- November 28, 2024
-
-
Loading
Loading
Prominent national restaurateur Cameron Mitchell says he broke a big unwritten industry rule in building Ocean Prime in Sarasota, his new high-end steak, seafood and sushi restaurant.
“Typically a restaurateur would think of themselves as crazy, building a restaurant where we are here — you can't see it from the road,” says Mitchell, the founder and CEO of Cameron Mitchell Restaurants, which operates nearly 50 restaurants nationwide. “But it's such a great location.”
Ocean Prime Sarasota is one of four establishments Mitchell's company is opening in Florida before the end of 2025. Despite challenges from labor costs and inflation, he is "very optimistic" about the future of the business, particularly in the Sunshine State.
Mitchell recently spoke with the Business Observer about a host of topics, including the company's Florida strategy and the state of the industry.
Mitchell describes the rule-breaking location in The Quay in Sarasota as “ground zero,” within walking distance of downtown and a short drive from Lido, Bird, Longboat and Siesta keys. He says he specifically worked with a broker to get a space there so he could build. (The Quay is a long-anticipated mixed-use project on the Sarasota Bay, with plans dating back in some form more than a decade.)
The Ocean Prime at The Quay is scheduled to open Dec. 21 — a millstone Mitchell says he is looking forward to for several reasons.
“Sarasota is like a second home,” says Mitchell, who has owned a beach house on Siesta Key for 20 years. He lives in Columbus, Ohio, where his company is headquartered. “I love Sarasota. So to build Ocean Prime and finally get the opportunity to do it … at The Quay, … I'm excited about it.”
On the menu are steaks from filet mignon to Wagyu with options such as a blue-cheese crust, black truffle butter or Oscar style as well as seafood like teriyaki salmon in soy butter sauce and sea scallops in a citrus vinaigrette with parmesan risotto.
“When I look at the Ocean Prime brand and this restaurant, there is nothing like it in Sarasota,” Mitchell says. “The cost we put into it, the finishes, everything, the menu and so forth.”
Sarasota’s Ocean Prime cost $10 million to construct. It spans 9,500 square feet in a brand-new building wrapping up construction along Quay Commons. Near The Ritz-Carlton Residences, the two-story restaurant will feature waterfront views with terraces on each floor and include more than 350 seats, two bars and two private dining rooms.
Ocean Prime Sarasota will mark the 19th location for the brand nationwide and the fourth in Florida; the others are in Orlando, Naples and Tampa.
“It's our horse; it's our national brand,” Mitchell says of Ocean Prime, which has a presence nationwide, from Beverly Hills to New York City.
The market on the Gulf Coast appears to be eating up the Ocean Prime concept, based on the performance of already existing restaurants. Ocean Prime in Tampa, says Mitchell, is the top restaurant in sales volume across the Cameron Mitchell Restaurants portfolio. (The company, in total, he says, does “a little under $500 million” a year in revenue.) Plus, he adds: “Our Ocean Prime in Naples does phenomenally well.”
In addition to being his second home, Florida is a place Mitchell has identified as a hotspot for his business.
His company already has five restaurants in Florida: two in Naples, two in Tampa and one in Orlando.
“I'd like to build as many restaurants in Florida as I can,” says Mitchell, who is opening three restaurants in the Sunshine State in 2025.
“Florida's booming. It's a great market. It's a great state to do business in, from an economic perspective. … It’s exploding.”
Among his company's coming attractions: a rooftop, reservations-only restaurant is scheduled to open at 837 Fifth Avenue in Naples in fall 2025. Called Prime Social Reserve, it will be the first of its kind.
“That restaurant is going to be incredible,” Mitchell says, adding his company is “spending a fortune” on it.
“It's the only rooftop venue that I'm aware of, I think, in Naples,” Mitchell says. Prime Social Reserve will be a “high-end private club that’s essentially a restaurant.” Members of the club will also have preferred access to other Cameron Mitchell Restaurants around the country.
His other projects for Florida in 2025 include Ocean Prime in Fort Lauderdale and Del Mar, a Mediterranean coastal concept coming to West Palm Beach.
Ahead of opening Ocean Prime in Sarasota, the company hired 110 staff members, a process Mitchell says went smoothly.
Labor remains “very expensive,” Mitchell says. “With that said, … I think it was a good thing for the restaurant industry.”
Cameron Mitchell Restaurants employs about 5,000 people, whom Mitchell deliberately refers to as associates. “We treat our associates with great care and concern. They're partners in business,” Mitchell says.
“Our people, our associates come first,” Mitchell says. “I look at it as a triangular relationship. We take care of our people; our people take care of our guests; our guests take care of our company by repeat visits.”
When Mitchell wrote a 2018 book about building his restaurant company, he entitled it "Yes is the Answer. What Is the Question?" That encapsulates his approach to customer service.
He recalls how one time while dining out with his family, he tried to order a milkshake for his son and was told it was impossible. Now, he offers milkshakes during training for his associates to send the message, in a sweet way, that it is their job to deliver.
On the corporate side, Cameron Mitchell Restaurants provides benefits like paid time off and closes for seven major holidays plus the Super Bowl as a way to care for its employees, according to Mitchell.
“We could make a lot more money, a lot more profit, if we were open Christmas Eve,” but the restaurants close “because I want them to be with their families,” Mitchell says of his associates. “We have a little motto— if you're unsuccessful at home, you can't be successful at work. If you're unsuccessful at work, you can't be successful at home.”
The mottos and company seem to stick.
“Our staff turnover is record low in the industry,” Mitchell says. “It's back to where it was in 2019.”
The opening of Ocean Prime in Sarasota comes at a time when inflation has been posing a challenge for the industry and causing consumers to scale back.
“The biggest problem we're facing today on the fine dining side is we're seeing … sales are down about 6% this year,” Mitchell says. Meanwhile, the casual brands within the Cameron Mitchell Restaurants portfolio are seeing increases in sales, he says.
“That 6% drop in sales really affects the profitability” because it is not fathomable to raise menu prices 6% to compensate, he says of the fine dining side.
Typically, establishments within the Cameron Mitchell Restaurants portfolio increase prices twice a year, once in the fall and again in the spring. Increases are about 2% each time for a total increase of 4% annually.
During the pandemic, as costs soared and supply chain issues persisted, the company raised prices about 6% from 2020 to 2022, Mitchell says.
Due to inflation, Mitchell says the restaurants have only increased prices by 2% each year in both 2023 and 2024.
Yet Mitchell is optimistic about 2025 and believes fine dining will be “back in favor” at some point in the future.
One positive, he notes, is the cost of goods is returning to 2019 levels.
Mitchell, who founded his company in the 1990s, says based on his experience, he thinks business in 2025 will be more like it was in 2019.
He recalls after the 2008-2009 recession, people stopped talking about it as much by 2014. The pandemic will “start to fade out of our vernacular” in similar fashion as the economy shifts, he says.
Many of his friends have projects that are shovel-ready, waiting for interest rates to fall, he says.
“Once those rates come down, there’ll be a nice big burst into the economy,” Mitchell says.
That said, he plans to put the shovel down for a moment.
“Coming off a very aggressive growth spurt,” Mitchell says he plans on “taking a little time off” from building new restaurants in 2026.
“You want to let everything kind of absorb a little bit,” Mitchell says.
“We may still do one or two [restaurants] in 2026,” if a prospect is “very opportunistic,” he adds.
Meanwhile, he is looking forward to opening his newest establishment close to his second home.
“I'm very optimistic about this location,” Mitchell says of Ocean Prime Sarasota. “I'm very optimistic about our business in the future and the economy in America going forward."
