D-FW small-business owners get ready for some football

By Scott Nishimura

snishimura@star-telegram.com

Talk about undisclosed locations.

Phyllice Holly has been running 24-hour, seven-employee shifts for the last week, embroidering logos on 120 chef coats and hundreds of pieces of other apparel for Super Bowl XLV's Taste of the NFL fundraiser. Celebrities from Iron Chef America and the NFL will sport Holly's work, while aprons, coats and scarves will be for sale.

For security, Holly, who is based in Mansfield and runs her production out of Fort Worth and Carrollton, isn't saying where she's doing the work. "I've got all the merchandise," she says.

Similar scenes are playing out across the region, as businesses rush to get ready for their roles in the big show.

Holly, who launched her 7-year-old Monogram Pro doing spirit wear for the Mansfield schools, has been taking in merchandise from Chicago, Minneapolis and New York.

She's embroidering 70 chef coats with the 20th annual Taste of the NFL logo, 40 more with a different logo to be worn by other chefs, nearly 100 aprons with both logos to be worn by NFL players, 250 fleece scarves with the Taste's Chef Bug logo, "a bajillion baseball caps," and golf shirts. Total: "a little short" of 1,000 pieces.

"Everything is in motion," Holly said Wednesday. "I've got things coming at me from everywhere. We want to have everything finished by next week, and we want everything sitting there waiting, when everybody gets here."

At Triple Play Staffing, a Garland employment agency that staffs football games and other events at Cowboys Stadium, owner Cindie Steger-Heit is scheduling 300-400 people for Super Bowl-related events: game day at the stadium, the NFL Tailgate VIP party, the NFL Experience fan extravaganza in Dallas and three large parties.

Staff for the stadium, tailgate and NFL Experience had to get credentials by early December. But Steger-Heit is still recruiting Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission-certified bartenders. Bilingual applicants have the best shot, as the brand ambassador program needs Spanish-speakers for grocery stores.

Finding enough bilingual bartenders "has been a little more difficult, I have to say, a lot more difficult than I thought it would be in Dallas, Texas," Steger-Heit said.

Working around the clock

In and around Sundance Square, crews have been working around the clock to get new eateries open before the crowds arrive, some more successfully than others.

Ojos Locos, a Latin-themed sports bar at 515 Houston St., had its soft opening Wednesday after working under night lights to get open in time.

Saviano's, an offshoot of the popular Euless Italian restaurant, maintains that its Houston Street location will also be open by Super Bowl Sunday.

"As of yesterday, Sundance management told me they're going to make it happen," owner Sal Alfieri said Thursday. "They want it to open. I didn't think it was possible, but they told me they'll have crews working around the clock."

But Frankie's, the legendary Uptown Dallas sports bar, won't open a Sundance location on time.

"We're just not going to make that timeline," owner Bill Katz said, attributing the delay to a "chain reaction" of issues that affect construction projects. "It's disappointing for everyone." The new target: mid-February.

Both Del Frisco's Double Eagle Steakhouse and Reata expect to be corporate party hubs, with the nearby Omni Fort Worth Hotel hosting the AFC team and ESPN running its broadcasts at Sundance Square.

At Del Frisco's, general manager Greg Kalina said his kitchen will be open until midnight during Super Bowl week. He'll also open for lunch and keep the bar open until 2 a.m. Kalina said he hasn't changed his prices and won't charge minimums.

Reata's Tod Lewis said he'll have nine or 10 servers working per shift, instead of the usual four or five. "Our goal is to have 100 percent reservations," the general manager said.

Shannon Wynne, owner of 8.0 Bar and the Flying Saucer at Sundance Square, is staffing up largely by "borrowing" people from his other Flying Saucers in the region. He'll also bring in the chef from his Meddlesome Moth in Dallas to help run a big Super Bowl Eve party for ESPN at 8.0.

He plans to run bands all day long at 8.0, likely starting Wednesday of Super Bowl week, and he still hopes to sell a corporate sponsorship for the stage.

Wynne, whose Flying Saucer in Houston got slammed during that city's Super Bowl in 2004, is considering a cover charge for 8.0's main indoor dining room and bar to deal with fans who only want to use the restroom. In Houston, he had a $10 cover.

"We have to find out how the restroom situation [downtown] is going to be handled with regards to the general public," Wynne said.

Wynne is uncertain what kind of business he'll draw downtown, with the NFL activities spread among Dallas, Arlington and Fort Worth. "We're hoping ESPN is going to be the draw it says it's going to be," he said.

TVs and trinkets

The big event is spurring more TV sales and service calls at Fort Worth's 64-year-old Marvin Electronics.

Last week, President Stuart Schuster estimated he had service bookings for a week to 10 days, compared with the normal five to seven days.

"People are having people in from out of town, they're getting their homes readied and checked out," he said. "Satellites, surround sound. We're putting in maybe a new TV in the main room, taking the old flat screen and putting it in the bedroom."

Small caterers who have won contracts for Super Bowl-related parties have generated business for Elixir Kitchen Space in north Fort Worth, which rents commercial kitchen space to caterers and bakers.

The owner, Sandie Nathan, estimates she has taken 10-15 hours' worth of bookings related to the Super Bowl, and she expects more. "We're talking to a few restaurants who are getting huge catering orders," she said.

Area companies that won temporary merchandise licenses are finalizing their game plans.

Susan Schmidt, owner of Ashford International, a 2-year-old purveyor of promotional products, office products and medical supplies based in Irving, won a temporary license to sell pewter trinket boxes featuring various likenesses, including one of Cowboys Stadium.

This weekend, she's moving stock into four Neiman Marcus stores in the region, which will sell them for up to $60.

The boxes will also be for sale at the big fan store at the NFL Experience and at the Dallas Cowboys Pro Shop. Schmidt also sold some to sponsors, who will use them for gift packages.

Schmidt, whose designs were approved in November, says she went conservative on her inventory, having 3,000 of the boxes made overseas. She estimates 75 percent are committed.

"We had Neiman Marcus in mind when we created this," she said. "I sent them the photos, and they loved it."

Thousands of cabs

Transportation businesses are gearing up to move thousands of visitors around the Metroplex.

Yellow Cab in North Texas has seen a pickup in business from NFL people who are already in town, said Jack Bewley, president of the company, which has about 1,000 cabs.

For the peak, Yellow will "double up" its Dallas dispatch operation, giving its 75 dispatchers overtime, Bewley said.

Those long cab lines at Dallas/Fort Worth Airport?

"Those cars will start getting dispersed," he said. "There'll be business everywhere." More cabs will be at stands throughout the region, such as at hotels, and more cars will be readily available in popular strips, he said.

North Texas has about 2,000 cabs, more than fans find in most Super Bowl cities. Local cab companies annually gear up for "huge nights," including Texas-Oklahoma weekend in Dallas, Bewley noted, adding that he's most preoccupied now with ensuring that his drivers have up-to-date information on street closures.

Matt Johnston, owner of AJL International, a limo service in Fort Worth, said he has a crush of Super Bowl bookings.

Johnston normally runs about 30 cars. For Super Bowl week, he said, he'll run 100, renting them from Enterprise and having 10 18-wheelers truck them in from around the state. He's also booked 20 rooms at a hotel near his lot at East Loop 820 and Trinity Boulevard in Fort Worth for up to 50 temporary chauffeurs he has recruited from San Antonio, Houston and Austin.

Average costs for a three-day booking run to $1,500 a day for a sedan, up to $2,000 for an SUV and up to $3,000 for a bus. Minimum booking is 10 hours, Johnston said.

As during last year's NBA All-Star Game weekend, much of the limo business will come from celebrities and sponsors attending sanctioned parties and other events, Johnston said.

"It's happening all over town," he said. "There's pockets in Southlake, Westlake, all over. Anything from the strip clubs to the regular bars, everybody is running Super Bowl specials."

Staff writers Heather Svokos and Barry Shlachter contributed to this report.

Scott Nishimura, 817-390-7808

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