Hillstone Restaurant Group - Winter Park, Florida

The first Hillstone opened its doors in the spring of 1977. Hillstone’s founder, George Biel, recognized the need for a new type of restaurant that was non-existent at the time. It would be a place of high energy and would attract a broad range of people of all ages, where one could enjoy an upscale dinner of steaks, burgers, entrée salads, and other dishes representing a more flexible style of eating. With a longtime interest in cooking and recipes, George and his wife Carol set out to launch this new restaurant which would seek to marry consistency and quality in a way not seen before in more casual, full service restaurants. They brought in a minority partner to open their first restaurant in Nashville, which they named Houston’s in reference to their native state of Texas.