Greetings and welcome to Ark Restaurants' First Quarter 2021 Results Conference Call. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. It is my pleasure to introduce your host Sonal Shah, General Counsel. Thank you. You may begin.

Thank you, operator. Good morning, and thank you for joining us on our conference call for the first fiscal quarter ended January 2, 2021. My name is Sonal Shah, and I'm General Counsel of Ark Restaurants. With me on the call today is Michael Weinstein, our Chairman and CEO; Vinny Pascal, our Chief Operating Officer; and Anthony Sirica, our Chief Financial Officer. For those of you who have not yet obtained a copy of our press release, it was issued over the newswires yesterday, and is available on our website. To review the full text of that press release, along with the associated financial tables, please go to our homepage at www.arkrestaurants.com. Before we begin, however, I'd like to read the Safe Harbor statement. I need to remind everyone that part of our discussion this morning will include forward-looking statements and that these statements are not guarantees of future performance, and therefore, undue reliance should not be placed on them. We refer everyone to our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a more detailed discussion of the risks that might have a direct bearing on our operating results, performance and financial condition. I'll now turn the call over to Michael.

Hi, everybody. Thank you for joining us. I think the first thing we should do is turn to Anthony and ask him to just give you an overview of our balance sheet and when we expect to turn cash flow positive based upon projections, so Anthony, why don’t you please do that for everybody?

Sure. Thanks, Michael. Good morning, everyone. We feel good about where we ended the quarter with our balance sheet. We're cautiously optimistic going forward about how things are going to play out. At the end of the quarter, we had $10.8 million of cash that was down approximately $6 million from year-end. That was primarily the result of our negative EBITDA, the cash portion of the Blue Moon acquisition of $1.9 million, and our debt service of approximately $1 million. We expect to end the current quarter with approximately $8 million to $8.5 million of cash based on the current projections. And we believe we will turn cash flow positive sometime early to mid-third quarter. Obviously, this is all depending on the increases in the capacity restrictions in Washington D.C., in New York, and in Vegas, as well as the weather, which usually plays a role in our results in the Northeast in particular. And obviously the efficacy of the vaccine efforts that's taking place across the country. Some other items: We completed the acquisition of Blue Moon Fish Company as I stated before on December 1 for approximately $2.8 million. That was $1.8 billion in cash and a $1 million note to the seller payable over four years. In late December, there was a favorable Congressional action that overrode the IRS's position about the deductibility of the PPP loan expenses, so which they are going to be fully deductible and the forgiveness does not have to be recognized as income. Pursuing that, we immediately prepared our tax returns for the year ended 2020 and filed the carryback claims in the amount of $2.2 million. Once those are received, there will be additional carryback claims of $1.4 million as a result of the deductibility of those expenses and changes in the tax law relating to carrying losses back five years instead of three years. So that is recorded on our balance sheet as a receivable. In addition, we closed Gallagher's in Atlantic City. At the end of the year, our lease was up, and we were on a month-to-month there. I'm sure Michael will speak about that and Thunder Grill in D.C. is not going to reopen in its current form. Our PPP loans are the same as they were, we were not eligible for any second draw loans because we're a public company and they were excluded. We've applied for approximately $4.1 million of forgiveness to date. Those were sent to the SPA year back. We expect to apply for the balance of the forgiveness between now and I would say mid-May, and approximately $7 million to $9 million of additional forgiveness. The difference between the loans and the amount being forgiven is the result of our inability to actually spend the money in the required period because our restaurants were closed or operating at a very limited capacities. We have a great relationship with our bank. I think you saw in the release we extended the maturity date of our revolver, in which point we will enter discussions with them about terming it out over an extended period. And our corporate office we continue to work at average salaries of 65% except our CEO who's at 50%. Those are the highlights. Back to you, Michael.

Thanks, Anthony. I think that's pretty good. I'm sure we'll have some questions after I'm done. So what is interesting is the flow of what's happened to our revenues and the different venues in which we operate. Florida continues to be very strong for us. And what I mean is that we are cash flow positive in all our locations in Florida at the moment, with the exception of JB's being cash flow positive. Since the beginning of when we reopened those properties, which were - I think roughly around May of last year. JB's is now profitable. One of the things that hampers us a little bit is we operate legally. So what we're faced with in some of our properties in Florida is that we're not operating our bars. People are not allowed to enter our bars by virtue of Broward County and Palm Beach County regulations. But independents away from us are operating their bars and taking the fines. So to a certain extent, some of the business that we would have had if we had bars is flowing to people who are neighboring us, especially with JB's with their restaurant right next door to us and on the other side of the street. People want us to be at the bar but we are not offering that. However, we have had very good results in Tampa, at the Hard Rock and Hollywood at the Hard Rock. JB's is doing well. Shuckers' is doing well. Rustic is doing phenomenally well. A good indication of how valuable these properties are and how strong their individual brands are is on special occasions. For example, on Valentine's Day, we were just packed and had a waiting list at all our restaurants in Florida. We acquired Blue Moon Fish Company. We thought that could be profitable almost immediately, and it has turned out to be the case. The cash flows out of Blue Moon are very strong. But please recognize Florida right now is in season, so we're gratified with the results, but they sort of were expected. In Alabama, those restaurants continue to do very well. Alabama during season was generating approximately $90,000 a week from the two restaurants. It's now out of season, and they are marginally profitable, with very strong results in relation to the current situation given that we are again on reduced seating there. Our capacity is not what it is when we're fully opened. But we are very satisfied with the results there. We were very satisfied with Vegas until they cut capacity from 50% to 25%. And that slipped us from being cash flow positive to being cash flow negative. They have just reevaluated and increased back up to 35%. So our guess is that we will be cash flow positive there again or breakeven at least. Our big problems, obviously during the winter, have been Washington D.C. and New York without any indoor capacity in New York and only outdoor seating which varies depending on whether people want to sit outside in the cold. We've been taking a beating, especially at Bryant Park, where business is maybe 5% of what it used to be, around 5% to 10% in terms of revenues. So we stay open. We have an obligation under our lease to stay open, but it has been brutal for us there. We're a couple of months away from spring. We were, as of the 12th of February, New York City restaurants were allowed to have 25% socially distanced seating in their restaurants. We've done that, and what was gratifying on Valentine's Day and over the weekend, actually, was how much business flowed back to ROBERT and Bryant Park and our other restaurants. Those restaurants are again losing cash flow; it's impossible to make money with 25% seating, but we had waitlists for Valentine's Day. So it just sort of encourages us on how strong these brands are and how quickly business will flow as capacity increases. So it's sort of back to a statement I made after 9/11, where our restaurants were getting killed, and I said to people, these are strong restaurants, strong brands, they're great assets, and as business returns, we will do extremely well, and that happened and I think it’s going to happen again. At least in the Northeast, once we get into the spring, whether this capacity increases for indoor dining or not, we will do well where we have outdoor seating, and that's especially true of Sequoia. Sequoia during the summer and early fall, despite capacity limitations indoors, because of the 600 seats outside, did well. We were able to be cash flow positive, so on the whole I’m very content with where we are right now. I don't think we could be doing any better. We’re very grateful to everybody who works for this company because they're making do with less income, especially the corporate office. Some of the restaurants which are not cash flow positive, everybody’s on reduced income levels as well. Some of our landlords have been very cooperative. But I would think sometime in the June quarter, we turn positive cash flow again. So with that, if that's a satisfactory explanation, I'd like to talk about - I guess Anthony mentioned Thunder Grill at Union Station; our lease was up. Union Station is a problem right now. The landlord and I are very close. They want us to reopen in that spot or perhaps with a different concept. But right now it doesn't pay to talk about it. Union Station is a homeless encampment, and a restaurant would not do well being open there right now, especially with reduced capacity. So we'll probably start negotiations to see if we can come to some lease term in March or April there. We've closed down Atlantic City because our leases were up, and we consider Atlantic City marginal at best. We did well, but with new leases we don’t think there’s any advantage, and the restaurants require a lot of money to be put into them because we sort of forewent maintenance in them. Meadowlands, we're absolutely convinced at some point, there will be a casino there. We think the state's budget and the deficits are going to help us with the state making a decision to move to establish casino properties in the Northern part of the state. We just don't think there's a better site than the Meadowlands Racetrack for that. We think that as New York approves downstate casinos, which we also think is going to happen very soon, it will ignite New Jersey to start moving legislation to permit it. Right now, Meadowlands is cash flow positive because of sports betting. I think we're the largest sports betting venue in the United States right now in terms of revenue. So hopefully that keeps up. Once sports betting comes to New York, which they're talking about, that probably reduces our capacity for revenue, but we also think that that will be another reason for New Jersey to establish a casino in the north. So all things considered, we feel pretty comfortable. We'd like to be cash flow positive now, but it's impossible, but I think that's coming very soon. I'll take questions now.

Michael, you wanted to talk about JB's or transaction, what's going on with that?

Yes, that's a good point. So when we purchased JB's, we had a right-of-first refusal if the landlord who owned the parking lot across the street with JB's uses and has exclusive use of and a parcel under the restaurant. We had a right-of-first refusal on a sale. The landlord was originally asking $18 million for those two properties, and that wasn't going to happen. Little by little, he started to reduce the price. He found a buyer at $11 million. We exercised our right-of-first refusal because we think it's a great development site, but on an economic basis, our rent is $600,000 a year. So if it was appropriate for Ark to put in $11 million to own those parcels and find a developer to work with us or we would have done so. Honestly, the $600,000 in rent would have been enough to cover interest and some minor amount of principal on an $11 million loan. So it seemed like that would have been our worst option; the most positive option would have been to sit there and own it and find a developer and make a development deal with somebody who knows how to develop. We do not know how. What we decided was that we knew some developers, and it was inappropriate for Ark to put up that money. So we arranged with people we're friendly with who are developers, and to develop six hotels in South Beach in Broward County to partner with us. Essentially, they put up all the money and we have a carried interest in the development of the property when it should develop. It's anticipated right now that JB's will stay in place and the development will go under the parking outside, which is to the west of A1A; JB's is on the beach, which is east of A1A, which is the coastal highway. So we think we will be able to derive some extra cash flow from that development in addition to benefiting from more density, which will help JB's revenue side. So that's the footnote that was in our queue, so that was just filed. Again, I hope that explains it and please ask questions.

Our first question comes from Steve Olson, a Private Investor. Please proceed with your question.

Good morning. Thanks for taking my call. Regarding JB's, you financed 100% of the purchase price of the restaurant, and on a short-term basis had some pretty - and I guess the plan would be, and confirm this - under normal circumstances, you would expect the cash flow from the operation to pay off the debt service over the next five years and I hate to say six year of the Blue Moon payment due at the end of the five years? The volume of the unit, I thought the parking lot was critical to maintain, you know, this $10 million-plus business volume. How are you thinking about the impact on the unit volume with the potential loss of parking, or is this a longer-term development if you can just kind of comment in order to help me understand that?

Yes, a good question. And I should have addressed it; I apologize. So, when we purchased JB's, you're right; the parking lot has 121 spaces. Spaces in that area are very difficult to come by. Without that parking lot, we would suffer on a revenue basis. So when we bought the restaurant, we essentially created an easement on the parking lot there, whoever owned the parking lot, the owner of the restaurant owns the parking lot; there were two separate parcels. Parcel A being the land on JB's, parcel B being the parking lot. This gave us an easement on the parking lots for the 25-year term, where he had to provide 121 spaces, or if the subsequent buyer purchased it, they would have to provide 121 spaces. And if it was a development, they would have to find 121 spaces that were convenient. We were the sole arbitrator of what was convenient. So now we did this deal with a friend, and obviously, if they develop, those parking spaces are going to disappear for a period of time. And so there is an equation based upon our EBITDA that the development will have to reimburse us for any lost EBITDA during the time that the parking lot is closed. There is a minimum that they have to give us under any circumstances regardless of EBITDA. If EBITDA went down to zero the year before the development, they still have to pay us a minimum. But they have to pay us based on what the EBITDA is, up to a maximum. So for instance, if in the year that data model starts to build on the parking lot space, if our EBITDA is $1.5 million and that goes down in the year in which they do it, they have to replace the $1.5 million. So we are protected on that, and then yes, it is a long-term deal where we own a piece of development. There are other opportunities that we think we can add additional revenue by operating some of the functions in the hotel because part of this is going to be a 101 room key hotel, we believe. This is early in the game; it will take us eight months to really figure out what the development consists of, but it will consist of a hotel, it will consist of some condominiums, and it will consist of some retail space. We have as of right zoning. We would like to expand on that as the right zoning; we're meeting with the city shortly to show them a plan and see what we can maneuver to get. So we're eight months away from probably knowing what we're building. But yes, we are protected with our EBITDA.

Okay. Thank you. And can you comment on any trends in event bookings at your locations that typically in normal years host many events?

Any trends? I am sorry.

Booking of events? Or is it too early? Are you getting more calls about hosting events in any of your locations?

Yes, I can take you through the flow of this. One of the things we were concerned about in terms of cash flow or balance sheet is we usually have $4 million or $5 million in deposits for events that are going to take place at Sequoia, Bryant Park or ROBERT, those are our three big venues for events. We were concerned that everybody was going to ask for their deposits back. We weren't playing hardball with anybody; we were saying, look, if you want your deposit back, you can have it back, but we will not guarantee pricing going forward. We don't know how long the pandemic is going to last, and we don't know where pricing will be a year from now. So if you want to maintain your deposit, we'll guarantee pricing will stay the same. If you take your deposit back, we're starting all over with a price point of when and if you want to hear back. We had very few cancellations. Anthony, am I right about $1 million went back?

Yes, we've done an amazing job of pushing. A lot of the events at Bryant Park and Sequoia are corporate events, so they will push off our - people worked with the customers to push them off for a year. Weddings were the issue that were scheduled; a lot of refunds were related to weddings. And from what I understand now, we are getting a lot of inquiries on weddings and smaller events in New York and D.C.

How can I trust that? It's pretty well because my daughter is one of our event planners, so I hear that every day how she is doing, and we're booking an awful lot of weddings in Sequoia, which is a big wedding venue, more than we've ever had. In terms of corporate events in New York, we're getting calls, and we have signing contracts. Everything is constantly being pushed forward. There are events that were scheduled middle of last year, they pushed them to the end of last year, then they pushed them to the spring and now they're pushing them to the fall. But our event business, when we open and when we're allowed to have events, I think it's going to be robust, not because of pent-up demand; I think it’s just people do get married, and social events will occur regardless. Right now, we've made arrangements with other venues. Gotham, for instance, in New York is the place where if you have an event of 200 people, you can do social distancing on the event. We can do an event for 200 people at ROBERT and have social distancing. So we're working with a couple of other venues to move events in the event we can do them because of capacity requirements. Right now, in New York State, we're allowed to do events for 150 people, but it's ridiculous. I don't know anybody who wants to do an event for 150 people, given the requirements that everyone has to have a COVID test within, I think, 48 hours before the event, and there has to be a monitor at the event to make sure that the certificates are presented. And then there is social distancing; you can't have an orchestra because dancing isn't allowed or maybe you can have an orchestra, but you're not allowed dancing; it's ridiculous. So we're three, four or five months away, I would take a guess, again, as we get closer to herd immunity or enough people vaccinated where states feel comfortable opening this thing up completely. But we will be busy. We will be busy. I hope that answered your question.

Yes, no good to hear. And the final question, any update on the thought - on thoughts on Clyde's - the future of that operation?

So honestly, we have been talking to people; we have a spectacular lease at Clyde's, and we have a really very cooperative landlord. We're not paying any rent there right now, minimum rent. We pay a percentage of our sales and sales have been weak. We were closed until recently because we don't do outdoor seating at Clyde's; it didn't make sense. And now we're at 25% capacity. We have an interesting conversation going about re-conceptualizing it. I'll have more to say about it in maybe a month, but right now it's Clyde's operating as Clyde's. It's a restaurant that should have worked but didn't work. One of the hard things about being in a business where you have a lot of individual brands and they're like art forms. We've been very successful guessing what the public wants and building something that the public likes over the years. I just never understood why Clyde's didn't work. There are times we've built restaurants, and you do understand why they're not working, and you correct them or not, but at least you understand why they're not working. We really don't - never had a strong understanding of why Clyde's didn't work. We've tried things to make it work, but it really needs to be re-conceptualized. The leases are very strong leases. The infrastructure is in great shape. We should be able to do something to piggyback that lease and infrastructure and build something that becomes cash flow positive.

There are no further questions in the queue. I'd like to hand the call back to management for closing remarks.

Thanks, everybody for being on the call, and we'll speak to you at the end of the next quarter. Last quarter, I did this, and I'll do it again. If anybody has any follow-up questions, my cell number is 646-322-9197. I'm generally available for your calls, so I'm happy to hear from you. Thanks very much.

Ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today's teleconference. Thank you for your participation. You may disconnect your lines at this time and have a wonderful day.

Thanks, everyone.