Ted's vision - eat more bison
Turner's Western diners serve it 6,000 times a day
By Rachel Brand, Rocky Mountain News
January 25, 2005
A string of Western-theme diners may have transformed a novelty meat into a blue-plate special.
Live bison prices have nearly tripled this year, and the public's hunger for the lean, tangy meat is growing as it shows up on menus and in grocery stores.
Experts credit media mogul Ted Turner and his eponymous restaurant chain, Ted's Montana Grill.
"Ted's was the trendsetter," said Dave Carter, executive director of the National Bison Association. "One of the things we've said for a long time is we needed a good way to get people to take their first bite.
"They're going into Ted's, trying it the first time. It tastes great, and then we are seeing an increase in demand for our other marketers."
To clarify, it is bison, not buffalo. Dark brown, thick-shouldered bison have short, U-shaped horns. They roamed the North American plains and were nearly hunted to extinction at the turn of the century until ranchers and national parks worked to bring them back.
Turner is the largest landowner in the United States, and he owns 70,000 of the estimated 250,000 North American bison alive today.
Turner, who founded 24-hour Cable News Network, has been called a visionary. After all, who expected CNN to work?
"I prefer to let other people call me that," Turner said with a molasses-laced Georgia drawl. He was in town Monday to visit his restaurants and attend the National Bison Association's annual meeting.
Still, his quirky investment in the American bison and a series of bison diners might have been visionary - or a shrewd business plan to create a market for a product he owns.
Two-year-old Ted's Montana Grill sells 6,000 bison-based meals a day, and bison cheeseburgers are by far its most popular dish. The 31-restaurant chain will earn $70 million in sales and add 15 stores this year.
The company has five restaurants in the metro area. Its most popular restaurant is in Littleton's Aspen Grove shopping center, and the Larimer Square restaurant in downtown Denver saw 20 percent sales growth last year.
"The people in Denver really like us," Turner said.
Bison ranchers also like him. Thanks in part to Ted's, bison prices are climbing.
Bison heifers sold for $1,600 at a premier stock sale last weekend, up from $519 last year. Yearling bulls sold for $2,388, up from $1,043 in 2004. Also, the wholesale price per pound for bison rose 27 percent to $1.65 in a year.
"There's a tremendous amount of confidence coming back into the business," Carter said.
Carter estimates bison consumption at 0.07 pounds per person vs. 63 pounds for beef.
"We call that upside potential," he said.
Chef2Chef News Desk