Specialty Restaurant Group
Specialty Restaurant Group, LLC. (SRG) is a privately owned restaurant company, headquartered in Maryville, Tennessee, USA, that has, at one time or another, owned and operated four casual dining restaurant chains, including The American Café, Silver Spoon Café, the now defunct L&N Seafood Grill, and Tia's Tex-Mex. At one time, SRG controlled and operated more than 40 restaurants—all of which operated under its various nameplates. Specialty Restaurant Group was created in 2000, when a group of investors bought the four restaurant chains from Ruby Tuesday. The investors, who were former employees of Ruby Tuesday, included the company's current CEO, James CarMichael, who is credited with having led the buyout from Ruby Tuesday. The American Café, Silver Spoon Café, L&N Seafood Grill, and Tia's Tex-Mex restaurants already existed before their new parent company was created. Similar to Ruby Tuesday, Applebee's, O'Charley's and Outback Steakhouse, SRG's restaurant concepts operate or operated in the casual dining industry. Beginning at the time of the divestiture, the company continued to maintain its relationship with Ruby Tuesday, and operated its corporate headquarters inside the Ruby Tuesday worldwide headquarters. In 2004, SRG divested its Tia's Tex-Mex restaurant concept and all of the existing Tia's locations to Maplewood