RESTAURANT SCENE
NATIONAL reach CORPORATE EXECUTIVE CHEF TONY GENTILE, PRESIDENT TOM ALLISMA, CEO NICK HOGAN AND COO ANTHONY HITCHCOCK
Dishing Up Unique Concepts
FLAGSHIP RESTAURANT GROUP EXPANDS NATIONAL PRESENCE In the 20 years since Omaha-based Flagship Restaurant Group opened Blue Sushi Sake Grill with a fun and new way to experience sushi, the four owners of the steadily growing corporation have expanded their creative dining experience mantra far from Omaha to include ventures in nine states, with 1,100-some employees, and all coordinated from a growing corporate office staff of 35 operating out of 8,200 square feet at 14450 Eagle Run Drive, Suite 100. Even those quarters are being remodeled in a $550,000 initiative that will include a 2,200-square-foot test kitchen that will employ five. Tony Gentile, corporate executive chef and one of Flagship’s four owners, said the meticulously designed test facility will invite even more creativity and menu development. “It will aid us in developing beverage and food programs for future [restaurant] concepts,” said Gentile, a Houston native who selected studying the culinary arts at the University of Houston over the other option his parents gave him after making messes on the kitchen floor at home. “The other option was joining the military,” he remembered.
Gentile is joined in Flagship Restaurant Group by Omaha native and CEO Nick Hogan, who has a law degree from the University of San Diego; Millard native and President Tom Allisma, who has architectural credentials from University of Nebraska-Lincoln; and COO Anthony Hitchcock, an Austin native and graduate of Houston’s Conrad Hilton College.
Expanded Reach At present, Flagship Restaurant Group operates 24 full-service locations and six fast-casual restaurants in nine states. In addition to Nebraska, the firm does business in Iowa, Illinois, Kentucky, Texas, Colorado, Ohio, Kansas and Indiana. Hogan, who first tried sushi while at the University of Arizona, said the opening of Flagship’s first Blue Sushi Sake Grill in 3,100 square feet above what is now the firm’s corporate offices in 2002 was quite memorable. “We were 27 or 28 years old at the time and it was wildly successful,” he said. “After 14 years in our original location, we moved just a few doors
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