Saltgrass Steak Talks, But Not With Incumbent

DALLAS
Saltgrass Steakhouse, a six-year-old restaurant chain based in Houston, is holding discussions with three agencies about its future advertising plans.
Sources last week pegged Fogarty Klein & Partners, Ogilvy & Mather and Black Rogers Sullivan Goodnight, all Houston, as shops being screened by the restaurant’s marketing executives.
The agencies were first contacted several weeks ago and asked to discuss capabilities, sources said.
Executives at all three shops declined comment. It was not clear last week if agencies would be asked to make formal presentations or if a decision date has been set.
Saltgrass Steakhouse director of marketing Cynthia Wackar, who declined to comment when rumors of an account review began circulating last month, had not returned calls at press time.
In March 1996, Saltgrass named Coleman & Coleman in Houston its first agency of record.
“Frankly, I’m shocked,” Coleman & Coleman principal Brandon Coleman said when told that agency discussions were taking place.