Puck swallows Cucina chain; no major changes or closures planned at area restaurants

Cucina! Cucina!, the Bellevue-based chain of casual Italian restaurants, has joined the culinary empire of celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck.

Puck's privately held company, Wolfgang Puck Worldwide of Beverly Hills, Calif., said yesterday that it had acquired 15 Cucina! Cucina! restaurants and seven quick-casual Cucina! Presto! outlets.

No closures or major changes are planned for the chain, which will keep the Cucina name. Most of the restaurants are in Washington, with two in Oregon and four in California. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed.

Puck already operates a Wolfgang Puck Cafe in downtown Seattle, but the Cucina deal gives the company a much larger presence in the Northwest as it looks to expand nationally. The company's Wolfgang Puck Express division has lined up licensing agreements with partners from Hawaii to the East Coast as part of a push to grow to 300 restaurants within the next five years.

"In the Northwest in particular, it's very difficult to get the prime locations on the waterfront and in the high-traffic areas that they (Cucina) have accumulated," said Rob Kautz, president and chief executive of Wolfgang Puck Worldwide. "This really was a strategic decision for us."

The Cucina sale does not affect Schwartz Bros. Restaurants, from which Cucina! Cucina! was spun off in 1994.

Cucina! Cucina! Headquarters: Bellevue Founded: 1988 Outlets: Fifteen casual-dining restaurants in Washington, Oregon and California, and seven quick-casual Cucina! Presto! diners in the Seattle area.

The Cucina restaurants will be run as a separate division of Wolfgang Puck Worldwide and will continue to be based in Bellevue. Bill Schwartz, Cucina's chairman, said almost all of Cucina's 975 employees will keep their jobs, with the exception of a few administrative positions.

Schwartz Bros., founded by brothers Bill and John Schwartz, is the parent company for Daniel's Broiler, Chandler's Crabhouse and Spazzo Mediterranean Grill, as well as a bakery, box-lunch service and catering business.

The first Cucina! Cucina! restaurant opened in 1988 on South Lake Union and was an instant hit, packed with customers by 7 p.m. on most nights. In the early 1990s, the Schwartzes secured millions in private financing and began pursuing plans for a public stock offering.

Those plans never materialized, though the chain eventually grew to 19 Cucina! Cucina! restaurants and 16 Cucina! Presto! locations at its peak in 1998. But toward the end of that year, the company began to close restaurants in Phoenix and Denver. "We just opened up in too many places at the same time," Bill Schwartz said.

"We didn't have the following in those different markets versus what we had in the Northwest."

Schwartz said Cucina has remained profitable in the Northwest and generated more than $40 million in sales last year.

"We failed in the sense of going national and going public," Schwartz said.

"But if it's any solace, we are still well respected in the Northwest and pretty much own the market for casual Italian. We accomplished that, anyway."

Puck opened two restaurants in downtown Seattle in 1997: the Wolfgang Puck Cafe on First Avenue across from the Seattle Art Museum and a more formal restaurant, ObaChine, on Sixth Avenue. ObaChine closed in 1999.

Jake Batsell: 206-464-2718 or jbatsell@seattletimes.com.