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Tuesday, October 13, 1998
Puck's partner learns on the job
By Monica Caruso
Review-Journal
Tom Kaplan planned from an early age to become an architect, starting as a toddler with construction projects made from toy building blocks, and later, earning a college degree in art history, visual arts and environmental studies.
But the national recession of 1980 and a fateful business dealing with now-famous chef Wolfgang Puck changed the course of Kaplan's life.
The Connecticut native is managing partner of Puck's Spago and Chinois upscale restaurants at The Forum Shops at Caesars and he's overseeing plans for additional Puck restaurants at new megaresorts going up on the Strip.
He's also involved in the other restaurants owned by Puck and wife, interior designer Barbara Lazaroff. In addition to management duties, he handles public relations and philanthropic endeavors on behalf of the company.
"I became infatuated with the restaurant business working with Wolfgang and Barbara," Kaplan recalled of the 1981 experience helping the couple with design work on the Ma Maison restaurant in Los Angeles.
"I decided to forget about architecture. I was disillusioned with architecture because of the recession. I had friends coming out of school and they couldn't get jobs. They were lucky if they were working as draftsmen."
Kaplan has no formal training in restaurant management other than a stint as a college fraternity dishwasher.
"I was a wrestler in high school and college. I didn't know the first thing about fine food and wine."
He learned his trade the old-fashioned way, with on-the-job training under the tutelage of Puck and other restaurant executives. Kaplan fared so well that six years after joining the company, he was named a partner.
"I liked what I was doing. I liked dealing with people. I liked the restaurant business," he said of his success.
Kaplan was a key player in the Puck group's decision to open Spago at The Forum Shops at Caesars in 1992.
Forum Shops co-developer Sheldon Gordon was a Spago's customer in California and he wanted the restaurant to be a part of the then-under development retail center, Kaplan said.
"Wolfgang wasn't too interested at first because Las Vegas was known for cheap buffets and fast food. The hotels had control over restaurants. But I sat down with Sheldon and I was really interested in his idea. I saw that the city was changing...that the way things were done was changing," he recalled of the 1990 presentation by Gordon.
Also, Kaplan regarded Las Vegas as a great food town, with excellent restaurants at hotels such as Caesars Palace and scattered throughout the community.
Ignoring naysayers, Puck went forward with a Spago in Las Vegas. It ranks as the company's top grossing restaurant with annual sales of nearly $12 million.
The success of Spago convinced local hotel executives they could turn over some restaurant operations to outsiders without sacrificing customer service, Kaplan said.
It also prompted the Puck group to open a pizza eatery at the MGM Grand and Chinois at The Forum Shops.
Spago is widely regarded as the first in a new wave of high-end eateries in Las Vegas.
The wave included Mark Miller's Coyote Cafe and Emeril LaGasse's New Orleans Fish House, both in the MGM Grand, and Jean-Louie Palladin's Napa at the Rio, to name a few.
Puck plans to have a restaurant at The Venetian, which is under construction on the Strip, and an Italian restaurant at the South Seas-themed Mandalay Bay, opening on the Strip on March 1.
Chef Charlie Palmer, whose Aureole in New York City often receives top ratings from the Zagat travel guide, plans to open a restaurant at Mandalay Bay, which will have 15 restaurants.
"We're seeing an evolution," Kaplan said of the upscale restaurants coming to town. "In the next 18 months, we're going to see another 18 fine dining restaurants."
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Restaurateur Tom Kaplan, who parlayed a degree in art history and background that includes a job as a frat house dishwasher, stands outside Chinois, a tony restaurant at The Forum Shops at Caesars Palace in which he serves as a managing partner with Wolfgang Puck.
Photo by Steve Andrascik/Review-Journal
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