Utah Eateries Eye Olympian Profits

Utah will welcome the world for the 2002 Winter Olympics, but if spectators want to have a good meal they may need an invitation.

Many of the area’s best restaurants are being snatched up by corporate sponsors and other groups for the duration of the games.

With Olympic rents averaging into the tens of thousands of dollars, restaurants are closing their doors to those without the proper connections.

“Unfortunately the Olympics aren’t for the people, they’re for the fairly well-to-do,” said Karen Olson, owner of the swanky Metropolitan in Salt Lake City. Her restaurant was rented out more than a year ago.

With the Olympics coming to their doorsteps, restaurant owners are making a tough decision between long-term customers and cashing in.

“Many of these businesses will do half a year’s business in 17 days,” said Larry Mankin, president of the Salt Lake Area Chamber of Commerce.

The chamber hasn’t surveyed Salt Lake’s restaurants to see how many will be rented, but it is thought that most of the eateries near the downtown medals plaza have been reserved, Mankin said.

In Park City, the 50-odd restaurants on the half-mile stretch of Main Street are in demand for private venues.

A former president of the Park City Restaurant Assn. said he would be surprised if 20 of those restaurants are already rented for the games. But those already reserved are the larger eateries that represent about 60% to 70% of Park City’s seating, said Paul Brown, co-owner of the Wasatch Brew Pub. Many restaurants still are in negotiations for the Olympics.

But restaurateurs and city officials promise that tourists won’t go hungry.

“We won’t force everyone to bring a sack lunch,” said Shawn Stinson, spokesman for the Park City Visitors Bureau.

To make up for the lack of tables for tourists, Park City restaurants will sell their food on the street--which will be closed to traffic--either at food stands or at a food court.

In Salt Lake, the city’s Olympic Planning Office will make sure visitors have access to food. Director John Sittner said alternatives to restaurants will be available to tourists, but the office still is working on its plans.

Olympic planners also have promised that plenty of places will be open to the public. Plus, games organizers will have concession stands at all the venues offering everything from hot meals to hot chocolate.

There will be some restaurants that will be open to the average spectator. Among them, the nine restaurants owned by Gastronomy Inc., mainly in downtown Salt Lake, have decided to stay open for the locals, said spokeswoman Judy Reese.

Olympic officials had originally wanted to set up “sponsor villages” in Salt Lake and Park City, where the sponsors could operate hospitality suites. Similar villages were part of the Sydney and Atlanta Olympics, said Mark Lewis, president of Olympic Properties of the United States, the U.S. Olympic Committee’s joint marketing venture with the Salt Lake Organizing Committee.

But the villages didn’t catch on, partly because of the expense of building an entire community for 17 days. Instead, sponsors went looking for alternatives.

Xerox Corp., for example, is saving $250,000 by renting out Park City’s Riverhorse Cafe for every afternoon of the games, said Terry Dillman, the company’s Olympic marketing manager. He said all the worldwide sponsors are reserving restaurants.

Most restaurant owners are unwilling to admit how much they will make during the Olympics, and confidentiality clauses stipulated by sponsors abound.

One manager of a small Salt Lake City restaurant said he was holding out for the right offer, which for them would be around $50,000.

Brown, of the Wasatch Brew Pub, has had quite a few offers for his pub during the Olympics and is in final negotiations to rent out the upper floor. He also wouldn’t say how much he’ll be making.

Deciding to close doors to regulars and tourists was a tough choice for many restaurant owners.

Absolute, a Swedish restaurant in downtown Salt Lake, will be rented to one of the Olympic teams, although manager Staffan Eklund would not say which one.

“That was a hard decision. Are you going to close down for all the guests, the local people and visitors? But that was our choice. It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Eklund said.

Metropolitan has made a small compromise.

More than two years before the Olympics, the restaurant had an agreement in place with major games sponsor JetSet Sports.

But it took a long time to complete a contract because owner Olson wanted to be open for locals.

She’ll open the restaurant for “locals nights” a couple of times a week. Although it’s unlikely that anyone walking off the street will be able to find a table--her regular patrons have already made reservations.

“My locals have been with me for five years and they’re going to be with me after the Olympics are gone,” she said.

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