Levy Restaurants

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Levy Restaurants is a restaurant franchise company based in Chicago specializing in providing premium-quality vending and food services to major entertainment and sports venues. It is a unit of Compass Group, and was founded in 1978.

It operates 95 foodservice locations in 41 markets throughout the US and Canada. In 2004, company revenue exceeded $470 million, and was projected to exceed $600 million in 2005.[1] The company owns several restaurants and fine dining locations in addition to its entertainment venue holdings.

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[edit] History

The company was founded by Larry Levy, a Jewish man originally from St. Louis. In 1978, Levy founded his company in Chicago, and serves as the Chairman of the Board. The first property was D.B. Kaplan's Delicatessen in Chicago's Water Tower Place.[2] In 1982, the company pioneered the concept of fine dining in stadiums and arenas with award-winning restaurants and foodservice locations at Chicago's Comiskey Park (home of the Chicago White Sox) and again in 1985 in Chicago's Wrigley Field (home of the Chicago Cubs.) In 1989, the company was selected by The Walt Disney Company to own and operate two locations inside their world famous Walt Disney World Resort, Portobello Yacht Club and Fulton's Crab House. The Portobello Yacht Club's has consistently been voted best Italian restaurant in Orlando. Fulton's Crab House has achieved one of the top ten sales volumes of any restaurant in the United States. In 1994 they added their first location outside Chicago. The company also created and implemented the WOCAAT training philosophy.

[edit] Locations

Their sports and entertainment division manages convention facilities, concert and performance venues and arenas for all major sports leagues. They currently manage food service operations inside STAPLES Center and Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, AmericanAirlines Arena in Miami, Wrigley Field and U.S. Cellular Field in Chicago, the USTA National Tennis Center in Flushing, NY, Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Chase Field in Phoenix, and Rogers Centre in Toronto, among many others nationwide. They also manage all food service operations inside McCormick Place in Chicago, the nation's largest convention center, as well as at the Ravinia Festival in Highland Park, Illinois, and they operate multiple establishments inside Disney World in Orlando.

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