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PARK CITY — A couple of Park City restaurants were featured on The Food Network’s “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives” this past weekend, but did it boost their sales?
Before the episode aired featuring Sammy’s Bistro and The Silver Star Café, the owner and manager of Sammy’s Bistro were looking for all the advice they could get. They reached out to Michael Seader, the owner of The Tin Roof Grill in Sandy, Utah, which was featured on an episode of 'Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives' that aired on April 25.
“He (the manager for Sammy’s) was asking different questions about what to do, and, my advice to him was, ‘If you think you have enough, you don’t,’" Seader said. "Also, over-prep, because if you don’t sell it on Saturday, you’re going to sell it Sunday or Monday.”
The spike in business was immediate for Seader. He says the restaurant received calls for deliveries within minutes of the show airing. Normally, they sell about 10 to 15 pieces of cheesecake on a Saturday night: “We had 80 orders of the particular cheesecake that we featured on ‘Triple D’ and it was gone by 4 o'clock in the afternoon," he said.
Overall, business at The Tin Roof was up 80 percent from the previous week, and nearly 100 percent from the previous year. Sammy’s Bistro manager Kenny Lovette was preparing for a swarm of new customers.
“Even Guy (Fieri) was telling us to expect a line before we even open our doors and to rock it out all the way through closing," Lovette said.
Lovette said they’ve seen massive crowds in the past, so they felt like they were ready.
“We basically told our guys to prepare for a Sundance type of night," Lovette said. "So they were preparing, especially, the things that were featured on the show, (which were) the Savory Chicken Bowl with Rice and the ‘Chivito’ Club.”
Did they see the overwhelming rush of new customers they were expecting? Not really. Lovette said sales were up slightly, but, they weren’t flooded with people like they thought they would be.
However, Lovette believes the “Triple D Bump” could come later in the year. He says this time of year is very slow for tourism in Park City since many people feel it’s too warm for skiing and not warm enough to go hiking.
Employees at The Silver Star Café also say their business was up slightly.
