While many restaurateurs are carefully re-examining hours and staffing levels to save on costs, one restaurant is reacting to an increased demand and extending dinnertime hours.

Hell's Kitchen, the Twin Cities most-booked restaurant (according to independent industry sources) will now extend dinner hours to 11pm on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays (and 10pm other days).

Our staff had mentioned that concert and theatre-goers wanted to have dinner after the shows, explained Tony Perella, GM and Operating Partner, but when I personally saw the look on the faces of diners I had to turn away, I realized it was time to make the leap and join other restaurants already offering late night service."

Making that leap wasn't exactly as easy as it sounds for the locally-owned restaurant. Perella explained. "Our huge space also offers live music til 2am, so we had to make sure customers understand they could enjoy the louder music/club atmosphere in one partof Hell's Kitchen, or enjoy a relaxed, quiet dinner in the opposite side of our underground lair."

Hells Kitchen is one of the Midwest's most booked restaurants, according to data provided by independent reservation companies. OpenTable, which handled the restaurant's reservation system until last year, commented that Hell's Kitchen processed more reservations than even most Manhattan restaurants, and Tim Ryan of Eveve (their current provider) agreed, saying "When we saw the numbers, we were quite stunned. At this point, Hell's Kitchen has more online bookings than any of our other 2,100 restaurant clients in the world."

Perella is more modest at the restaurant's success. "Not so fast," he points out, "Don't forget,with breakfast, lunch and dinner, we're running morning, noon and well into the night seven days a week. On weekends, our doors only closed for 4 hours."

Established in 2002, Hell's Kitchen, locally grown and fiercely independent, is celebrating surviving a decade in business by offering a year-long series of customer and staff appreciation events.

Contact:

Hell's KitchenCynthia Gerdes cyn@hellskitcheninc.com (cell: 612-867-1919)

Pat Forciea, Director of Marketing pat@hellskitcheninc.com (cell: 612 990 2581)

80 S. 9th Street Minneapolis, MN 55402

Phone: (612)332-4700www.HellsKitchenInc..com

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