Regional fare sets standard; Jonathan's redefines Charlotte dining scene

Regional fare sets standard

Jonathan's redefines Charlotte dining scene

After only 18 months in business, a 25-year-old restaurateur has added some new twists to the very definition of fine dining and entertainment in this city of $300,000.

He's done it by offering a rotating array of regional American specialties that might include a sauteed chicken with mild Italian sausage, julienne peppers and pesto one week, and a twice-cooked Cajun duckling with Bayou sauce the next.

"I don't think the local press really understands what we're all about,' said Jonathan Gellman, who opened Jonathan's Uptown in October 1984. "One reviewer talked about the walls, the table cloths and the decor, but said very little about the food. But still, we've become the standard for fine dining in this area. Every- one's heard of us.'

What Jonathan's has done is to showcase some of the hottest trends in fine dining in a venue where swordfish and prime rib have traditionally set the standard. Each week, the restaurant features the cuisine of a different American region, complete with authentic imported ingredients, like blue corn from the Southwest and Maryland crabs from Chesapeake Bay.

Thus far, Jonathan's "Fresh American Cuisine'--as Gellman calls it--has showcased specialties from the Chesapeake Bay states, southern Louisiana, Florida, the New England coast, the Southwestern states, California, Alaska and Hawaii.

While Gellman takes credit for the concept, the regional menus are developed by executive chef John Berres--who has studied in New Orleans and is well known throughout the South--and sous chefs John Jones and Billy Seay. New menus are issued daily, Gellman said, so that seafood offerings (about 30% of the menu) can be rotated. "Obviously, fish can not be kept around for a week,' he said.

A sampling of Jonathan's south Louisiana regional dinner menu--perhaps its most popular, according to Gellman --reveals such appetizers as hot spiced crawfish ($5.25) and entrees like fresh rabbit etouffee ($11.95), sauteed veal with oyster cream sauce and fresh fettuccine ($13.95), and red snapper courtbouillon ($13.95).

On the restaurant's California regional dinner menu, meanwhile, cream of celery with chives and sour cream ($2.95) and steamed clams with fresh basil and tomato sauce ($4.95) are offered as appetizers, with entrees such as poached salmon with sturgeon caviar, cumin sauce and deep fried celery leaves ($14.95) and grilled swordfish with Ugli fruit and an Ugli fruit butter sauce ($13.50).

Interestingly, Gellman pointed out, daily menu changes have played a significant role in keeping food costs at a managable 34%. "When the price of beef goes up, we simply feature it less on our menus,' he explained. "When swordfish on the North Carolina coast hit $6 per-lb., we stopped buying it until the price went down. We have that kind of flexbility.'

While Jonathan's does private catering and runs a separate jazz club downstairs, the hub of the business is the 100-seat main dining room, where the restaurant will do about 65% of its projected $2 million in sales for 1986, Gellman estimated. Most of that will come at dinner, where entrees range from $11.95 to $15.95 and the average per-person check is about $28 including wine. A more modest lunch trade brings average per-person tabs in the $12 range.

An important component of the sales mix is Jonathan's extensive wine program, which currently accounts for 11% of sales and is targeted to contribute as much as 13% by the end of 1986, Gellman said. With well over 100 selections --about equally divided between domestic and imported --the restaurant's wine list is perhaps the most extensive in the area. It is broken out by grape varieties, with the average bottle running about $20.

Among the white wine categories are Chardonnay, Chenin Blanc, French Colombard, Gewurztraminer, Riesling and Saugivnon Blanc. Red selections include Cabernet Sauvignon, Gamay, Merlot, Pinot Noir, Syrah, Petite Sirah, Shiraz and Zinfandel. There is also a selection of house wines and dessert wines--offered by the bottle or by the glass--and several fortified wines including a 1954 port that sells for $9 per glass and $90 per bottle.

"According to our latest survey, 60% of our clientele earn $50,000 per year and up,' Gellman said. "It's the type of customer base that really enjoys discovering new wines. We hold monthly gourmet wine dinners to help educate our customers and to promote the idea of drinking several different wines with a meal.'

Meanwhile, the 120-seat Jazz Cellar, located down-stairs from Jonathan's, draws steady crowds seven nights a week. Modeled after nightclubs like New York's Village Vanguard, the Jazz Cellar features both local and nationally known musicians.

"Charlotte is on the verge of becoming a very trendy town,' Gellman explained. "There's been a vast influx of business executives and young professionals from the North. Unemployment is extremely low and the economy here is really hopping.'

A third profit center is located upstairs from the main restaurant where Jonathan's caters private banquests. Three banquet rooms--the Garden Room, the more formal Peachtree Room and the Private Dinning Room--can handle a total of about 125 patrons. Banquet business currently accounts for 15%-20% of total sales, according to sales director Kevin Stumph, but the eventual target for banquets is between 25% and 30%, he said.

In addition, according to Gellman, profits from banquet business also keep food and labor costs in check. "In December, when we're doing a lot of cocktail parties, our food costs can drop under 30%.' Labor costs, meanwhile, typically run about 27%.

Jonathan's was crafted from two adjoining buildings that date back to the early 1900s. "We totally gutted both buildings and created a 1920s-style decor with oversized crown moldings and bleached oak floors,' Gellman explained.

"But even after 18 months in business, in many ways we're still in a building stage,' he concluded. "We've managed to raise the average perperson dinner check from $16 to $28 while reducing our number of covers. We're pushing banquet business aggressively and entertainment sales are up. I see the potential to do a volume of up to $4 million.'

Photo: Owner Jonathan Gellman, right, and executive chef John Berres in the main dining room of Jonathan's Uptown.

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