Lazlo’s Brewery & Grill is closing its doors

Just 15 months after opening its doors with the jubilation of a promising new business in a promising new commercial subdivision, Lazlo’s Brewery & Grill is closing in Fremont.

Scott Miller, president and chief operating officer of Telesis Inc., which owns Lazlo’s, said in a released statement that the restaurant “just simply didn’t produce the results to a level required for us to continue.”

Lazlo’s will close as of Monday, information released by the company stated.

“This was a very difficult decision for us given the many wonderful relationships we developed in the Fremont community,” Miller continued in the released statement. “We have appreciated the commitment of our employees and wish to thank the many loyal customers who frequented Lazlo’s.”

The restaurant opened in the Deer Pointe commercial subdivision in July 2006, touting some firsts for the company. It was the first time any of the Lazlo’s restaurants opened in a new building. At the company’s first groundbreaking ceremony in October 2005, Miller said all the other restaurants at that point were opened in existing buildings.

It also featured geothermal heating and cooling, 150 wells �” little holes �” dug 250 feet deep with an elaborate piping system.

Miller said on the telephone this morning that it wasn’t an easy decision to close the Fremont restaurant.

“There are a lot of factors that go into why things don’t work and do work in the restaurant business,” he said. “This is the first Lazlo’s we’ve had to close or modify, and we’ve been in business for 15 years. It’s a tough business. Fortunately, we have some flagship restaurants in Lincoln that are doing well. Our restaurant in Omaha is doing well.”

The Fremont restaurant employs 45 people, and Miller said most of them are being asked to stay onboard to help with the closing process.

“We’d also like to retain as many as possible. We have an Omaha location that not far from Fremont, just 25 minutes away,” he said.

Employees were told about the decision to close the restaurant Wednesday night, he said. Shortly thereafter, a four paragraph press release was sent out.

“We wanted to be the ones to tell it,” he said. “We didn’t want rumors flying everywhere.”

The decision to close the restaurant that sits along Rawhide Creek was made Friday, Miller said.

“This is not something we want to have happen, but it’s part of the business. Statistically, one in eight restaurants fail in the first year. This one ran its course. It wasn’t returning what we needed it to. We needed a certain volume level. That wasn’t there. We kept coming back to our concept. Was our concept developed enough to appeal to a Fremont market? We spent a lot of time tweaking here and there, but we never found that magic bullet to turn it around.

“We started out of the gate pretty good, but that was also around John C. Fremont Days. We had a couple of weeks where sales were phenomenal, but you always do when you open a new restaurant. That’s the honeymoon period. It took a while for that to fall into a routine where sales wouldn’t be what they should. There just comes a point where you have to decide if it’s a good business decision to keep going.”

They hit that point on Friday, he said.

As for the building, company officials haven’t made plans yet, but they will likely sell the building.

“It’s pretty unique. It will take the right customer, or it will take a lot of retrofitting.”