Noble closes Ristorante Teatro to dining public

Ristorante Tetro had its final curtain call New Year's Eve.

The Chesterfield Village Italian eatery, owned by Springfield food marketing agency Noble & Associates, closed to the public Jan. 1. The restaurant space is now a corporate dining, training and meeting facility, said Bob Noble of Noble & Associates, majority owner of the restaurant.

Noble said a greater need for corporate space outweighed the retail restaurant operations.

"Right now with the space we've got, we are packed. Noble I and Noble II are full," he said, referring to the agency's two office buildings and corporate headquarters across the street from Tetro. The agency is using the facility mainly for meeting space and client product testing.

"We don't have a large meeting facility," Noble said. Tetro holds more than 100 people, and it will serve as a presentation kitchen, another feature missing in the agency's corporate landscape.

A fourth corporate site, the 10,000-square-foot Noble Idea Center on 15 acres at Highway 65 and Division Street, houses four kitchens for new product development, menu analysis and competitive product sampling.

"They are more developmental kitchens," said Kate Renfrow, Noble & Associates director of communications. "This will be more of a true-life restaurant-type kitchen, which will translate well to some of the presentations and things that we do with our clients. There are times when we have a lot of our clients in larger numbers and need more of a presentation kitchen."

To serve those needs, Chef Eldon Painter will stay on board with the company, but Ristorante Tetro's other 20 employees were let go.

Real world

Noble said he opened the restaurant six year ago with the vision of "a real-world learning center that would help Noble associates understand the food business a little better." While it proved to be successful in that regard, needs changed as the company evolved, he said.

"It was a great run," he said, but "we're restructuring the facility to be focused on our own growth and activities. It really is not the business we are in."

Noble said closing the restaurant to the public was not financially motivated.

"It did fine. It gave us a site that we learned plenty from relative to the industry and (its) trends," he said.

Noble expects the Tetro kitchen to be busy with eight to 10 catering requirements each week, such as working lunches for staff, and four to six special events and planning sessions for clients every month. Internal uses begin this week, Renfrow said. It is planned to be open to Noble executives for daily lunches.

Fork property

In another strategic growth move, Noble recently purchased the vacant acre of land across from Tetro.

The property is now home to the giant fork that has become something of a landmark for the agency.

Noble is exploring that site for an additional corporate development. He has no time frame for when that might occur.

"Until we get the new facility built across the street where the fork is, we are going to put the pressure on anything available to support the ongoing needs of the company," he said.

The agency employs 200 in its Springfield headquarters and 50 in its Chicago office.

New CFO

In other Noble news, the agency named Dan Reavis chief financial officer Jan. 2. The appointment concludes three years of interim service by a team of senior-level managers, who held the duties after the death of former CFO Mike Cooper.

"We promoted from within and created a management team that allowed us to function properly. But as we continue to grow, we needed to replace Mike, and Dan does that," Noble said.

Reavis, a CPA, comes to Noble after spending 15 years in the Los Angeles publishing industry, most recently as executive vice president of operations and CFO with Intervisual Books. He also previously held that title for Price Stern & Sloan, which later became Putnam-Berkley.

He found Noble after moving to Springfield in August.

"I found it to be a very exciting company that has positioned itself very well for future growth," he said.

"There are a lot of similarities between publishing and the ad agency industry. They are both communications- and creative-based companies."

Noble on Jan. 6 also added Greg Edwards, a practice leader for consumer promotions who moved here from Atlanta.