The Art of Abundance Steele Platt The Yard House Founder

Steele Platt, the founder of Yard House USA, LLC, a portfolio that includes the successful Yard House restaurant group, as well as Tequila Jack?s in Long Beach, California, has always possessed an entrepreneurial spirit. With tremendous drive and determination, the fortysomething Platt has been a part of the restaurant industry for most of his adult life.

Recently named Entrepreneur of the Year by the Orange County Business Journal, as well as regional Entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst & Young, Platt earned a degree in business administration from the University of Denver in 1982, where he majored in hotel and restaurant management. He launched several concepts in the Mile High City, one of which became the paragon for Yard House. The Boiler Room, which he eventually sold, incorporated the three elements which Yard House is founded on: Great food, classic rock music, and a vast selection of draft beer.
In the early 1990s Platt left Denver for Southern California. With a wad of cash and idle time, Platt quickly became acclimated to the California lifestyle and took time off from the daily grind of work. Soon the money dwindled, and he found himself working jobs as a car salesman and bartender just to make ends meet. On a fateful day off from work he happened upon an abandoned waterfront restaurant at Shoreline Village in Long Beach, California. He immediately began to draft a business plan, met with the center?s landlord and raised the necessary funds from more than three-dozen local investors before launching his first Yard House in 1996. The flagship restaurant has risen to become one of the highest grossing restaurants in Los Angeles County with staggering double-digit growth since its inception.

 Steele Platt is single and resides along the Newport Coast in Orange County, California.