Private-equity firm buys controlling stake in Noodles & Co.

Broomfield-based Noodles & Co. has sold a controlling stake in the chain to private-equity investment firm Catterton Partners of Greenwich, Conn.

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Restaurant analysts said the deal will allow Noodles, already on a fast growth curve, to open more outlets.
The chain operates in 18 states with 255 locations — more than twice the number of restaurants it owned five years ago. The first Noodles outlet opened in 1995 in Cherry Creek.

The company will continue to be based in Broomfield and will operate with the same management team.

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Restaurants won't be celebrating this New Years

The bubbly may sparkle on New Year's Eve at the nation's restaurants, but business itself is expected to be essentially flat — despite signs the economy is improving.

Nationwide, restaurants are expecting a 1% drop in patrons Dec. 31 compared to last year. That's about the same amount of decline in business for all of 2010, according to the NPD Group.

Todd Johnson, general manager of Lawry's the Prime Rib in Beverly Hills, said his restaurant is offering patrons a champagne toast at midnight, but no extravagant party.

"Eating out is for the most part discretionary income," Johnson said. "And discretionary income is pretty discretionary these days for many of us."

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Judge narrows Hilton race discrimination suit but allows it to move ahead

A federal judge has allowed the heart of a racial discrimination lawsuit by dozens of black guests against the Hilton Scranton & Conference Center to move forward.

The Dec. 20 ruling by Senior U.S. District Judge A. Richard Caputo granted the hotel's request for immediate dismissal of three civil rights claims, but left intact one claim because the 68 plaintiffs produced enough evidence to show they might have been victims of discrimination.

A trial is expected to start in February.

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Police seize 'tomahawk' suspect at Sydney Hilton

Police have arrested a man inside an upmarket Melbourne hotel who was earlier seen blood-soaked and allegedly carrying a tomahawk.
Heavily armed police wearing bullet-proof vests and helmets entered the Hilton Hotel on South Wharf this morning and arrested a 45-year-old Melbourne man who was staying as a guest.
The blood-soaked man holed himself up in a room at the Hilton after he reportedly attacked a car with a tomahawk.

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Police standoff at Oklahoma Clarion

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Oklahoma City Police are still trying to convince a man barricaded inside a hotel room to surrender, more than 12 hours after a standoff began.

The standoff started just after midnight Wednesday when officers went to The Clarion Hotel at N.W. 63rd Street and Robinson.  They were searching for a fugitive from Cleveland County, but it turned out that suspect was already back in jail.

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LaSalle bails on Chicago hotel plan

Bethesda-based LaSalle Hotel Properties has sold several floors in a landmark Chicago skyscraper it bought two years ago with the intention of converting it into a luxury hotel and will take a loss on the investment.

LaSalle, through a joint venture named Modern Magic Hotel LLC, acquired 12 floors of the 52-story IBM Building at 330 N. Wabash Ave. in March 2008 from Prime Group Realty Trust for $46 million. It was the majority stakeholder in the joint venture, with Oxford OG Hospitality Chicago holding a 5 percent stake.

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Baltimore Four Seasons hotel project moving ahead

Baltimore's $197 million Four Seasons Hotel is on target to open by late 2011 with partial financing from the proceeds of $45 million in tax-exempt bonds issued by the Maryland Industrial Development Financing Authority.

Representatives for the state and the hotel developers said PNC Bank is purchasing the state-issued bonds and that the proceeds will be loaned to the developer so that it can complete the 18-story, 256-room luxury hotel in Harbor East. Affiliates of John Paterakis' H&S Properties Development Corp. are the developers.

MIDFA held a public hearing on the bond sale Wednesday morning, and the settlement is scheduled for Thursday. According to H&S Vice President Michael Ricketts, the hotel project is expected to create 1,273 construction jobs and 577 full-time jobs.
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Another Montreal restaurant firebombed

The epidemic of suspicious fires in restaurants and coffee shops continued as the Café Calypso in Montreal North was hit by a firebomb just after midnight very early Wednesday morning.
The café, on Forest St. near the corner of Bellevois St., was empty at the time of the attack and no one was injured.
The attack took place at about 12:50 a.m. when a passerby saw some flames coming out of the building and quickly dialled 9-1-1. Firefighters required little time to get the fire under control, and the damage was limited to the furniture inside.
Firefighters noticed that a heavy object had been thrown through the window of the restaurant to facilitate throwing some sort of firebomb into the restaurant.

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Building to begin on $8.8 billion Mecca hotel project

The developer of a long-delayed $8.8 billion (Dh32 bn) project in the heart of Mecca has signed a deal to start construction on a large portion of the development.
Saudi Arabia's Jabal Omar Development said it awarded a 3.4 bn riyal ($908 million) contract to Nesma & Partners Construction for the first phase of the project, located on 23 hectares neighboring the Grand Mosque. Nesma was given a 24-month contract to start on a section of the project overlooking Ibrahim al Khalil Street, according to a statement Jabal Omar issued to the Saudi Arabia bourse yesterday.
Plans for the development call for at least three luxury hotels, hundreds of shops and air conditioned prayer facilities for 100,000 worshippers, as well as housing for 87,000 people.

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Luxury hotel for gay tourism to open in Mexican Caribbean region

Cancun –  A luxury hotel catering exclusively to the male gay tourist trade will open next month near the Tulum archaeological zone on Mexico's Riviera Maya, the facility's general director told Efe on Tuesday.
"The hotel is uniquely for men. That is to say, only homosexual couples are accepted, it's not for women, although among our personnel we have heterosexual men and women and all have received specialized training to avoid having our guests feel uncomfortable or discriminated against," Patrick Lurenz said.
He said that another prohibition will be on men entering the hotel with minors.
Lurenz said that the Adonis Tulum hotel, the first establishment of its kind in the state of Quintana Roo, is now in the last phase of remodeling prior to opening its doors to guests in January.

See related story

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A Hotel Mogul Gets a Reprieve

Kentucky hotelier Bill Yung III has found a solution to one of his debt problems just weeks after relinquishing control of 14 hotels to a lender, Blackstone Group LP.
Mr. Yung's Columbia Sussex Corp. has lined up loans from Barry Sternlicht's Starwood Capital Group totaling $206 million to replace debt that came due last July, the companies announced Tuesday. The deal means that 10 hotels pledged as collateral for those loans will remain with Columbia Sussex for another several years.
The loans from Starwood Capital include $192 million in a mortgage and mezzanine loan at an 8% interest rate. Those loans, maturing in January 2016, are tied to eight hotels. In addition, a $14 million, one-year bridge loan averaging a 12% interest rate is tied to two hotels.

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Hard Rock Hotel guest files suit alleging assault, defamation

A Las Vegas Hard Rock hotel-casino guest is suing the property, charging assault, defamation and false imprisonment over an Oct. 12 incident.
Las Vegas attorney Sigal Chattah said Monday the suit was filed in Clark County District Court in behalf of Ryan Maurer.
The suit says Maurer, a tourist from Minnesota, was awoken at 4 a.m. by hotel security and was detained over mistaken allegations of a domestic disturbance in the room. Maurer says there was no disturbance since he was alone in the room. Maurer says Metro Police later advised him he was being evicted for "failure to comply" and that he was arrested for trespassing.

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Hotel for the dead opens in Tokyo

TOKYO, Dec. 27 (UPI) -- A Tokyo non-profit has opened a storage facility for corpses awaiting funerals. It's billed as a "business hotel for the dead."
The LISS Center Shin-Kiba facility, which is run by funeral-arranging non-profit LISS System, can store up to 37 bodies in rooms with antibacterial lights, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported Monday.
The rooms cost $88 per night and the center also offers assistance with arranging for morticians and setting up funerals.

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Michelin Inspectors: Food Industry Spies

A chef's toughest critic isn't the woman at the corner table who sent back her cod, or the man at table five nibbling on a steak tartar appetizer -- unless one of them is a Michelin inspector. Chances are, they'll never know.

The super secret spies of the restaurant industry, Michelin inspectors are the anonymous, incorruptible keepers of the coveted Michelin star rating. They've been writing anonymous reports of restaurants for over 100 years.
"We say it's a little like the CIA," said inspector "M," with a laugh. She asked that her identity not be revealed. "My whole life is staying under the radar, staying away from cameras, using fake names, trying to sneak in and out of restaurants unnoticed."

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Mich. woman can sue over toilet paper dispenser

Image via WikipediaA Michigan woman says she can't work or crochet and her bowling game has suffered since her right hand was broken by a toilet paper dispenser in a restaurant bathroom.

The Michigan Supreme Court, in a 4-3 order, has refused to throw out Sheri Schooley's lawsuit against Texas Roadhouse in suburban Detroit. Liberal justices were in the majority in a decision that raises questions about what businesses need to do to protect themselves from liability in strange situations.

Schooley, 58, acknowledged it's a "bizarre story." She and her husband were out for dinner on New Year's Eve 2007 when she visited the restroom.

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