More Slicing and Dicing

Benihana Inc., the Miami-based operator of one of the nation's largest chains of Asian restaurants, announced plans to open four new restaurants, including one Haru and three RA Sushi Bar & Restaurants. This is in addition to three Benihana teppanyaki restaurants already under development.

The Haru sushi restaurant will be in the Old Town district of Philadelphia. It also will be the first Haru situated outside New York, where all five of the chain's Haru restaurants are located. Final development of the new Haru restaurant is subject to approval of the plans by the city of Philadelphia.

RA Sushi, which Benihana acquired this past December, currently operates four restaurants in the Phoenix area, and is in the process of converting a former Doraku restaurant in Chicago. The three RA Sushi restaurants will be in Tucson, Ariz., San Diego and Huntington Beach, Calif.

The RA Sushi restaurants in Tucson and San Diego are expected to open in the fourth quarter of this fiscal year. The Philadelphia Haru and the Huntington Beach RA Sushi restaurants are not anticipated to open until fiscal 2005.

In addition, Benihana has three teppanyaki restaurants under development in Scottsdale, Ariz., Alpharetta, Ga., and Carlsbad, Calif. A new teppanyaki restaurant was opened last month in Westbury, N.Y.

“These new additions to our Benihana family of restaurants are very exciting for us and underscore our company's commitment to the future growth of our business,” says Joel Schwartz, Benihana president. “We continue to study additional sites for new restaurants and other opportunities, but at the same time we remain tightly focused on the fundamentals that have enabled our company to successfully and profitably expand over the past 39 years, and to maintain Benihana's widespread favorable consumer recognition.”

Benihana operates 64 restaurants nationwide, including 54 Benihana teppanyaki restaurants, five Haru sushi restaurants, four RA Sushi Bar Restaurants and one Doraku restaurant. In addition, 22 franchised Benihana teppanyaki restaurants are now open or under development in the U.S. and Latin America.