Top Guns and Top Dollars

Restaurant Innovator Phillip J. Romano, Trump CEO Mark A. Brown to Share Billion-Dollar Know-How at

• 
  SAVE
• 
  SHARE
• 
  TEXT SIZE
• 
  PRINT
• 
  COMMENT
• 
  PDF

. October 14, 2008

OXFORD, MS, June 13, 2005. Two of the hospitality industry's top guns are among the star attractions for the East Coast launch of the Nightclub & Bar Convention and Trade Show this fall.

Phillip J. Romano, a bar and restaurant innovator whose concepts have generated more than $10 billion in sales, and Mark A. Brown, the affable executive handpicked by Donald J. Trump to be president and chief executive officer of his Trump Hotels and Casinos, will be keynote speakers at the Atlantic City Nightclub & Bar Show Oct. 10-12. Romano, whose success in the beverage and food industry has been chronicled by such media giants as Fortune magazine and CBS, has created more than 25 major restaurant concepts, including Fuddruckers, Romano's Macaroni Grill, Spageddies, Cozymel's, Rudy's Country Store and BBQ and eatZi's Market & Bakery. He is said to be the only person to create six highly successful national restaurant concepts that continue to produce $1 billion in sales each year.

Fuddruckers has opened units in more than 150 locations worldwide, and Romano's Macaroni Grill operates in more than 190 locations in the United States and abroad. His Dallas-based company, Romano Concepts, also owns and operates Nick & Sam's Steakhouse, Who's Who Burgers, and Hunger Busters - a charity group Romano founded which currently feeds more than 70,000 homeless people per year.

Brown, a 41-year-old Atlantic City native and a 23-year veteran of the New Jersey casino and hotel industry, was selected by Chairman of the Board Donald J. Trump as "the natural and best choice to lead the Trump properties into a new era of financial success.

"Mark possesses great leadership skills and keen marketing savvy," Trump said. "Armed with this powerful combination, I am confident that he will make the Trump properties live up to and exceed the standards of excellence that are synonymous with the 'Trump' name."

Since joining the Trump organization in 1989 as part of the team that opened the Trump Taj Mahal Casino, and later as vice president of casino operators and president and chief operating officer of Trump Marina, Brown is credited with creating a strong allegiance of highly qualified and loyal employees. He assumed the position of president and chief operating officer of Trump Taj Mahal in December 1999, where he has continued to build on his reputation throughout the industry as "the man you want to work for."

In launching its second national show in Atlantic City (AC 2005), Nightclub & Bar magazine is bringing the concept of its highly successful Las Vegas Show, held each spring, to the East Coast to provide a fresh draw for exhibitors and attendees alike. As the largest beverage and food show in the Western Hemisphere, the Las Vegas show annually attracts owners, managers and other professionals from bars, nightclubs, restaurants, hotels, ! casinos and other hospitality venues.

"Atlantic City offers a unique opportunity to expand our show on the East Coast," said Jennifer Robinson, COO of Oxford Publishing Inc., the parent company of Nightclub & Bar magazine. "It has the right connection to all major cities and has an excitement which is only secondary to Las Vegas. With the vast population of bars, nightclubs, hotels, restaurants and casinos in the area, we feel that it is the perfect place to build a foundation to showcase our education, exhibits and events." Robinson said that although many of the same programs offered in Vegas also will be showcased in Atlantic City, this new launch "will be a unique show all to its own."

The Trump Taj Mahal will host AC 2005. A few topics slated for the program include courses on waterfront marketing, bolstering food and beverage business, increasing interest in high-end beer lines, implementing accurate security plans and creating awareness of the importance of design in a venue. Many Nightclub & Bar Editors'Choice Top 100speakers also will be on-hand to once again offer their successful and unsurpassed adviceon various topics within the food and beverage industry.

In addition to producing the hemisphere's largest beverage and food show, Oxford Publishing Inc. publishes the industry's leading national trade magazines, including Nightclub &Bar and Beer Wine & Spirits Beverage Retailer. The two publications reach a total circulation of more than 50,000 beverage and food industry professionals.