The legendary restaurant-concept developer isn't finished yet.

Phil Romano opened his first restaurant—The Gladiator in Lake Park, Fla.—in 1965. Since then he has developed more than two dozen concepts, including Fuddruckers, Romano's Macaroni Grill, Spageddies (now Johnny Carino's Italian) and eatZi's Market & Bakery. In his new book, "Food for Thought" (Dearborn Trade Publishing, 2005), he traces his career as an innovator and restaurateur.

Q. In the book, you seem to delight in recounting how many doubters you encountered with the restaurant concepts you championed. Has it been sweet to see many of them survive and flourish?

A. Sure. It's funny. I remember when "entrepreneur" was a bad word, a con man. When you take risks, people will say that you're crazy, that you don't know what you're doing. If you succeed, then you're an entrepreneur. There's great satisfaction in that.

Q. Is there one concept that you're most proud of turning into a success?

A. Probably Fuddruckers. At that time [1980] there weren't half as many hamburger places as there are now, but there still were a lot of them. When I told my bankers I wanted to do a hamburger concept, they said forget about it. There's McDonald's and Wendy's and so forth.

I said I wanted to grind my own meat, and vendors said no, you can't do that. I wanted to bake buns in the restaurant and they said I couldn't do that. But it proved out, and that's enjoyable.

Q. McDonald's and Wendy's are tough competitors. Why did Fuddruckers succeed?

A. I didn't compete with them. I just brought hamburgers to a different level. McDonald's Quarter Pounder was great. It's the same today. But the price isn't. They kept jacking up the price and didn't improve the product. I said I'll just make a better product, charge more and be ahead of the game.

Q. When you go to a restaurant for the first time, what do you look at? How do you evaluate it?

A. The first thing I do is ask, how does it feel? Would I like to sit there, with no food at all, and have a conversation with somebody? That's important because that's what you're going to be doing. It can't be intimidating; it has got to be inviting and comfortable. It has to have food that coincides with that. And it has to have a point of difference.

Q. How many restaurants that you visit have an identifiable point of difference?

A. When I go to casual-dining places like Applebee's and Chili's and even Macaroni Grill now, they're all getting blurry. They're the same. Someone could take you into any one blindfolded, sit you down and you wouldn't know where you are. The trade dress may be a little different but the food tastes the same, the [units] look the same, the service is the same, the staff act the same. You come out and you feel the same.

Nobody talks about a restaurant that's the same all the time. People want something fresh, different, new and exciting. That's the point of difference and that's what you look for.

Q. Have you created a unique restaurant concept that still couldn't succeed?

A. Oh, sure. Wé/Oui [2000-2001 in Dallas]. I thought an "everyday French" restaurant would work but it just didn't. We had a real point of difference in what we were doing but it wasn't the right location or timing.

If a restaurant's not going to work, I usually know in about six months. I'll just zip it up and say thank you very much. If you're going to be in the concept business, you'd better be able to afford to close them too, instead of just staying at it.

Q. You shut down Stix Eating Spa, a healthful-Asian concept you tried in San Antonio in 1986, after about a year. Do you think that concept might fare better today?

A. Yes, I think I was before my time on that one. I had a marketing company look at it and figure out what I did wrong. My ego was a little bruised. They found 100% acceptance of the concept and said I was doing more repeat business with my customers than the fast-food chains were doing. It was just in the wrong marketplace. It attracted the $60,000 and up [household income] families and there were only about 35,000 of them in San Antonio at the time.

They said I should go to Los Angeles or Boston or Chicago and try it, but I said thanks, I'm not in the mood to travel. I just ripped it up and moved on.

Q. Is the Asian-menu market still enticing to you?

A. There are opportunities. Like with Italian restaurants, you've got a lot of mom-and-pop operations and somebody needed to bundle them together into one concept that could travel all over. Olive Garden did that. And it's the same now as with Asian. Concepts like P.F. Chang's China Bistro, Pei Wei and Ruby Foo's are unifying that idea.

I don't know if there's room in the marketplace for a lot of [Asian concepts], but I'm seriously looking at revisiting the Italian category with something that has a big point of difference.

Q. Is there a big idea left to exploit in the Italian segment?

A. I'm in the process of putting one together. I created Macaroni Grill on my Italian-American heritage. Now I want to take it from where my ancestors came from. There are a lot of opportunities for Italian food brands that want to come to America. I would get everything in the place from Italy. Nothing from America, from the tables to everything you eat. It would have a real difference in authenticity.

Q. You've never been embarrassed to admit that you're as much a showman as a restaurateur.

A. Sure. Let me ask you, where would you rather eat a hot dog? At home or in a ballpark? You've got to create an atmosphere. With Macaroni Grill and a lot of my concepts, I've tried to make them like a movie soundstage. I want to put you in the state of mind where you're on vacation. If it's Italian food, it's like you're in Italy. If the weather's bad outside, you're not bringing that feeling inside. And then, of course, the food has to be good.

Q. What's good food to you?

A. I like clean food, not dirty food. I don't like food with a lot of ingredients in it. It needs a good taste profile with some wow on the plate, but it can't be all goofed up with too many things. It bothers me when I go to a restaurant and they put a description of what's in a dish, but you get something they didn't say was in it. Right away, I think they must have made a mistake in the kitchen.

Food should be simple and upfront. Take eatZi's for example. I want 80% of my products to be foods people are comfortable with, that they've tasted before and they like, but make it better than they've ever had it. The other 20% I want to be food they've never tasted or experienced before. I think restaurants can go with that same format.

Q. How difficult is it for you to sell control of your concepts to others, as you've done?

A. It's like a love affair. The excitement and emotion are there at first; you can't sleep at night, you think about her all the time. Then you see a prettier girl and you say, "Thank you very much" and go off after that other girl. It's easy, especially if they pay me enough money for the concept.

Q. It doesn't bother you if a new owner changes your concept?

A. No. It's their ball and bat now and they've paid enough that it's their privilege to do that. I gave them something that works; if they want to screw it up, that's their business. The benefit of being the founder is that if it goes to the moon, I get credit. If it fails, well, they did it and I still created it. It's a win-win deal.

Q. What was the last restaurant that you walked into and wished you'd created?

A. Pei Wei. I think it's a good concept. It's the right concept for the right time, it's operated properly and has very broad appeal. It's one of the promising concepts out there.

Q. Are you always thinking of new concepts to develop?

A. Always. What do they say, "So many women, so little time"? It's like that with me and restaurant concepts. There are so many I want to do. And when I'm going to do it, it's going to have a real point of difference.