ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Sunday, April 28, 1996                 TAG: 9604270002
SECTION: BUSINESS                 PAGE: 2    EDITION: METRO 
DATELINE: BALTIMORE 
SOURCE: ALEX DOMINGUEZ ASSOCIATED PRESS 

EX-BOSTON CHICKEN CHIEF WANTS TO SPREAD DINERS ACROSS THE COUNTRY

George Naddaff had $14 million and a mission: Find a restaurant that could be the next Boston Chicken.

During his five-month search, the former chairman of the roasted chicken outlet checked out every possible food trend to hit this country.

``I saw a lot of pizza, a lot of pasta, Tex-Mex and a number of steak places. I looked at more bagel shops than you can shake a stick at, fat bagels, square bagels, bagels with no holes,'' Naddaff said.

The business he finally settled on was Silver Diner, a six-restaurant chain based on a concept millions of Americans are already intimately familiar with, the neighborhood diner.

``There's no national diner chain. By God, we intend to be that chain,'' Naddaff said.

Reminiscent of a railroad dining car plunked down in suburbia, the diners have a nostalgic look. But rather than filled with poodle skirts and saddle shoes, the restaurants have a meat-and-potato style complete with everything but 18 wheelers in the parking lot.

Naddaff, who sold his interest in Boston Chicken in 1992, formed Food Trends Acquisition Corp., to look for his next project. He put together a pool of investors, who voted in March to combine FTA and Silver Diner.

The company's stock trades on the Nasdaq Stock Market at around $6 per share - not nearly as wild a ride as Boston Chicken's initial offering, which jumped from $20 to $51 on its first day.

The six Silver Diner restaurants in suburban Maryland and Virginia have yet to turn a profit and have lost about $1 million a year each of the past three years.

However, Silver Diner co-founder Robert Giaimo notes that Boston Chicken was not profitable the year before it went public. And, he added, that individual Silver Diner restaurants have been profitable, but corporate costs associated with gearing up for expansion have gobbled up profits.

Silver Diner acknowledges that its goals are ambitious and that getting prime real estate in the crowded areas it wants to serve could be tough. But its owners hope to open an additional six to eight restaurants by the end of 1997.

And they are betting the homestyle breakfast, lunch, dinner and late-night dining will lure eaters into the restaurants.

``There's no veto vote. Mom can get the salad, Dad can get the steak, kids can get all-day breakfast,'' Giaimo said.

Wendy Webster, a spokeswoman for the National Restaurant Association, agreed that the low-fat menu with the diner theme may be a good consumer attraction.

``From the nostalgia side, as we say, there does seem to be a number of very popular chains around the country that have replicated the diner feel. People of all ages enjoy that feel,'' she said.

``And from the food side, a big part of their menu is healthy eating. We've been monitoring consumer preferences for over a decade and we've found about a third of Americans want healthy food when they eat out.''

LENGTH: Medium:   65 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:  AP. Gioia Gioia serves breakfast at the Silver Diner in 
          Tysons Corner, Va. The Silver Diner is a six-restaurant chain based 
          on a concept millions of American already know well - the 
          neighborhood diner.