MORTON'S COMING TO WARNER CENTER.Byline: GREGORY J. WILCOX Staff Writer WOODLAND HILLS -- Warner Center is beefing up. Upscale steak house steak house or steak·house n. A restaurant that specializes in beefsteak dishes. chain Morton's Restaurant Group Morton's Restaurant Group, Inc. (NYSE: MRT) is the world's largest owner and operator of company-owned upscale restaurants, with locations in the United States, Canada, Hong Kong and Singapore. Inc. announced Monday that it's scheduled to open a restaurant early next year at the Triana Warner Center being built at Canoga Avenue and Erwin Street. ``The San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. , with its appealing demographics and strong economy, is clearly an attractive Morton's location,'' Thomas J. Baldwin, chairman, chief executive officer and president of Chicago-based Morton's Restaurant Group, said in a prepared statement. And that turns this section of the West Valley, a popular business and entertainment destination, into the Sirloin Triangle. Morton's joins Ruth's Chris in the Westfield Promenade Westfield Promenade is a large shopping mall owned by The Westfield Group and located on Topanga Canyon Boulevard in the Woodland Hills district of Los Angeles. It was previously known as The Promenade at Woodland Hills and Westfield Shoppingtown Promenade. about a block-and-a-half away and Fleming's Prime Steakhouse and Wine Bar at Topanga Canyon and Victory boulevards in competition for the high-end carving set. Add the venerable Monty's Steakhouse a few blocks away on Topanga Canyon Boulevard and Charlie G's Prime Steakhouse on Ventura Boulevard Ventura Boulevard is one of the primary east-west thouroughfares in the San Fernando Valley; as it was originally a part of the El Camino Real (the trail between Spanish missions), Ventura Boulevard is the oldest route in the San Fernando Valley. It was also U.S. in Tarzana and consumers have lots of options to satisfy their craving for well-marbled cuts of meat. And not far from the new Morton's are the more moderately priced Gaucho Grill Gaucho Grill is an upmarket steakhouse chain with eight restaurants in the UK, of which seven are in London and one in Manchester. It serves Argentinian steaks, wines and food. It also has one "wine boutique" selling Argentinian wines, adjacent to its Piccadilly Circus restaurant. and Stuart Anderson's Black Angus. Morton's has already signed a lease for an 8,100-square-foot facility. It's in a complex being built by the Morgan Group and will be close to the company's 563-unit apartment project. Representatives of the Morgan Group could not be reached for comment. Bruce Ackerman Bruce Arnold Ackerman (born August 19, 1943) is a famous constitutional law scholar in the United States. He is a Sterling Professor at Yale Law School and one of the most frequently cited legal academics in the country. Biography Ackerman received his B. , president and chief executive officer of the Economic Alliance of the San Fernando Valley, said Morton's push into Warner Center is good news. ``All of a sudden, it's become a real dining destination for the entire San Fernando Valley. It's fascinating. If you look back 20 years that's what the West Valley used to be known for.'' He's not too worried about the market getting saturated with upscale steakhouses, either. ``Good restaurants are kind of like good retail. The more the concentration ... the more it feeds itself,'' Ackerman said. Gordon Murley, president of the Woodland Hills Homeowners Organization, said Morton's is welcome in the neighborhood. ``We have no problem with restaurants coming in but they all have to abide by To stand to; to adhere; to maintain. See also: Abide the rules. Because the liquor licenses travel with the land, we want to make sure it can't be turned into something other than a restaurant.'' Morton's spokesman Roger Drake said the Warner Center restaurant will employee between 50 and 60 people. The average dinner tab is $87 a person. And he believes that the restaurant will find a following. ``In all the cities and locations where we operate there is a lot of tremendous competition and that doesn't really bother us. A goal for us is to round out our Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, market.'' greg.wilcox@dailynews.com |
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