Mikel Rogers, the director of operations for the locally based chain, tells GlobeSt.com that the local restaurant staff and management team has been hired by the new owners and that the sale included all but one of the chain's Northwest stores--the location in Portland, OR, adjacent to Rose Garden Arena, home of the NBA's Portland Trailblazers.

As part of the agreement, Rogers says that over the next 12 or 18 months Wolfgang Puck Worldwide must cease using the Cucina! Cucina! name on all four of the restaurants it retained, the other three of which are located in California. The locations acquired by Joey Tomato's and Gibralt Capital include seven restaurants in the Puget Sound area (Seattle, Tukwila, Bellevue, Issaquah, Kirkland, Redmond, and Tacoma) and one location in Tigard, OR, which is several miles south of Downtown Portland.

The new owners plan to spend about $1 million per restaurant to give the chain a new look and a new menu to reflect the "premium casual" concept, starting with the Seattle location on Lake Union this October. A second location will be upgraded beginning early next year and then two will be renovated every year after that until all eight have been converted, says Rogers, adding that a tweak of the name is also up for discussion.