Spartan Profiles: Philip Hickey Jr.
RARE HOSPITALITY
The name of the company might be RARE Hospitality International, but the Atlanta-based company’s chain restaurants are becoming anything but rare—more than 170 Longhorn Steakhouses, 23 Bugaboo Creek Steak Houses and 15 The Capital Grilles, generating $600 million a year in sales, have emerged since the company’s founding in 1982.
“We’re considered one of the best in the business,” says Philip Hickey, Jr., ’77, chairman and CEO. “Our goal is not to be the biggest, but to be the best of our class. I expect that we’ll reach $1 billion in four to five years.”
Hickey knows the restaurant business, having previously headed up Rio Bravo International, Inc., and Houlihans, and co-founded Cooker. “I got my career start working two and half years in food service at Shaw Hall when I was a student,” recalls Phil. “Chuck Gagliano was one of my bosses. My experience at MSU gave me some pragmatic and business-related insights. Many restaurants fail because they don’t understand you have to make a profit. At MSU I studied accounting and hotel management and my work experience all allowed my to integrate everything.”
A huge MSU basketball fan, Phil says in his Longhorn Steakhouse in Troy he keeps a wine cabinet for Tom Izzo “right next to my own cabinet, so if he ever happens to show up, the wine’s on me.” He went to all three of Izzo’s “Final Four” appearances. “Right after we won it all in Indianapolis, my son told me that Izzo would be at a mall doing an interview with Dick Vitale,” he recalls. “So we went there at 1 a.m. and I had a chance to talk to Tom. I’m sure he doesn’t remember it.”
Hickey currently serves on the Board of Advisors for MSU’s The School of Hospitality Business and remembers being in the first class taught by Mike Kasavana and Ray Schmidgall, two icons of the hospitality business. “Our hospitality program is on a great rebuilding trail under the leadership of Ron Cichy,” he notes. “Our best days are ahead.”