Picerne

The owners of the 1149 restaurant on Division Street in Warwick are again bucking restaurant trends as earlier this month they unveiled plans for another location.

Partners John G. Picerne and Thomas L. Wright said they will rebuild a former Bickford’s Grille in Seekonk into a fine-dining restaurant. The new venture, on Fall River Avenue, will be patterned after their first one, in Warwick.

Picerne, chief executive officer of Picerne Military Housing, and Wright, senior vice president of development at Johnson & Wales University and former dean of its College of Culinary Arts, formed Thee JT Food Ventures about 18 months ago to enter the hospitality business. (The name comes from a consultancy Wright operated, to which they added the initials of their first names, John and Tom). The partners seek to own or operate restaurants and develop dining and food concepts for others.

Picerne and Wright spent more than $7 million to buy and renovate a restaurant on the Warwick-East Greenwich line, next to the Showcase Cinemas. The location had served as the home to a string of successful dining establishments dating back to the 1960s, until its last owner fell into financial trouble.

The partners spent $3.75 million to buy the restaurant operation in an auction overseen by a Superior Court judge and about $2.5 million more in a separate transaction for the property. They then spent in excess of $1 million to transform the interior of 1149 Division St. Workers pushed back the kitchen to create a private dining room near the entrance. They installed a black slate and oak floor and hung teardrop-shaped crystals and flat-panel TVs above a refurbished bar. There’s black leather furniture and new wine racks. A sand-colored awning covers the patio.

There’s room for 250 diners inside and another 60 outside.

The partners hired 80 or so people to run a restaurant the two consider a “platform” for their new hospitality business.

The restaurant’s menu features tenderloin steak with blue-cheese butter, tuna tartar, linguini with clam sauce, Caesar salad, burgers and pizza. There’s a children’s menu. Entrée prices range up to $39.

“The idea is to give people an alternative to a downtown [dining] experience,” Picerne said.

They opened the doors about a year ago to positive reviews and solid receipts.

“June for us was better than December,” Wright said.

Added Picerne: “We felt we were the hot new kid on the block, and we were going to feel a letdown.”

That hasn’t happened.

The Warwick location is doing well enough for them to branch out, they said, and they are moving ahead with plans to open three or four other restaurants in Southeastern New England.

Through their TFG Holdings LLC entity, the partners have purchased a Bickford’s Grille at 965 Fall River Ave., in Seekonk, a company statement said.

“We had looked at a lot of different properties, [including] distressed properties,” Wright said.

They focused on areas close to highway access ramps and movie theaters. Fall River Avenue has both, with a Showcase Cinema near Route 195. The Bickford’s location is next to an off-ramp.

About 60,000 vehicles move daily on nearby Route 6.

The spot was not for sale when the partners approached the Bickford chain with an undisclosed offer to buy the Seekonk location.

They are working on preliminary plans for redeveloping the site. Early architect’s renderings show a modernist, flat-roofed building with fieldstone exterior walls.

The partners are making an investment in renovations similar to what they spent in Warwick, said Picerne, “without the hefty price tag of buying the operating business.”

If their plans are approved by Seekonk officials, the two expect to open the restaurant in January, likely under the name 1149 East.

pgrimald@projo.com