Ark Restaurants Q1 2025 Earnings Report

Ark Restaurants EPS Results

• Actual EPS: $0.18
• Consensus EPS: N/A
• Beat/Miss: N/A
• One Year Ago EPS: N/A

Ark Restaurants Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $44.99 million
• Expected Revenue: N/A
• Beat/Miss: N/A
• YoY Revenue Growth: N/A

Ark Restaurants Announcement Details

• Quarter: Q1 2025
• Date: 2/10/2025
• Time: After Market Closes
• Conference Call Date: Tuesday, February 11, 2025
• Conference Call Time: 11:00AM ET

Ark Restaurants (NASDAQ:ARKR), traded on NASDAQ under the ticker ARKR, is a Boca Raton, Florida–based restaurant operator. The company owns and manages a portfolio of casual and upscale dining venues that feature Cuban-inspired menus, full-service bars and live entertainment. Its concepts emphasize traditional Latin flavors paired with modern culinary techniques to appeal to a broad range of diners.

Ark Restaurants serves both on-premise and off-premise customers, offering dine-in seating, take-out, delivery and catering services. Many locations also host private events, weddings and corporate gatherings, leveraging dedicated event spaces and custom menu offerings to support special occasions. The company’s bars highlight craft cocktails, premium spirits and curated wine lists designed to complement its food programs.

Founded in the late 1970s, Ark Restaurants has expanded alongside Florida’s hospitality industry, building a regional footprint primarily across South Florida. In 2017, the company completed a public listing through a reverse merger, positioning itself for further growth and selective franchising opportunities. Today, Ark Restaurants continues to explore new markets and partnerships to extend its Cuban-themed concepts beyond its core territory.

Ark Restaurants Q1 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Margins have been squeezed and management is focusing on payroll efficiency and revenue growth to drive profitability.
• At Meadowlands, the company believes it is the frontrunner for a North New Jersey casino license, expecting New York to issue downstate licenses this year—and anticipating a prompt New Jersey response once that occurs.
• In the Bryant Park bid, a competitor has been selected but final approvals from the NYC Department of Commerce and New York Public Library are still pending, and the company has hired experts to challenge the process and defend its proposal.
• Decisions on dividends and share buybacks are on hold pending the outcome at Bryant Park; without that cash flow, management does not plan to pay dividends or aggressively repurchase shares.
• The company is also evaluating low-capital expansion opportunities and partnerships in new markets to grow without significant balance sheet impact.

Presentation

[Operator]

Can you please? Your company? Which property are you looking for? Okay. I'll bring you right in. Hold on.

[Michael Weinstein, CEO at Ark Restaurants]

Helpful in increasing demand, so we'll wait and see on that. All in all, we're just, you know, margins have been squeezed. We're trying to pick the margins up, by being more efficient in payroll, hopefully driving some more revenue. The easy one to talk about, of the two, elephants in the room, Meadowlands and Bryant Park. Meadowlands, again, we think we're the most likely site for gaining a casino license in the North of New Jersey. New Jersey will not move until New York State starts to issue licenses for downstate casinos, meaning Manhattan or Queens or Bronx. Two of those licenses, if they're if we suspect, will be issued to Aqueduct and to Yonkers. We believe that once they're issued, it will take a matter of months for those to become fully operational casinos because the facilities are already built.

[Michael Weinstein, CEO at Ark Restaurants]

For the third license, and there are several developers aligned to those, that will take some time. We think the implementation of casino licenses at Yonkers and Aqueduct will force Jersey to make a decision that they have to do something in the North. Atlantic City has been dying for years, and I think this would really be a death knell. Jersey will wake up and issue a license in the North. We suspect that New York State will issue licenses sometime later this year. We also expect that will generate a referendum, to allow, that it's a referendum voted on by the public, to allow for casino gaming in the North. That's the Meadowlands.

[Michael Weinstein, CEO at Ark Restaurants]

Bryant Park, if we follow the headlines, the Bryant Park Corporation has said they want to go forward with somebody other than us. That deal has not been signed yet. It requires a positive okay from the Parks Department and New York Public Library. We've hired a whole team of experts, and we feel that we have a decent chance of retaining the operation of that facility. It'll take months to know, but we really believe we're still in the game. We think the whole request for proposal process was flawed. The thing that we don't understand is that the license, that the new license to operate, would be issued to a company that has limited hospitality experience. We've been usually successful, and their minimum rent proposal is $1 million less than us.

[Michael Weinstein, CEO at Ark Restaurants]

It just doesn't sound like it's a logical business arrangement, and we're looking into it, and hopefully we will see something that starts to move us back into our direction. With that, any questions? I'm happy to answer.

[Operator]

Thank you. You will now be conducting a question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation form will indicate your line is requesting queue. You may press star two if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your headset before pressing the star keys. One moment, please, while we pull for questions. Thank you. Our first question comes from the line of Jeffrey Kaminsky with JJK Consulting. Please proceed with your questions.

[Jeffrey Kaminsky, Analyst at JJK Consulting]

Good morning, everyone. Michael, which was, hi, Anthony. With respect to Bryant Park and the process, I guess the folks found out about the lease and the other party through a meeting, the queues properly, through some sort of public hearing or public meeting. My question is, are there more than scheduled, and can the public actually attend? As a shareholder, I have a vested interest in what happens to Bryant Park and to other shareholders of ours. What's preventing us or, you know, as a member of the public and a New York resident, from attending such a hearing?

[Michael Weinstein, CEO at Ark Restaurants]

There's nothing preventing you to go to public sessions. The community board session is a public session. The announcement of the Bryant Park Corporation's selection was made at a subcommittee of the community board, meaning it's the Parks and Recreation Subcommittee of the community board. It was a public forum. There was a lot of robust conversation about it, regarding the process and regarding the affordability of the selection of the new restaurateurs. You know, we're reasonably priced. We don't think the selection of Seaport Entertainment Group and their proposed licensing agreement with Jean-Georges speaks well of affordability to the public. There was a large discussion about that.

[Michael Weinstein, CEO at Ark Restaurants]

The community board advisory position in this, the triangle of Jamie gets a deal done with any operator has to come from the City Hall Department and from the Public Library. They have not even proposed a change in operators to either one of those two organizations.

[Michael Weinstein, CEO at Ark Restaurants]

Go ahead.

[Jeffrey Kaminsky, Analyst at JJK Consulting]

Our comments and our comments from the public welcome at the shareholders of the employees.

[Michael Weinstein, CEO at Ark Restaurants]

I'm sorry. I said we had 25 employees at the community board meeting. We have 250 employees at Bryant Park Corporation who are in danger of losing their jobs. Literally 40% of those employees have been with us for 25 years or more. That constituency is also important in this process.

[Jeffrey Kaminsky, Analyst at JJK Consulting]

Right. Were any of them able to speak at the meeting? You know, if I attended the next meeting as a shareholder, would I have an opportunity to make a statement?

[Michael Weinstein, CEO at Ark Restaurants]

You would have a minute to two minutes to speak.

[Jeffrey Kaminsky, Analyst at JJK Consulting]

Okay. Thank you.

[Michael Weinstein, CEO at Ark Restaurants]

You're welcome.

[Operator]

As a reminder, if you would like to ask a question, press Star 1 on your telephone keypad. Our next question comes from the line of Ravi Desai, a private investor. Please proceed with your question.

[Operator]

Hey, Michael, how are you?

[Michael Weinstein, CEO at Ark Restaurants]

Good, Ravi. Thank you.

[Michael Weinstein, CEO at Ark Restaurants]

I had a question. Moving forward, as you guys think down the road, six months, twelve months, just wanted to get a sense of how you guys are thinking about the capital allocation on dividends or buybacks, or if you guys have any, any other ideas outside of, you know, the strategic acquisitions that you're looking for down south.

[Michael Weinstein, CEO at Ark Restaurants]

That, that's a complicated question, because it really depends upon the outcome of Bryant Park, certainly with regard to dividends. Right now, without the cash flow that would be attending to an operation at Bryant Park, we would not see a payer of dividends. That also is a question regarding buybacks. I think that, that same thought process is applicable. I don't think we're going to be aggressively buying stocks, unless we know what's going on with Bryant Park, number one. As a company, there may be people we're aligned with, you know, who may want to take an interest in the stock. But without Bryant Park, it's very hard to make these decisions.

[Michael Weinstein, CEO at Ark Restaurants]

In terms of expanding the business, we have some nice opportunities, we think, that do not require a tremendous amount of capital, or where we would have partnerships with other organizations that, it's here, it's an important part of the process, to establish some new operations. We are looking at that. It's, you know, it's sort of paralyzing in one respect, for a balance sheet and income statement to have this issue with Bryant Park. On the other hand, we are actively engaged in trying to find areas where we can expand sensibly.

[Michael Weinstein, CEO at Ark Restaurants]

That is exciting.

[Michael Weinstein, CEO at Ark Restaurants]

Yeah, that's helpful there. We'll see how the Bryant Park takes out, and good luck with that. I think it, you know, I hope it falls in your guys' favor.

[Michael Weinstein, CEO at Ark Restaurants]

Thank you.

[Operator]

A final reminder, if you would like to ask a question, press Star 1 on your telephone keypad. One moment, please, while we pull for any additional questions. Mr. Weinstein, it appears we have no further questions at this time. I'd like to turn the floor back over to you for closing comments.

[Michael Weinstein, CEO at Ark Restaurants]

All right. Thank you all for your interest, and we'll see you next quarter.

[Michael Weinstein, CEO at Ark Restaurants]

Thank you. Bye-bye.

[Operator]

Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today's teleconference. You may disconnect your lines at this time. Thank you for your participation, and have a wonderful day.

Participants

Executives

• Michael Weinstein, CEO

Analysts

• Analyst
• Jeffrey Kaminsky, Analyst at JJK Consulting