Smokey Bones

Smokey Bones Barbeque and Grill logo

Smokey Bones Barbeque and Grill logo

Smokey Bones Barbeque and Grill is a chain of casual dining restaurants. Darden Restaurants, Inc. created the concept and the first Smokey Bones restaurant opened in Orlando, Florida, in 1999. It currently has 59 restaurants in 17 Eastern states.

Atmosphere

Smokey Bones creates a rustic mountain lodge setting by using lots of wood, including tall timbers and logs, stacked stone, fireplaces, and imagery of mountain settings. Unlike a rustic mountain lodge there are multiple televisions hung throughout the seating area, as well as at the bar. In a further unexpected touch television volume and channel can be controlled via audio boxes that are located at many tables and (in some restaurants) throughout the bar.

Products

Smokey Bones has a wide variety on their menu. There is the traditional (slow-smoked) barbeque menu, including burgers, chicken and BBQ baby back and St. Louis Ribs, as well as a line of salads, other non-barbeque entrees, and desserts. Sides of french fries are peppered in addition to the traditional salt.

• Sandwiches and steaks:
  • Half-pound angus and buffalo burgers are Smokey Bones specialties, such as a bleu portobello burger and a smokehouse burger.
  • The restaurant also features a mahi-mahi sandwich, which is a garlic marinated mahi-mahi fillet served with a Cajun remoulade sauce on a toasted Kaiser roll.
  • Kansas City flat iron steak, a marinated 10 oz. flat iron steak hand-rubbed with Smokey Boners' signature steak seasoning, is served with roasted portobello mushroom sauce.
  • Portobello chicken is an herb grilled chicken breast served over a large portobello mushroom cap stuffed with spinach artichoke dip and feta cheese, garnished with fresh diced tomatoes and served with grilled flatbread.
  • Honey glazed salmon is served over roasted red and yellow bell peppers and caramelized onions, and Sierra chicken is topped with fresh cucumber salsa, dried cranberries, sunflower seeds and cilantro.

• Smoked:
  • Baby-back and St. Louis-style ribs and hand-pulled pork are slow-smoked in each restaurant daily for up to 11 hours over hickory for fall-off-the-bone tenderness and smokey flavor.
  • Other offerings from the smoker are beef brisket, and turkey breast. A thick, sweet barbeque sauce and a mustard-style version are on each table for guests to customize their

• Salads:
  • The Oregon pear and spinach Salad is a blend of fresh leaf spinach, grilled pears, seedless grapes and mandarin oranges with roasted pecans, crumbled bleu cheese, red onions and tomatoes tossed in light berry vinaigrette.
  • Other signature salads include a lodge salad, grilled chicken cobb salad, tomato, cucumber and onion salad and chicken caesar Salad.

• Appetizers include old-fashioned skillet cornbread with crushed pecan butter, barbeque chicken nachos and Brunswick stew. Juicy corn-on-the-cob, steamed broccoli, loaded baked potato, and sweet barbeque baked beans are popular side dishes. Guests also enjoy the restaurant's signature dessert – a bag of fresh, hot cinnamon-sugar donuts served with strawberry dipping.

Divestiture and closings

On May 5, 2007 it was announced that Darden Restaurants was closing 54 Smokey Bones Restaurants and the remaining 73 restaurants would go up for sale. The reason given was Darden wanted to "better position itself for future casual dining leadership". Smokey Bones had lagged the performance of Darden’s other brands as the barbecue concept’s core guests chose to dine at Smokey Bones with less frequency. There were a number of Smokey Bones restaurants that had not performed well for some time and the declining trend accelerated. The chain was sold to Sun Capital Partners in December 2007.

Darden had been testing the possibility of converting some struggling Smokey Bones Restaurants to a new format called Rocky River Grillhouse. According to the company's financial reports, Smokey Bones performed poorly in the Midwest, Southwest, and the Southeast outside Florida. In a quarterly report, Darden said the Rocky River concept was opened to test changes designed to broaden guest appeal and increase visit frequency. They described Rocky River Grillhouse as a casual restaurant with the getaway spirit of the great outdoors, specializing in a variety of fire-grilled foods. The interior of the restaurants had comfortable seating, warm lighting, prominent fireplaces, and some natural rock décor.

Rocky River Grillhouse closed its two locations in Akron, Ohio and Indianapolis, Indiana after dinner on May 4, 2007 and also canceled plans to open a third restaurant in Fenton, Missouri. Darden claimed that a longer term test of the Rocky River concept would have to have been predicated on Smokey Bones’ ability to stabilize its business. Long-term performance declines, however, continued and accelerated, so a longer-term test to convert to Rocky River Grillhouse was not viable.

See also

• Darden Restaurants, Inc.

External links

• Smokey Bones Barbeque and Grill's Official Home Page