New York Magazine's Grub Street did a good post a couple days ago that has got me thinking. It was about the 20 biggest chef empires in the country. Here's the rundown on the top ten, super quick (there were other factors besides number of restaurants, like TV shows and cookbooks, but I'm just listing # of restaurants:

• #1 Gordon Ramsay  27 restaurants

• #2 Alain Ducasse  26 restaurants

• #3 Wolfgang Puck  22

• #4 Joël Robuchon  19

• #5 Nobu Matsuhisa  22

• #6 Jean-Georges 25

• #7 Emeril Lagasse  12

• #8 Mario Batali  15

• #9 Laurent Tourondel  17 

• #10 Todd English  12

Anyway, it got me thinking about the biggest culinary empires around these parts. There are the restaurants owned by Tom Pritchard and Frank Chivas, the bunch of Ceviches (and Pincho) owned by Gordon Davis. Steve Westphal has the beginnings of an empire, most recently 400 Beach Seafood. If Chris Ponte gets a bunch of Peels dotting the land, that could end up an empire. Help me out, folks, who else around here has a bonafide EMPIRE?