Nafees Alam

Nafees Alam, CEO of the Dallas restaurateur DRG Concepts, spends a good portion of his week commuting to downtown Fort Worth these days. DRG, after months of delays, opened its Wicked Butcher steakhouse this winter in the basement of the renovated and newly launched Sinclair Fort Worth hotel.

The steakhouse has quickly caught favor, with Wicked Butcher capping reservations early on to ensure service quality. But Alam has had to deal with the parking-related headaches of getting his patrons into the restaurant. The Sinclair has its own valet, but some customers are confusing it with the popular valet at the adjacent Sundance Square that doesn’t serve The Sinclair.

DRG likes to let its restaurants grow slowly so such issues aren’t compounded. It opened Wild Salsa and Chop House Burger in downtown’s City Place three years ago.

“Every year, the sales have grown,” Alam says. “We have been happy with that progress. We feel we are building a brand. It takes time to build that relationship.”

At The Sinclair, DRG took on room service, breakfast and bar service in mid-November. In late January, it launched Wicked Butcher’s dinner service in the basement and, in February, lunch. Later this year, it will start serving a rooftop bar The Sinclair will open. “They are punching out as we speak,” Alam said in an interview before Valentine’s.

DRG also plans to launch the first of its Oven and Cellar Italian concept downtown but isn’t promising when. “We’re hands-on business owners,” Alam says. “I want to get things taken care of here before we move to the next project.”

Like DRG founder Mike Hoque, whose entrepreneurial journey began as a limo driver in Dallas, Alam, 40, has an unusual story. He earned his bachelor's in information science from the University of Texas at Arlington, went to work for a tech company, and was visiting a friend in Atlanta, where he sat next to a chain restaurant executive at a baseball game. The executive suggested Alam look into the company. “I laughed it off. I didn’t go to college to be in restaurants.”

Back home, he checked out the company, Waffle House, and called the executive, who invited Alam to Atlanta and then offered him a job. There, Alam worked his way up to portfolio of restaurants he ran in Dallas. “It was an amazing experience,” he says. “They’re their own suppliers. They own the real estate. They own a piece of everything.”

 Hoque recruited Alam 15 years ago, and the two opened DRG, Alam as head of operations and a partner. The company has numerous other key people it’s cultivated in areas such operations, wine, accounting, marketing and graphic design. “We’ve gotten lucky with a few key people who’ve been with us for 14-15 years.”