Chef vs. chef, or why dining competition is good

His plans might seem counter-intuitive -- shouldn't a new restaurant make it harder to fill up on a Saturday night? -- but sometimes, having multiple restaurants in one location can benefit every business.

That's one reason that restaurant rows are common in every city and many new ones have formed in Pittsburgh in recent years, like the Cultural District Downtown and the strip of Butler Street between 34th and 39th streets known as Lower Lawrenceville.

"I think it's a case of 'like brings like,' " said Andrew Twigg, co-owner of Dozen Bakeshop and a graphic and Web designer who created the Lower Lawrenceville website. "You see the same people going to [Round Corner] Cantina, Tamari and Piccolo Forno; Coca Cafe, Dozen and Espresso a Mano," he said. "It's all good food that appeals to similar kinds of people. It brings people back again and again."

In fact, a growing number of restaurant owners are choosing to open more than one restaurant in the same neighborhood, sometimes on the same street, counting on the positive effects of restaurant clusters to outweigh the potentially negative effects of competition.

Just in the past year, Rick Stern and Brian Pekarcik opened Spoon in East Liberty, then opened BRGR right next door. Omar Mediouni, who already owned La Casa on Ellsworth Avenue in Shadyside, opened Brasserie 33 just up the street. NOLA will be Mr. Carreau's third restaurant Downtown. He already owns Sonoma Grille and Seviche, both on Penn Avenue in the Cultural District.

Increasing the number of restaurants in an area can give it more visibility, ultimately attracting more diners to every restaurant.

The Big Burrito Restaurant Group opened Casbah on Highland Avenue in 1995, before the Whole Foods opened or the premium PLCB store, and long before the East Liberty-Shadyside area became one of Pittsburgh's liveliest dining destinations.

"When we added Soba [in 1996], we felt like we were developing a neighborhood," said corporate executive chef Bill Fuller. Rather than just deciding to go to Casbah or to Soba, diners might just think of heading over to Shadyside, which is how Mr. Fuller believes a lot of people actually choose where to go out to dinner.

This spring, Big Burrito will open a Mad Mex restaurant just across the street from Casbah. Competition isn't likely to be an issue between the two restaurants, which are very different. But their proximity may open up new opportunities, especially for Mad Mex, Mr. Fuller said.

For example, the Shadyside Mad Mex might be able to offer more interesting drinks, because even if most customers just want to drink margaritas, the Mad Mex bar can borrow fresh herbs and other ingredients from the Casbah bar rather than stocking expensive ingredients that might not get used.

Mediouni felt comfortable opening up a second Ellsworth Street restaurant, because he felt the restaurants were different enough from each other -- Brasserie 33 is a French bistro, La Casa is a Moroccan and Spanish tapas bar. Both restaurants are also small, so they don't need to attract a huge number of customers each night to do well.

But sometimes even very similar restaurants can succeed in the same neighborhood. When Norraset Nareedokmai opened Silk Elephant in Squirrel Hill around the corner from his first restaurant, Bangkok Balcony, "everyone told him he was crazy and it would fail," said Eileen Nareedokmai, Norraset's wife and co-owner of the restaurants.

Five years later, both restaurants are still there, no small achievement in such a challenging industry.

"One of the big difficulties was to distinguish the two restaurants," said Mrs. Nareedokmai, adding that there have also been a lot of benefits to the restaurants' close proximity. Bangkok Balcony is on the second story up a steep flight of stairs. When accessibility becomes an issue, Mrs. Nareedokmai can often send diners to Silk Elephant instead.

If there's a wait at Silk Elephant on a Saturday night, they can sometimes offer diners an immediate seat at Bangkok Balcony, or vice versa.

If someone wants to hold a special event at one restaurant, Mrs. Nareedokmai will sometimes realize that the sister restaurant is more suited to their needs. "I'm able to go ahead and place that event at [the other restaurant] rather than losing the business," she said.