feed them. We appeal to the common man with the everyday pallet. We don’t try to reinvent the wheel with cuisine.”

Since the first Dolce opened 4 years ago, the company has had time to learn the ropes with the concept. Certain dishes will be big sellers at every unit the company opens. For instance, it knows that its chicken parmesan will be on every menu of every Dolce. About 50 percent of the menu, however, is changed based on location. The company believes in using local produce and products in its foods, so it must alter some menu items to accommodate that. In Atlanta, it might use Georgia pecans instead of walnuts from California in certain dishes. Local figs were incorporated into another dish that is special to the Atlanta restaurant.

“People may think of us as Hollywood trendsetters,” says Malin, “but our success in Atlanta and Reno has really shown that we know how to tweak our concepts to fit the marketplace. Now, the sky’s the limit.”


©2007 France Publications, Inc. Duplication or reproduction of this article not permitted without authorization from France Publications, Inc. For information on reprints of this article contact Barbara Sherer at (630) 554-6054.