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After learning from Disney how to put on a show, Rashid Choufani directs his company with an eye for the best in food, service and real estate
With its substantial capital resources and ability to tap in-house geniuses dubbed "imagineers," the Walt Disney Co. has built an enviable and distinguished record of opening some of the most memorable theme restaurants in the world.
But even the mighty Disney needed to look outside its ranks to tap the know-how of Rashid Choufani.
Having heard of Choufani's thriving and imaginative seven-unit restaurant business in his homeland of Morocco, Disney's restaurant developers offered Choufani - who earned his business and culinary education in Europe - a deal he couldn't refuse: become a Disney operating partner by opening an authentic Moroccan restaurant in the Moroccan Pavilion in the company's then-newest theme park, EPCOT Center in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.
That was 20 years ago when Choufani, then in his 40s, and Disney created a profitable mutual admiration society. With the launch of Restaurant Marrakesh and Tangierine Cafe at EPCOT, he gained from Disney invaluable insight about how to compete successfully in the no-holds-barred American restaurant industry. Among the lessons learned were ones about mastering customer service, concept differentiation, margin control and the hiring of talent.
Learning the Disney playbook has helped Choufani be the chairman and chief executive of Ebrands Restaurants, a multiconcept, multichain operator based in Orlando, he says.
Unlike other nonchain chains that prefer to open one-of-a-kind operations, often in the same city, Ebrands may be developing a potpourri of mini-chains in pursuit of a multistate growth strategy, with Las Vegas, the upper Midwest and Florida emerging as key growth markets.
Ebrands currently operates 13 outlets, made up of the five-unit Samba Room; four-unit Timpano Italian Chophouse; a Salsa Taqueria and Tequila Bar; a Mediterranean concept called Bossa; another Mexican concept called Taqueria Cañonita; and the wildly successful seafood restaurant Aquaknox, the company's most upscale operation and studiously fine-dining venue, in the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas.
Veteran restaurant observers will probably recognize some of those restaurant names as former growth vehicles that belonged to the specialty restaurants division of T.G.I. Friday's parent, Carlson Restaurants Worldwide.
Ebrands got started when Choufani and a group of investors...