Tilman Fertitta, president, CEO and sole shareholder of Landry's Inc., and actress Eva Longoria said Thursday they are launching a new dining and nightlife concept in Las Vegas. More

Tilman Fertitta, chairman, president and CEO of Landry's Inc., says he's done buying up chains of 40-some restaurants. More

Tilman Fertitta, CEO of Landry's Inc., likes to sit down to a clean table when he orders his Grey Goose with soda on the rocks with two limes. More

From the 1940s until Hurricane Carla in 1961, Galveston had a Pleasure Pier jutting over the gulf, a place for music and movies and strolling. More

Galveston Island Historic Pleasure Pier bustled with more than toddlers eager to ride the colorful double-decker carousel when it debuted this past weekend. More

Pleasure Pier welcomes crowds during sneak peak. More

Atlantic City's newest, biggest and richest cheerleader is a 54-year-old native Texan with the requisite drawl, who refers to his guests as "y'all" and apologized, with a sheepish, aw-shucks grin, for being underdressed at the grand opening of his Golden Nugget casino last week. More

"Out with the old....In with the Gold", was one of the early slogans when Landry's took over last May, after buying Trump Marina for $38 million. More

Buying a hotel and casino at a bargain price is a good bet, Tilman Fertitta believes. He announced Monday he is acquiring the 720-room Isle Casino Hotel in Biloxi, Miss., for about $45 million, and will make it his fourth Golden Nugget Casino. More

Golden Nugget Chairman Tilman Fertitta said his company plans to invest $150 million in renovations when the sale of Isle Casino Biloxi is finalized this summer. More

The Lone Star State is about to get a little more amusing. In late January, Landry's, a local based hospitality and entertainment company announced its plans for the hurricane damaged 1940s Pleasure Pier in Galveston. More

Tilman Fertitta is doing exactly what he promised nine months ago, remaking the shabby Trump Marina into a sparkling new casino hotel. More

Landry's CEO steps up acquisition engine to build hospitality empire. More

Game changer. One hears this term used a lot, probably too much, when it comes to the kind of economic impact a project is going to have on a community. More

Fertitta reveals plans for isle's new pleasure pier. More

Fertitta resurrecting iconic Pleasure Pier built in 1943. More

Makeovers at Golden Nugget, ACH part of new strategies to survive, thrive. More

Tilman Fertitta has long had his eye on McCormick & Schmick's. In June he predicted to the Chronicle: "When it's all over, I'll end up with it, because that's just the way it is." More

Hospitality executive Tilman Fertitta is partnering with actress Eva Longoria to manage and possibly buy Beso, her restaurant in Las Vegas. More

Tilman Fertitta's consummate marketing savvy will be in full force during the transformation process of Atlantic City's Golden Nugget. More

There is one along Galveston Bay in Texas where the Boardwalk Bullet coaster reigns supreme, accelerating riders up to 51 m.p.h. and culminating in a gut-wrenching 96-foot drop. More

Tilman Fertitta stares out at the Farley State Marina in Atlantic City and then to the Absecon Channel beyond. His mind races with ideas as he turns to the nearby building that just the other day was the Trump Marina, but despite the name could never develop enough muscle to take on its neighbors. More

Houston business titan Tilman Fertitta has long had his eye on national seafood chain McCormick & Schmick. But his effort to acquire the upscale eatery hasn't won a deal. Yet. More

A $100 million renovation of the former Trump Marina by new owner Landry's Inc. goes on amid the gambling. The ringing sounds of slot machines were drowned out by the loud buzz of a machine used to tear up casino-floor carpet. More

CCC gives Landry's approval to buy casino for $38 M. Houston Billionaire Tillman Fertitta has a Texas-size challenge ahead of him - reviving aging, money-losing casino in the slumping Atlantic City market. More

'Out with the old, in with the Gold,' an Atlantic City Expressway billboard for Golden Nugget says. They are de-Trumping the Trump Marina Hotel Casino. From the signs on the building to the letterhead on the stationary, the last vestiges of Donald Trump are gradually being removed as the property becomes a Golden Nugget casino under new ownership. More

Tilman Fertitta is all in. After more than two years of negotiations to take Houston-based Landry's Restaurants private and become the sole owner of the near-300-unit casual dining, hospitality, gaming and entertainment company, the deal finally got done in early October, 24 years after he was named company president and CEO. Fertitta says his passion is making deals and this was undoubtedly his biggest. More

A Deleware bankruptcy court on Nov. 2 aproved the sale of Claim Jumper Restaurants LLC to Landry's Inc. Inc. for $76.6 million, according to court documents. More

When Tilman Fertitta took Landry's Inc. public in 1993, the company had nine restaurants. Today it's an empire, with more than 200 restaurants, amusement venus, hotels and casinos. More

Tilman Fertitta, founder and chairman of Landry's Inc. of Houston, in October closed on a $1.4 billion deal that took the restaurant-hospitality company private. More

When it comes to rooms with a view, diners who make their reservations online have strong opinions about which restaurants are best... More

Houston-based Landry's Restaurants has agreed to sell most units of Joe's Crab Shack to private equity firm J.H. Whitney Capital Partners for $192 million, a price that was less than expected by at least one analyst... More

Kansas City, Kan. – As the nearly $1.14 billion-a-year Landry's Restaurants Inc. is eyeing spinoffs of two chains in its vast brand portfolio, the company has unleashed T-Rex, a 375-seat, $15 million dinosaur-theme concept by the creator of the Landry's-owned Rainforest Cafe chain... More

As the sun set on the longest day of the year, hundreds watched from atop the Tower of the Americas while local dignitaries and members of the public celebrated the structure's grand reopening... More

OK, so if you have made it this far in today's paper or watched local news or even clicked on mysa.com, you already know that the renovated Tower of the Americas really is new and improved... More

The Las Vegas Golden Nugget roared off to a strong start under Landry's, whose Chairman Tilman Fertitta is displaying a very hands-on approach to management... More

Landry's Restaurants' first venture into gaming approved by Nevada Gaming Commission... More

Denver's former Colorado Ocean Journey reopens today with a $15 million face-lift featuring an underwater-themed restaurant, bar and new interactive exhibits, including a gold- panning station... More

Owners hope for a splash with new themes, twists. It's not Ocean Journey anymore, but Denver's revamped and renamed Downtown Aquarium boasts several of its familiar pieces - with a host of changes and a few surprises... More

Landry's Restaurants is placing a $140 million bet on the casino industry after reaching a deal with the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas... More

After extracting agreements from the city for a giant Ferris wheel and oversized signs, Landry's Inc. President and CEO Tilman Fertitta planned to bring a tiger and lion exhibit to downtown Houston. More

Everything about Houston-based Landry's Inc. is as big as the lone-star state it calls home: big concepts, big promotions, big sales, big growth-all navigated by a big-living showman of a CEO. Just trying to keep up with the company's aggressive acquisitions and development plans makes one's head spin, from flashy "eatertainment" projects like the Downtown Aquarium in Houston-replete with a 90-foot ferris wheel and kiddie train that chugs through a tunnel filled with sharks-to a hotel division with 1,000 rooms under ownership or development. More

The restaurant mogul has invested $150 million to help change the face of Galveston. Now critics warn that he wants to turn the island into Atlantic City. More

He knows development, and he wants to play in S.A. A mixture of Walt Disney visionary and Barnum & Bailey circus ringmaster Tilman J. Fertitta, CEO of Landry's Restaurants, creates projects that stir controversy.... More

New Opry Mills eatery employs 2,000 tank dwellers for entertainment - not eating. Enjoy the red snapper on your plate? Good. So did the shark next to you. After all, what's a tank full of fish for if a sharp-toothed mate can't pick one off every now and then? Welcome to Aquarium restaurant, where fish are friends and food. ... More

The City Council unanimously handed control of San Antonio's landmark Tower of the Americas to Houston's Landry's Restaurants, Inc. on Thursday, shutting out calls to keep the contract in local hands. The decision ends Tower Foods' 35-year run in the tower's revolving restaurant and gives it to Landry's until 2019... More

The year 2003 will be remembered in Houston as the year restaurant mogul Tilman Fertitta vacuumed up three of the city's most fashionable outposts – Pesce, La Griglia and Grotto – into his burgeoning empire... More

A strategy of aggressive acquisitions and expansion has catapulted Landry's Restaurants, Inc. into the rarified world of billion-dollar food service companies. Landry's which operates such concepts as Joe's Crab Shack, Landry's Seafood, Chart House, Saltgrass Steak House and Rainforest Cafe, reported net earning of $2.5 million, or 9 cents per diluted share, for the fourth quarter ended Dec. 21, compared with $4.6 million, or 16 cents a share, in fiscal 2002... More

“I hate to underestimate Tilman Fertitta,”
Most of Houston’s off-season baseball news has centered on the Astros signing of pitcher Andy Pettitte and the possible return of hometown hurler Roger Clemens. But Houston businessman Tilman Fertitta, chairman of Landry's Inc., is hoping to catch some of that buzz with some baseball-related news of his own. More

Some developers with grand dreams, like Donald Trump, put their mark on urban America by building the tallest, boldest buildings around. Then there is Tilman Fertitta, who has brought two things to downtown Houston that it never had before: a 90-foot Ferris wheel and a miniature train that chugs through a tunnel in a tank filled with sharks. More

The restaurant business is more than fish, steak and baked potatoes.n the case of Landry's Restaurants, it also includes Sumatran tigers and volcanoes erupting on the half-hour. For Houston-based Landry's, the bread and butter of its business are operations like Joe's Crab Shack and Saltgrass Steak House, but its entertainment-oriented projects are taking on an increasingly important role. More

HOUSTON – Every time the father of four took his kids to Joe's Crab Shack, the little ones were bored. The dad grew tired of hearing how they'd rather be at McDonald's, where there was a playground. "Then I realized there are a lot of me's out there, parents with young kids," he said. "I realized everybody's in the same ballgame." More

Fertitta on the job at ailing aquarium. Tilman Fertitta has forged a successful career by turning bad ideas into money makers. More

Nancy Kapner was 15 when she first stayed at Galveston's Flagship Hotel. After a day at the beach, she and her family had dinner on the Seawall and then strolled the water's edge before returning to their room overlooking the ocean. More

Five o'clock on a Friday afternoon at most companies is a very quiet time. That's not the case at Landry's Inc. corporate offices. People are everywhere, buzzing around like diligent worker bees. But then, the way Tilman Fertitta runs his empire, nobody punches the clock - especially him. More

Landry's Inc. lands Ocean Journey for $13.6 million. Within minutes of the opening bid, the price for Ocean Journey's assets doubled. Then it tripled. To $13.6 million. And Denver's aquarium was bought by a restaurant conglomerate best known for seafood. More

The slated February 15, 2003 opening date of the Downtown Aquarium is fast approaching. The $38 million world-class aquatic complex developed by Midas-touched restaurateur Tilman J. Fertitta, chairman and chief executive officer of Landry's, but already the seemingly Anastasia-like fantasyland is taking shape. More

Landry's mixes rides with restaurant, aquarium Galveston Rainforest Cafe features themed boat ride; Houston Aquarium features a Chance train ride through a shark tank. Landry's Inc. Inc. is not trying to establish a new trend for the amusement industry. More

Landry's CEO Tilman J. Fertitta has been picking up bargains. Here's what he's doing with the goods. Landry's Inc. is buying restaurants instead of building them. It's safer that way. More

Pinning down Tilman Fertitta these days is tricky. The head of the Houston-based restaurants empire Landry's Inc. has so many real estate projects in the works that when he's not out visiting one of the construction sites, he's in his private helicopter flying to one. More

Until the mid-1900s, the unpretentious, somewhat funky community of Kemah (pop.1,200-plus) slumbered along year-to-year, storm-to-storm, on the west shore of Galveston Bay. Visitors- mostly from the Greater Houston area - "escaped" to Kemah to fish or to feast of fresh seafood while relaxing on the outside decks of the restaurants that overlooked the Clear Creek Channel. More

Landry's Inc.'s planned acquisition of 38 Chart House restaurants and a Poehe's dinnerhouse promises to give the seafood specialist More than 30 premier waterfront locations to add to its multiconcept inventory. Landry's disclosed May 20 that it would acquire the 39 units from Chart House Enterprises Inc. for $45.5 million and the assumption of some liabilities. More

His private helicopter had landed minutes before I entered the room; he had just attended the funeral of a dear family friend. Japanese partners from the Rainforest Café were patiently waiting for his attention in the next room. A Livestock Show and Rodeo meeting would fill his afternoon. Stealing a few moments of his time seemed pervasive, but Tilman Fertitta greeted me with a warm, friendly handshake and smiling sanguine eyes. More

Tilman Fertitta's a man with a plan that includes new projects and the aggressive growth of a core chain. According to the restaurant trackers at Technomic. Houston-based Landry's Seafood Restaurants owns the second-largest share of the casual seafood industry. More

Joe's Crab Shack. Landry's Seafood House. San Luis Resort. Fisherman's Wharf. Cadillac Bar. Hilton Galveston Resort. Phoenix Bakery. The Crab House. Willie G's. International House of Pancakes. Rainforest Café. Fish Tales. Kemah Boardwalk. The seawall convention center. Mention any of those developments, and you might as well mention Tilman Fertitta by name. More

Tilman Fertitta went to bed feeling troubled and restless. It was Friday night, March 5, 1999, and he was about to walk away from Landry's Seafood Restaurants, the business that had made him a rich and influential man. More

Six years ago, Tilman Fertitta and Lyle Berman were working on a deal in Minneapolis. Berman suggested they have lunch at a new restaurant concept that had opened the day before in the giant Mall of America retail complex. It was called Rainforest Café. More

Landry's Seafood Restaurants stock began trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol "LNY" on Tuesday. The stock had been traded on the NASDAQ Stock Market under the ticket symbol "LDRY". More

It takes a certain amount of flair to label one of your signature concepts "tacky" but that's exactly how the Landry's organization boasts of its biggest chain, Joe's Crab Shack. Perhaps it's the kind of flair that comes from success: Joe's was the fastest-growing restaurant chain in the country last year, leaping from 17 units two years ago to a current 88, with revenues climbing 13 percent in the first quarter of 1999. More

Tilman Fertitta grimaces at the "theme restaurant" label, at least in reference to his newest concept, Aquarium. Make no mistake: Aquarium is huge on theme. The restaurant is exactly what its name says it is: An aquarium -but we're not talking about a few fish tanks. "It's like nothing else you've ever seen," says Fertitta. "You'd never call it a theme restaurant. "More

An Entrepreneurial Spirit, Attention to Details, and a Reliance on Natural Gas Fuel the Fast Rise of Tilman Fertitta's Seafood Empire. Hearing kudos like "Hottest Seafood Chain" and "America's Best Seafood Company," you can understand why Houston-based Landry's Seafood Restaurants, Inc. chairman and chief executive officer Tilman Fertitta has a smile as wide as the Lone Star State. More

Tilman J. Fertitta won't budge. Despite repeated pleadings for an impromptu kitchen tour at the Joe's Crab Shack, in Richmond, Texas, he's having none of it. More

When company executives and acquaintances characterize Tilman Fertitta, the word "intense" sticks to the descriptions as stubbornly as gravy stains to a tie. The 40-year-old Fertitta, who has grown Houston-based Landry's Seafood Restaurants, Inc. from two units in 1986 into a chain of 106 stores with annual sales of $236 million, has a no-nonsense, take-no-prisoners approach to the restaurant business. More

In the eighties Tilman Fertitta's seafood restaurants earned him millions while his hard-nosed business tactics earned him enemies. But these days the Galveston native is winning new respect in his hometown by standing up to the most powerful family on the island. More

Landry's top executive wants to be nothing less than the 'king of seafood'. On a rainy morning in the nation's capital just before Christmas, Tilman Fertitta is directed to the restaurant off the lobby at the ornately decorated Sheraton as he tries to find a comfortable place for breakfast. More

On Sept. 27 Tilman Fertitta and his wife, Paige, threw open their home in Houston's posh Memorial area. The occasion: a splendid fundraiser for William Jefferson Clinton and the Democratic National Committee. "I told'em, 'Don't y'all worry, I'll take care of everything,' " drawls Fertitta, andhe did. More

Tilman J. Fertitta is bullish on seafood. And with the NASDAQ numbers to prove it, he doesn't have to be modest. More

Tilman Fertitta created waves by going public and building Landry's Seafood Restaurants into the nation's second-largest seafare chain. Now he's added a major hotel renovation to his crowded business plate. Not long ago, Tilman Fertitta made a resolution to stop giving himself outrageous deadlines. But so far, the 38-year-old president of Landry's Seafood Restaurants Inc. admits that patience has yet to become one of his virtues. More

Customers are falling hook, line and sinker for Joe's Crab Shack, the 2-year old casual eatery from the folks at Landry's Seafood Restaurants, Inc. With nine units in Texas and one in Louisiana, the concept has grown quickly since the companybought two Houston units in 1994. More

Two years ago, Tilman Fertitta stood in front of a group of analysts and dared investors to short the stock of his company. Within three weeks, shares of Landry's Seafood Restaurants Inc. had jumped 8 points. More

From Main Street to Wall Street, Landry's Strikes It Rich With Seafood
Even by his own tough standards, 1994 was a pretty good year for Tilman Fertitta. The Houston Rockets, of which he's a director, won the NBA Championship, while Landry's Seafood Restaurants, Inc., Fertitta's Houston-based restaurant group, proved a winner on Wall Street. More

While some say Tilman Fertitta is a shark, he has the seafood restaurant chain headed for bigger and more profitable waters. As the sun sets behind the Sierra de Chihuahua range in nearby Mexico, the dinner hour is still in full swing at the hottest new restaurant in town-Landry's Seafood House. More

Who says there isn't room for another seafood dinner-house chain with national ambitions? Tilman Fertitta is planning to cover the country with Landry's. It's not a pretty sound when a full tray of food crashes to the floor. Yet, during this lunch hour at Landry's Seafood House in Houston, Tilman Fertitta does not blink when disaster hits. More