Molly Murphy's: fun dining with a full cast of characters; Oklahoma independent uses costumed staff – restaurant
Nation's Restaurant News, August
11, 1986 by David Zuckerman
There's always a party going on at Molly Murphy's House of
Fine Repute,
where the guest list on any given night may include characters
resembling
Michael Jackson, Minnie Mouse or Groucho Marx.
Service staffers at the two-restaurant dinnerhouse chain, in fact, are
encouraged to assume a broad variety of identities, according to
founder and
president Robert L. Tayar.
The object is to provide fun and high-energy entertainment for the
customer.
"We're the Disneyland of the restaurant world,' proclaimed
Tayar, who
opened the first Molly Murphy's in Oklahoma City in 1976 and added a
second in
Tulsa two years later. "Everybody here--the waiters, the cocktail
waitresses, the bartenders --assumes some character. And it's up to the
staff
to come up with their own costumes.'
Molly Murphy's, he said, is loosely modeled after Bobby McGee's, a
Phoenix-based
dinner and entertainment chain which also features costumed staffers,
"but
we've gone a bit further with the decor, the atmosphere and the
characterizations.'
With a menu built around steaks, seafood and prime rib--"We cater to
Mr. and Mrs. America,'--Molly Murphy's restaurants are ideally suited
for
special dining-out occasions like birthdays and anniversaries, Tayar
noted. The
concept has been honored as a recipient of the Travel /Holiday Fine
Dining
Award.
The festive atmosphere is further enhanced by concoctions like the
Bacchus
Feast, which serves four or more and consists of a 36-oz. sirloin steak
and a
whole chicken, surrounded by backed onions, corn, bell peppers,
carrots, new
potatoes and a selection of fresh fruits. Only dinner is served.
At approximately 7,800 sq. ft., each Molly Murphy's outlet seats 300
patrons--150 in the dining room and 150 more in the lounge--and
includes a
large dance floor, complete with a disc jockey. The unusual exterior
design of
the restaurants has been described as "a Russian Orthodox church that
mated with a ranch house.' The interior decor, meanwhile, includes a
virtual
potpourri of colorful environments that stimulate the imagination.
"We get customers involved in the fun,' Tayar said. "That's our
gimmick; that's what we're all about. We draw people from as far away
as 150 to
200 miles.'
Annual volumes
at the two Molly Murphy's, he added, have been running in
the neighborhood of $1.8 million, down slightly from past years because
of the
oil-depressed economy in Oklahoma. Liquor presently accounts for 30% of
sales,
with food and liquor costs running 34%-35%. The average per-person
check is
about $20.
But the Oklahoma market, where the dinner-and-entertainment concept has
already gained a sizable reputation for both fun and food, may
represent only
the beginning for Molly Murphy's. A third dinnerhouse is scheduled to
open in
Dallas next spring, according to Tayar, and additional sites are under
consideration in Chicago and southern California.
"We're looking to do [a volume of] better than $4 million in Dallas,'
he estimated, adding that start-up costs for the concept run about $2.5
million. "We're a special occasion concept and there's much more
convention business and tourism there. We've succeeded in Oklahoma even
though
there's really very little going on.'
In order to raise investment capital for future expansion, Tayar plans
to
take Molly Murphy's public in the near future. The company may also
consider
franchising.
"I'd like to open about four [Molly Murphy's restaurants] a year
beginning in 1987,' he concluded. "This concept is so unique and
unusual
that we think it will be very difficult to compete against in any
market.'