With

The Baywatch Café

Michael Berk, co-creator and executive producer of the TV show,

reveals that the first Baywatch Cafes in a planned national rollout will

open this year at The Venetian Hotel Resort Casino in Las Vegas

and on Miami’s famed South Beach.

By Keith Alan Deutsch

Although Baywatch reaches an estimated 5.7 billion TV viewers in 148 countries worldwide, Michael Berk told E.S.P. that he and his partners on the Baywatch Cafe project “want to keep a low profile.” Good luck.

Although Berk, who is executive producer, often a writer, and co-creator of the show, has managed to keep the lid on hard information about Baywatch Cafe, the press has been filled with rumors and misinformation since the themed restaurant concept was announced on December 16, 1998.

With Mr. Berk’s assistance, E.S.P. is pleased to set the record straight on the Baywatch Cafe story: Michael Berk and David Hasselhoff, the star of the TV show, formed World Entertainment Ltd. LLC. with a number of partners late in 1998 to develop and run the Baywatch Cafes, Restaurants, and Nightclubs internationally. The new company is headquartered in Las Vegas where Berk and most of the Baywatch Cafe team reside. But don’t try to contact them; they are not listed in any Vegas or Nevada directories. World Entertainment Ltd. is keeping a low profile. Berk, Hasselhoff, and associates including Las Vegans Tod Bodensteiner, John Thall, Jimmy Comito, and Roger Peltyn joined together and divided their responsiblities by talent and experience for the venture.

“John Thall, who is World Entertainment’s president, is a real hands-on guy,” Berk told us. Thall, who spent the last seven years as a Planet Hollywood executive and before that worked for the Hard Rock organization, was made president and primary spokesperson for World Entertainment because of his extensive restaurant background. (Larry Spatz, who Berk did not mention, is listed as World Entertainment’s ceo).

“Jimmy Comito is our real estate expert,” Berk explained. “We all bring some special strength to the project. Hasselhoff has been considering the concept for years. He’s very involved in creating the look and feel of the venues.”

Berk told us that he “couldn’t discuss financing,” except to say it involved “private placement.” E.S.P. has found out, from reliable independent sources, that the Southern Nevada businessmen/investors on the team, including Bodensteiner, Comito, and Peltyn, got together with Hasselhoff and Berk to secure the financing --and put together a major licensing agreement with British-based Pearson PLC, which owns The Financial Times, The Economist, and syndicates the Baywatch TV show worldwide. According to Daily Variety, Pearson TV is part of a 20-year license deal with World Entertainment to open a minimum of four domestic units. And Berk tells us that other deals are pending in a number of countries for locations around the world.

“We know we are bucking the trend with theme restaurants, but

we think we are in a unique position with a unique property, and we intend to avoid the mistakes of those who have gone before us”

When John Thall gave his first interviews back in December of 1998, it was a very bad time for themed restaurants. Because of plunging restaurant sales, Planet Hollywood was selling off of its new headquarters in Orlando, Florida (and a New York restaurant) to pay off unhappy creditors. Thall was so pressed by events, pushy reporters, and doom-saying leisure industry analysts like Ladenburg Thalman, that he was even repeatedly quoted as saying of the Baywatch Cafe concept: “We’re not a theme restaurant.”

“Look,” Berk told us, “theme restaurants generally are not doing well, and they’re getting a bad rap. You can’t believe a lot of what the press has said about us because there’s so much news hype around Baywatch.

“Of course we’re a theme restaurant, and we know we are bucking the trend with theme restaurants, but we think we are in a unique position with a unique property, and we intend to avoid the mistakes of those who have gone before us.” Berk and the Baywatch Cafe team remain confident for a number of reasons. “Baywatch has extraordinary demographics,” Berk notes. “Our appeal is the broadest of any TV show in the history of the medium. Young, old, all classes. We start with the advantage of that broad demographic appeal and a worldwide viewing audience of close to 6 billion fans. That is some foundation to build on.” No argument there! So we interrupted, and asked the producer why the show had such enormous appeal.

“One of the reasons the show is so popular,” Berk told us, “ is that it is sexy, but wholesome. We intend to use our healthy, wholesome sex appeal as the foundation of our restaurant beach theme. Our venues will be a beach environment. There will be sand on the floor, a section with a boardwalk. A video wall will create immersive scenes of famous beaches from around the world. We will emphasize the healthy lifestyle aspects of living in a beach community with various sport- related pro body health and exercise. Our staff will be extraordinarily attractive in a sexy but very health-conscious way. Our food will also be simple, nutritious and healthy.”

We began to see the lifestyle trends and strategy behind the concept. The Baywatch venues will not merely depend and be themed on the costumes, story lines, and celebrities of the TV show, but depend more on the underlying lifestyle and beach leisure themes from which the show draws its popularity.

Berk added: “We do not intend to create a Baywatch museum with paraphernalia from the show on the walls. And we’re not dependent on a celebrity, or characters from the TV show. Our staff will be dressed in beach wear, but not the show’s red jackets and red swimsuits. We’re more about the fun of the beach and water environment than about a TV show’s environment. But like the show, the venues will promote the healthy and exciting and fun lifestyle associated with beach communities.”

Berk emphasized again and again that the theme of the Baywatch restaurants transcended the television show and that the intrinsic strategy of the environment depended on the sexy but healthy appeal of the beach with an emphasis on sports and exercise, and simple but nutritious food. “We have no intention to make our success on merchandising clothing and collectibles from the show. We will not depend on marketing tie-ins to the television property.” So Baywatch is not going to be a museum like Hard Rock Cafe, nor is it going to be a merchandising vehicle exploiting its mother TV property like Star Trek The Experience and bar, restaurant, and theme merchandise shop at the Las Vegas Hilton. Although they will be attractive and sexy, the waiters and waitresses will have a look that emphasizes healthy lifestyles more than hyperactive libidos, Berk told us. “We want to attract families. We want our restaurants to have as broad an appeal as the TV show.”

The Baywatch Cafe team has a plan to make these ambitious goals come true. The core concept is made of three variations: 1) A Baywatch Cafe for casual dining and drinking which Berk tells us will be based on casual beaches like the famous Venice Beach and boardwalk; 2) a Baywatch Seafood Co. Restaurant for special occasion and family meals, based on the more glamorous and conservative upscale style of beach communities like Malibu; and 3) a sexy Baywatch Nightclub with live entertainment and specially-created and exclusive videotaped shows that will create the excitement and sense of unique event of the more exclusive entertainment haunts of New York, Los Angeles, and Europe. Attire for all three segments of the concept-- the cafe, the restaurant, and the nightclub-- will be variations on casual. All presentations will be “comfortable environments where patrons can take off their shoes and walk in the sand. “Of course,” Berk explained, “the restaurant will be more conservative, and the night club will be sexier, and the staff attire there will reflect that difference.”

Berk added this strategic observation: “The three-part strategy not only allows us to target different segments of our broad audience base, it also allows us to be flexible to meet the needs of the locations where we site each venue. Let’s look at our first two openings. We have a waterfront location on South Beach in Miami, Florida that will only accommodate our restaurant and cafe plans. It is zoned for entertainment dancing, but not a major night club. It should open before the summer is over. That will be our flagship small-site concept. Small-site concepts will run about 7,000 to 8,000 sq. ft. wherever we locate them.

“Most of the theme restaurant developers who came before us made two mistakes.

They didn’t pay enough attention to the food. And they expanded too fast “

“Then we have our flagship large-site concept opening in a major hotel resort casino in Las Vegas with the Seafood Co. Restaurant, the Baywatch Cafe, and our very exciting and unique Baywatch Nightclub. We’d like these large sites to run between 50,000 and 60,000 sq. ft., but it can work at 25,000 to 30,000 sq. ft. if need be.”

The primary strategy for the larger sites is to locate them in major hotel properties connected to resorts. Berk spoke openly, “Look, we know that many themed entertainment operations are facing serious challenges, like the ill-fated All Star Cafes. In Vegas, the strip is struggling. So we decided to place our larger venues that include our Baywatch Nightclubs in very glamorous, high- traffic, resort hotel settings.” E.S.P. has since been told by reliable independent sources that the Vegas Baywatch Cafe and Night Club will open at the Venetian Resort Hotel and Casino. “A major Hawaiian Beach Hotel would be just right for the larger concept with the Baywatch Nighclub attached to a resort on the islands,” Berk said. “There has never been a brand name night club chain. House of Blues is a great late night entertainment center, but we have something very different in mind. Remember, we have a tremendous international market. We’re thinking of resort hotels on the beach on the Riviera, for example. In the U.S.A., only major cities with large tourist numbers make sense to us. So there will only be five or six larger Baywatch Nightclub operations in America. Vegas seems to us to be the perfect location for our flagship Nightclub operation.”

“Our restaurants have as broad an appeal as the TV show.

Only a limited number of the venues will have nightclubs,
where the atmosphere will be sexier“

Berk also explained that domestically the World Entertainment group intended to own all the Baywatch properties, but for the foreign locations they will license the operations. Although Daily Variety reports that Pearson TV will be in on the first four units to open in the States, Berk would not reveal the developers likely to license and open the first foreign locations.

According to Berk, the Baywatch Night Clubs will be very special entertainment and music places. First, there will be dancing to live music. Second, Berk has negotiated with major record companies for important recording stars to perform concerts at the Baywatch Nightclubs.

Berk emphasized the importance of music to the concept. “We feel that Baywatch is a music- driven property. In addition to dancing to live music and live concerts, we are also going to provide something unique and exclusive. We have worked out deals with the record companies to create and present 400 original music videos for an ongoing Music Video Show. This won’t be prerecorded music. And it won’t be presented on any video screen that has ever been used before. We are also in negotiation with Sony’s Imax, among others, to provide us new wrap-around wall video environments to provide the changing beach scene environments that immerse our guests and that will present the video shows like no other venue can.”

Berk acknowledged that the food was also key to the success of the concept. “The way we see it,” Berk spoke for the whole World Entertainment team, “most of the theme restaurant developers who came before us made two mistakes. They didn’t pay enough attention to the food. And they created terrible problems for themselves because they expanded much too fast.”

Berk said that the seafood menu for the American Baywatch Seafood Co. Restaurants would be closely based on the popular Gladstones restaurant in Los Angeles. Usual fare would include a raw bar. “We are relying a lot on our food for our success,” Berk admitted. “We have planned a simple and easy to prepare menu. We believe that fast delivery time is extremely important to this kind of operation’s success. But in keeping with our healthy lifestyle theme, we also believe our food must be wholesome, high quality, and interesting. We are not planning a hamburgers and ribs kind of thing.”

“The Baywatch venues will depend more on the

underlying lifestyle and beach leisure themes “

By late summer Berk expects the 7,500-sq. ft. South Beach operations in Miami, and the 50,000- sq. ft. Venetian Resort Hotel operation in Vegas to be up and running. A third unit, of undisclosed size, is scheduled to open late this fall in Chicago. Further American expansion will be prudent, according to Berk, with plans for three more units in 2000. New York City and Los Angeles are favored among the next targets for this expansion, according to reliable sources.

European menus, entertainment strategies, and expansion plans remain flexible and not tied to the American development strategies. “Baywatch is a global phenomenon and property,” says Berk. “That is one of our great strengths. We appeal to so many international markets. Our individual strategies will be targeted to the countries and locations where we license the concept as we open around the world.”

For more information, contact:

World Entertainment and Baywatch Cafes, Seafood Co. Restaurants and Nightclubs, 1105 Enderly Lane, Las Vegas, NV 89134;

(phone/fax) 702-242-4495.