Allen J. Bernstein, who showed that high-end restaurants can succeed as chains by expanding Morton’s of Chicago from nine steakhouses in 1989 to 69 worldwide in 2006, has died. He was 65.
He died on Nov. 1 at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, New York, after an extended illness, according to Castle Harlan Inc., a New York-based private-equity firm that backed his ventures. He was a resident of Manhasset.
Once described as “a prolific deal-maker,” Bernstein wrote his college thesis on restaurant branding and then made a career of it.