AMERICA'S FINEST STEAKHOUSES GO GLOBAL AS MORTON'S OF CHICAGO COMES TO SOUTHEAST ASIA LEGENDARY RESTAURANTS BEGIN INTERNATIONAL EXPANSION IN SINGAPORE ON MAY 30 NEW HYDE PARK, N.Y., May 11 /PRNewswire - AsiaNet/ -- Morton's of Chicago,whose 39 steakhouses have set a new standard for fine dining in citiesthroughout the U.S., will introduce its classic American steakhousesthroughout the world, beginning in Southeast Asia, when its firstinternational restaurant opens in Singapore on May 30th. The 40th Morton's of Chicago will be located in the luxurious Orientalhotel, centrally located in Singapore's business and financial district. In the 20 years since its founding, Morton's of Chicago, a division ofMorton's Restaurant Group (NYSE: MRG) has carved out a unique niche in thehigh-end of the American restaurant industry, earning an extraordinarynationwide reputation for excellence in food, service and decor. In citing the restaurants' popularity, the New York Times noted thatMorton's "caters to many captains of industry," and the Los Angeles Timescalled it the best steakhouse in all of Southern California. "Hard to believe it's a chain" is how New York magazine describes Morton'sof Chicago, which it also named the best steakhouse in New York. The ChicagoTribune said Morton's is "The Rolls-Royce of steakhouses. The well-drilledstaff and seemingly unremitting attention to detail in food preparation makethis a place to impress clients, or celebrate a momentous occasion." -- Morton's of Chicago, which recorded its 12th consecutive year ofcomparable restaurant revenue growth in 1997, is America's most successfulmultiple-location, company-owned (none are franchised) fine dining restaurantgroup. -- Morton's of Chicago serves USDA Prime aged beef, the finest qualitybeef available, unmatched for its flavor and tenderness, and shipped fresh(never frozen) from the company's selected Midwest purveyors. -- The Morton's menu also offers generous portions of fresh fish, lobster,veal and chicken entrees. The menu, which is identical at all locations,includes such items as the signature 24-ounce porterhouse, a 20-ounce New Yorksirloin and a 14-ounce double-cut filet. Another Morton's signature is itstableside rolling cart "show-and-tell" menu presentation. -- Morton's prides itself on sourcing the finest products available: inaddition to USDA Prime aged beef, the Singapore Morton's will be servinglobsters from Maine, potatoes from Idaho -- and cheesecake from New York,along with oysters from France, smoked salmon from Scotland, swordfish fromAustralia, tomatoes from Holland and shrimp from the Gulf of Mexico. -- Allen J. Bernstein, founder, chairman and C.E.O. of Morton's RestaurantGroup (Newsday calls him "the king of fine dining"), said that Morton's ofChicago "has defied conventional wisdom by successfully replicating ourhigh-end restaurant in dozens of markets across the United States." He said Morton's "legendary" status in the fine-dining segment of theAmerican restaurant industry had inspired its new "Legends are larger thanlife" advertising campaign, featuring such world famous Morton's guests asMuhammad Ali. Bernstein said the second international Morton's is scheduled to open inSeptember in the Grand Bay Hotel in the exclusive Yorkville section ofdowntown Toronto. -- "The clear message we've been getting from so many of our internationalguests is "We'd love to have a Morton's back home," said Bernstein. "Now weintend to make that happen by rolling-out our proven steakhouse concept inmajor business and financial centers throughout the world." -- He said that Singapore was chosen to launch Morton's internationalexpansion because the thriving city of 3 million is one the world's mostimportant business centers, Asia's leading convention city and a convenientgateway to many other countries in Southeast Asia. -- The Wall Street Journal reported that of all destinations for Americanexecutives who transferred overseas in 1997, Singapore was second only to theUnited Kingdom, which led Bernstein to observe that, "Many American executivesworking and traveling in Southeast Asia are likely to be among Morton's corecustomers." -- As for additional international locations, Bernstein says Morton's is"currently evaluating a number of promising sites in Asia, as well as on othercontinents." -- Since Morton's restaurants are highly-desirable "value-added" tenants,real estate developers usually contribute a significant amount of building anddevelopment costs. Landlords are aware that a Morton's of Chicago in acomplex will attract other prime tenants. -- All Morton's steakhouses also feature an open-display kitchen, anextensive, award-winning connoisseur's wine list, and a fully stocked baroffering the finest single malt scotches and a classic martini selection. Thenew Morton's will have the largest selection of California wines of anyrestaurant in Singapore. -- To assure that every dish is consistent in ingredients, preparation andpresentation, Morton's goes strictly by the book. And there actually is abook, (a precise step-by-step, ingredient-by-ingredient, illustrated binder,with full instructions for each menu item). -- But in delivering customer service, Morton's managers and staff rewritethe book every day. They are expected, encouraged -- and empowered -- to dowhatever it takes to consistently exceed guest expectations. -- All Morton's of Chicago restaurants are similar in design and decor,with dark rich woods, subdued lighting, white tablecloths, photos ofcelebrities and colorful LeRoy Neiman limited-edition serigraphs and prints. -- Morton's is also noted for its popular private dining and meetingrooms. These luxurious "Boardrooms" offer automatic room-partitioning andflexible set-ups, and can accommodate groups of six to 90. The boardrooms have Oriental rugs, wood parquet floors, dark mahoganywalls, comfortable high-backed chairs and state-of-the-art audio-visualequipment for multimedia presentations. They are designed to offer the utmostin comfort, convenience and privacy for business and social lunches anddinners. -- Morton's of Chicago has developed staffing, training, motivation,purchasing, site selection and design systems enabling it to achieve theshared corporate culture of a group of restaurants, while maintaining thequality and individuality of the finest local restaurants. -- The company has put in place stringent internal financial controls andstate-of-the-art restaurant technology to optimize operations and maximizeprofitability, and each restaurant has its own food and beverage controller. -- "It's extremely gratifying that when the world's most respected andadmired quality brand names, such as Tiffany, Rolls-Royce, Disney, Rolex,Gucci and the Mandarin Oriental hotels are cited, the only fine-diningrestaurant group likely to be included on that exclusive list is Morton's ofChicago, the Steakhouse," said Bernstein. Except for the historical information contained in this news release, thematters addressed are forward-looking statements that involve certain risksand uncertainties, including but not limited to, general economic conditions,competitive activities, the company's expansion plans and restaurantprofitability levels and other matters identified from time to time in thecompany's public reports and SEC filings. Actual results may vary. SOURCE Morton's Restaurant Group, Inc.CONTACT: Thomas J. Baldwin, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Morton's Restaurant Group, 01-516-627-1515/ /Web site: http://www.mortons.com/ (MRG)-END-