Long John Silver's Freshside Grille

Last month Long John Silver's introduced its new Freshside Grille menu which is its non-fried line-up .

Here is a link to this new menu addition http://www.freshsidegrille.com/

Anniversaries galore in 2009

The year 2009 will be a big anniversary year for Jerrico and Long John Silvers :

1929 - The year Jerry Lederer opened his first restaurant
1969 - The first Long John Silver's opened in Lexington , KY .
1989 - Jerrico, Inc goes private in an LBO ( leverage buy-out )

Long John Silver's news from across the pond

Check out this website for information about the Long John Silver character from Treasure Island :


http://www.longjohnsilvertrust.co.uk/

Cod on the come back ???

High-Tech Fish Farms Angle to Make Hard-to-Rear Cod the Next Salmon
By JOHN W. MILLER

BODØ, Norway -- A millionaire dot-com executive turned fishing entrepreneur is pursuing the holy grail of industrial aquaculture -- the Atlantic cod. Harald Dahl, founder of Norway's Codfarmers ASA, wants to infuse ancient Viking fishing grounds with high-tech equipment and modern management techniques, returning the Atlantic cod to the commercial prominence it once held.

Norwegian Fish Farmers Try to Revive Atlantic Cod
1:52
Watch how Norwegian fish farmers are leading a movement to revive the Atlantic cod -- the fish that launched Viking expeditions and perhaps the discovery of America. WSJ's John Miller reports. (Oct. 26)
His dream comes as aquaculture, more craft than science until recently, appears ready to come into its own. This year, for the first time, humans will eat more farmed fish than wild fish, according to a report being prepared by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. Big-name investors, including J.P. Morgan Chase and Morgan Stanley & Co., are backing Mr. Dahl's vision of high-tech cod farms.
The 42-year-old grew up on the Lofoten Islands off the northern coast of Norway and remembers a time when "cod fishing boats crowded harbors so you could walk across them." Today, he and a handful of entrepreneurs are betting they can conquer aquaculture's twin Achilles' heels: catastrophic outbreaks of disease and the heavy reliance on salmon, for decades the only mass-produced salt water fish offering.
A dozen Norwegian companies, including Marine Farms ASA and Salmar ASA, are pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into exotic equipment and new technologies to raise cod and other salt water species, long avoided because they are so much harder to breed and feed than the omnivorous salmon.
View Slideshow

Norway Turns to Farmed Cod
Norwegian companies are investing hundreds of millions of dollars in codfish farms to plug an economic hole left by the collapse of wild cod stocks.
The biggest prize is the Atlantic cod, a fish that gave Cape Cod its name and triggered fishing wars between nations. Today, the Atlantic cod is a $1 billion annual market, after a long, steep decline in catches. Over-fishing has slashed the annual Atlantic catch to 137,000 tons last year, from 1.8 million tons in 1968, according to the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea, a fishery research institute based in Denmark.
Norway is the epicenter of aquaculture's transformation into big business. With 1,000 miles of coastline and deep, protected inlets or fjords, it offers an ideal laboratory for farming salt water fish. This year it overtook China as the world's biggest exporter of seafood by revenue, even though China produces around two-thirds of the world's farmed fish. Fish farms account for 47% of Norway's seafood exports, up from 30% a decade ago.
The biggest producer of farmed cod so far, accounting for 25% of sales worldwide, is Mr. Dahl's Codfarmers. He started production in 2005 and hopes to sell 30,000 tons of farmed cod annually by 2012, not far off Norway's total 35,000 ton wild catch today.
The company is backed by $100 million raised from investors including J.P. Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, and the Hearst family. Executives worry the banking crisis could hurt future financing rounds, "but there's nothing to do except cut some costs and hope this sorts itself out," says CEO Oystein Steiro.
Mr. Dahl aims to make cod a mainstay in grocers' fish counters. "Salmon used to be the party fish. Now it's become an everyday fish. We want to make cod the party fish."
His grand ambition has strong economics behind it. Farmers can charge about 20% more for farmed fish than for cod caught in the wild, because it is fresher. Wild cod has to spend several days in the belly of a boat returning from the middle of the Atlantic before it hits shore. Farmed cod doesn't have to make that trip, making it fresher. Farmed salmon, by contrast, sells at a steep discount to wild salmon.
But cod are difficult creatures. Previous efforts to farm the fish, in Norway in the 1990s and Canada and Scotland earlier in this decade, ran aground due to fickle breeding conditions, a restrictive diet and a stubborn drive to escape nets.
Industrial fish farming faces plenty of skeptics. A female cod, roughly the size of large household cat, lays two million eggs at a time. But in nature only one or two of this vast brood survive. To make steady production viable, a cod farm has to improve that ratio by a factor of thousands, says Daniel Pauly, a fish scientist at the University of British Columbia.
Farmed fish "pollute, they're always prone to disease and they can escape and harm wild fish populations," says Lisa Langard, fish farming analyst at World Wildlife Fund's Oslo office.
Mr. Dahl thinks he can address such qualms with technology and Norway's deep fjords. At a Codfarmers hatchery in Bodø, Thor Magne Jonassen supervises three green fiberglass tanks filled each with 400 cod. The fish will spawn in shifts, once every two months. Dim tank lights that mimic winter will control breeding and produce healthier, fatter fish.
"We're learning from other people's mistakes," says Mr. Jonassen. He predicts his 1,200 fish will generate five to 10 million cod a year. After the fish reach 3.5 ounces in weight, they are transferred to net cages in fjords 1,000 feet deep. The depth helps to recycle the fish water and prevent waste from accumulating. Divers keep the nets repaired to thwart escapees.
On filleting day, a plastic pipe the width of a basketball whisks a cod from the holding pen every two seconds and onto a conveyor belt. Workers cut off heads for fish meal and livers for oil, drugs, cosmetics and food, before packing the cod in ice for delivery to supermarkets in Europe. Soon, Mr. Dahl hopes, they will be whisked to the U.S.
Write to John W. Miller at john.miller@dowjones.com

Fish and Chips

The Long John Silver's chain was founded as an American adaption of the fish and chips meal originated in England . The first Long John Silver's store was opened in 1969 in Lexington, KY on Southland Drive and grew to be the largest chain in its segment in the U.S. . More on LJS to come but here is a great link to the history of fish and chips :

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fish_and_chips


I love Wiki !

Golf Outing Regrets

Bruce Cotton was unable to attend due to being out of town .


Paula Shives would love to attend the next one .

Group photo of most of us - Kearney Hills

Pic from Golf Outing

Rick Jenkins on left, Mark Plummer and David Smith in cart and Forrest Ragsdale on the right ............... they are trading golf lies .

Golf Outing Comments

Yesterday we held the first Jerrico alumni golf outing and I must say this was a lot of fun whether you were any good at golf or not ( I was not ) . It many ways it was like attending a high school renunion seeing people you haven't seen for years . I think it was great for everyone to connect . Also , at any point time there are several of us in life and career transition points has this is a great network that can be useful . A few of us played poker the evening before and that brought back memories as well . The following is an attempt to provide an update on what is going on with some of the attendees although I am sure I am leaving some things out .

1. Dave Kaufhold , who did a GREAT job organizing this event , left Jack In The Box a while
back and has relocated to the greater Cincinnati area and is plotting his next move .
2. Rick Jenkins and his brother are doing just fine with their Canoe Creek Creations home
improvement business in Garrard County .
3. Jerry Deitchle is still in California and the Chairman and CEO of BJ's Restaurants which
now has a store in Louisville ( Oxmoor ) .
4. Ted Innes recently left the Movie Gallery Corporation and is looking for his next gig .
5. Mark Plummer is with Laura's Lean Beef
6. Forrest Ragsdale is with Stites and Harbison in Louisville
7. Ron Cegnar is in his 13th year of supply chain consulting
8. Richard Pitcock is with Laura's Lean Beef
9. Ann Wells is still with Lexmark
10. David Smith is transitioning from Fazolies to a new gig at some point .
11. Dave Demarest is with JP Morgan
12. Mark Renfro is planning a new venture
13. Linda Borkowski is the mother of an aspiring young lacrosse player
14. Chuck Sidun is doing well with his tax practice that has many restaurant company clients
15. Steve Steltenkamp has a new position with a company
16. Sonny Beckley was there and I also think he is planning his next move
17. Tom Bohon made it to the poker game
18 Tim Minter I believe is with Lexmark

Even though we many of us had not seen each other in a while it was clear that few people real know each of us like the others in this group do . I created this blog on a whim a few weeks ago and think I will update on occasion so check back every now and then on occasion if you wish . Reader comments can be posted as well .

I look forward to doing this outing again sometime and if we do I predict a bigger group .

Jerrico Finance Department Golf Outing

On Saturday August 16 there will be a golf outing of several members of the Jerrico , Inc finance department . The event is being organized by David Kaufhold and will be held at Kearney Hills . A poker game is scheduled for the evening prior .

Sordid details to follow .

Two Long John Silver's For Sale in Kentucky

I have a new listing on two Long John Silver's including the real estate in Kentucky. These have been image enhanced but not co-branded . Asking price is $1,100,000 . Serious inquiries to Mark Sievers www.thesieverscompany.com ( affiliate of Apex Realty ) .

Starting a blog

Hey gals and guys , just for yuks and grins I decided to start a Jerrico and Long John Silvers Alumni Blog. There are so many of us out there that worked for these great companies and I want to document the achievement of its alumni and also keep track of the brand today .

Stay tuned for more information and feel free to participate .