Category：Small Business Story 

A Home Run Concept

As told to Darren Dahl    Monday, January 29, 2007

Jeff Dudum started living every San Francisco Giants fan's dream three years ago when he teamed up with his godfather, Hall of Famer Willie McCovey, to open a baseball memorabilia-filled restaurant in California. With the success of McCovey's, Dudum realized that his restaurant concept could work for just about any high-profile celebrity. For fans, it's a winning proposition: Why trudge around a boring museum when you can have a hearty meal and pay tribute to your favorite athlete or singer instead? Dudum has since expanded his growing restaurant empire by partnering with the families of Bing Crosby, Joe DiMaggio, and, most recently, Chris Webber, who currently plays for the NBA's Detroit Pistons.

"When Willie came out to San Francisco in 1959 to play for the Giants, he met my grandfather. My grandfather and father ran a textile business and all the baseball players came to them to furnish their houses. My father and Willie were the same age and became close friends.

"I was 13 when Willie got inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1986. That's when I told him I wanted to open a restaurant with him. He told me to go graduate college and then we would talk. After I finished school, I opened six restaurants and bars in the Walnut Creek, Calif., area to learn both the food and beverage industries. Then I went back to Willie and told him it was time. He said yes.

"We opened up McCovey's in September 2003. It got a lot of buzz because the building is the spitting image of San Francisco's [AT&T] Park. We filled it with memorabilia from Willie's playing days. He told me it was the nicest dedication to the sport he'd seen in his life. It's the only museum that encourages you to eat next to the art.

"After our success, some people in the industry thought we were lucky. They wondered if we could duplicate it. That's when we approached Bing Crosby's family. We got them very excited. We opened up Bing Crosby's in November 2004 with a California country-club-style theme. It was such a success that the DiMaggio family approached us and we opened up DiMaggio's Chop House last year. It's right in the neighborhood where he grew up.

"It's not hard to get the families and estates involved. We're interested in history. We could've opened DiMaggio's in Las Vegas or New York, but we decided on the place where he played baseball as a kid. From our window, you can see the church where he first got married. It makes the story more concrete. My job is to transport people through time.

"A real turning point to our expansion was bringing on my friend Tom Gonzalez as an investor. Tom was one of the founders of Commerce One. He not only brought capital, he became my mentor. He helped transform me from a businessman into an entrepreneur by teaching me to remove the word 'no' from the English language.

"Since bringing Tom on, we've signed on Chris Webber to open a restaurant called Center Court in Sacramento, and we're opening another one in Las Vegas with Carlos Santana. We're also talking with Angelo Dundee, Muhammad Ali's corner man. In the end, we're a concept restaurant, not a theme restaurant. We want to be known for our food and service, not for selling T-shirts like Hard Rock Cafe or Planet Hollywood.

"If you take the name off the front door, we would still make it a fine dining experience. If you build something that is 'wow,' people will come."

Dudum Sports & Entertainment Founder and CEO, Jeff Dudum

www.dsecorp.com

esmith@dsecorp.com

Business Type:Restaurant

2005 Revenue:$33 million

No. of Employees:550

Link From：http://finance.yahoo.com/smallbiz/article/featuredbiz/22411