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Truffles' parent, Gourmet Market Inc., has signed a licensing agreement that allows the chain Ruby Tuesday to operate restaurants in Truffles' name.
Ruby Tuesday plans to convert up to three of its lower-performing restaurants to Truffles in fiscal year 2011 and could add many more.
The first of those conversions is under way in the Buckhead section of Atlanta and should be done in mid-November, Beall said. Truffles' Facebook page indicates another is in the works in south Florida.
Beall called the agreement "the opportunity of a lifetime" for Truffles.
"To be replicated by a national chain that has the ability to put them all over the place, that's the ultimate compliment," he said.
Truffles is an upscale cafe with two locations on Hilton Head Island and one in Bluffton. Its menu includes soups, salads, sandwiches, chicken pot pie, fried shrimp, pasta, ribs, steaks and desserts.
Beall opened a location in Sea Pines in 1983, one in Bluffton's Belfair Towne Village in 2000 and one on Hilton Head's Pope Avenue in 2007.
Beall's brother is Ruby Tuesday CEO Samuel Beall, but the company was primarily interested in Truffles because it serves fresh, high-quality food at a good value, Ruby Tuesday spokesman Rick Johnson said.
The company hopes to boost business by replacing some of its 600-plus Ruby Tuesday restaurants with new brands. The company has similar plans to convert other Ruby Tuesday locations to Jim 'N Nick's,an Alabama-based barbecue restaurant with a location in Bluffton, and Wok Hay,a Tennessee-based fast-casual Asian restaurant Ruby Tuesday acquired in 2008.
Ruby Tuesday will evaluate which locations to convert based on factors such as business and population density, household income and the number of various types of restaurants nearby, Johnson said.
"As part of our strategy to find ways to get more sales and profits out of existing assets and in part due to the placement of certain of our Ruby Tuesday concept restaurants in hyper-competitive markets, our plans for fiscal 2011 include a test as to whether we can successfully grow sales and profits by converting certain existing Ruby Tuesday restaurants into other concepts," the company said in a recent regulatory filing.
Gourmet Market will receive 2 percent of gross sales of any Truffles opened by Ruby Tuesday, according to the filing. Gourmet Market has the option to terminate future development rights if Ruby Tuesday does not operate 18 or more Truffles restaurants within five years or 40 or more within 10 years. Beall will be a consultant for the company as part of the agreement.
Beall credited Truffles managers and employees for the deal, saying he considers it "a compliment to everyone that works for us."
"They're the ones that make us shine," Beall said. "It's through them that this opportunity has come to us."
Ann-Marie Adams, executive director of the Hilton Head Hospitality Association, said the deal is another in Beall's "string of successes."
"That would be the dream of any small entrepreneur who has launched a flourishing business," she said.
