Keg Steakhouse and Bar owner David Aisenstat has recovered from a severe mugging during the summer and is back at work.
“Some guy was hiding in the lobby where I live on Beach Avenue and banged me a couple times on the head with a steel pipe to rob me,” Aisenstat told Business in Vancouver December 20.
The Keg Royalties Income Fund (TSX:KEG.UN) had been discreet about the incident, noting in a June 10 release that Aisenstat was on medical leave after being injured in an accident at home.
Aisenstat said he was out cold for about four days, and then his doctor ordered him to take two months off.
The mugger took a few hundred dollars in cash but did not take Aisenstat’s watch or the keys to his apartment, he said. He believes the attack was random.
Aisenstat said things are going well at the Keg, which has 104 restaurants, including 88 in Canada. He added the market for steakhouses in Canada is better than in the U.S., where there was a major acquisition announced last week.
Billionaire Tilman Fertitta announced plans to buy Morton’s Restaurant Group Inc. (NYSE:MRT) for US$116.6 million in cash.
Fertitta, which owns Landry’s Inc., has been on a buying binge.
On December 19, he extended his tender offer to buy McCormick & Schmick’s Seafood Restaurants Inc. (Nasdaq:MSSR) – a Portland, Oregon-based company that owns 92 restaurants, including the Boathouse chain.
Fertitta plans to refresh the Morton’s Brand, which is something Aisenstat believes is long overdue.
“Morton’s is a good group of restaurants,” Aisenstat said, “but there are guys who’ve come along in the past 10 years who do exactly what Morton’s does but, typically, in nicer looking restaurants.”
Glen Korstrom
@GlenKorstrom