Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Galatoire's wont be Georges-atoire's
Posted by Alex Woodward on Wed, Dec 9, 2009 at 10:13 PM
John Georges' spokesman Bill Kearney offers details on Georges' involvement with Todd Trosclair's acquisition.
Georges "thought it was a tremendous opportunity," according to Kearney. "Todd said 'I got a lot on my plate, I’m doing a lot of things that are really important, this is something I really want to participate in,' and arrangements were made that we would purchase a majority interest in the restaurant."
Trosclair, who runs Allstar Electric, had been eyeing the restaurant for several months, according to Kearney, and Georges was recently contacted to agree as a partner. Kearney says neither Georges nor Trosclair have any relationship with the Galatoire's family.
"There were rumors that Galatoire’s has been up for sale for some period of time — a very large contingent of family members, as a business, did not make sense to operate," he says. "Various factions wanted to sell, didn’t want to sell, and there were a number of different groups looking at this opportunity. Todd’s been looking at it for several months. John hasn’t."
Though Georges has no history in the restaurant industry, he recognized the weight of a majority ownership position at a New Orleans landmark like Galatoire's. "A situation like this is a once in a lifetime opportunity, to have an investment in one of the crowned jewels in this industry," he says.
Kearney assures Galatoire's will still be the Galatoire's, even if Georges' mayoral campaign proves successful: "The future is not going to change at all. It doesn’t need financial investors coming in to retool it. As an investor, (Georges) certainly wants the restaurant to do well — whether or not he’s successful politically has no bearing on what happens at Galatoire’s. John does not want to change anything. He’s far too respectful of the traditions to want to change something. He doesn’t need to do anything operating this. It’s the best it is."
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