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Thomas Kaplan is the senior managing partner of the Wolfgang Puck Fine Dining Group. He oversees the existing restaurants as well as the development and creation of new venues. "I have a multi-dimensional job," he says.
On a typical day, he is usually up at 7 a.m. After exercising himself and his two dogs, Kaplan is in his restaurant-based office by 10 a.m. On Mondays, he tends to review the weekend sales and performances of all the existing restaurants and deals with any customer issues.
Las Vegas currently has five Puck dining establishments: Spago, Postrio, Chinois, Trattoria del Lupo and Wolfgang Puck Bar & Grill. Seven more are located across the country and one Spago is licensed in Tokyo.
With the older restaurants, Kaplan keeps his eye on overall quality of the dining experience, hotel relations and financial performance. With new acquisitions, he focuses on financial development and design, design development and construction.
"We look carefully at where we go," he says. "Our growth - we are a non-public company - is completely up to us. We target partnerships with a hotel casino environment or a high-end partner.
"We work with whoever our partner is and whatever would work in that environment. We always hire a designer or an architect to do our projects. I play an active role in the selection and process."
His other duties include supervising all of the company's...