Syracuse, NY - Dinosaur Bar-B-Que, the popular Syracuse eatery, may have been founded by bikers. But now, it has a big corporate backer.



Soros Strategic Partners LP, a private investment company launched by one of the world's wealthiest people, billionaire financier George Soros, owns 70 percent of the business, Dinosaur co-founder John Stage said today.



Soros' company made the investment last year, but Stage kept it quiet until now. News leaked out after Dinosaur Bar-B-Que filed documents listing the company owners on an application for tax breaks in Troy, where Stage hopes to open his next restaurant.

The Times Union of Albany first reported Soros' involvement today.



Stage, who opened a Dinosaur location in Harlem in 2004, said he met and befriended two partners from Soros Strategic Partners, David Wassong and Mark Pinho, a couple of years ago in New York. When Stage's former partners in the Dinosaur business, Syracusans Larry and Nancy Luckwaldt, retired and sold their shares last year, Soros Strategic Partners bought them.



"They're basically friends of mine that love the restaurant," Stage said of Wassong and Pinho. "When Nancy and Larry, my partners, retired, they pretty much took over their shares."

Stage declined to say how much Soros Strategic Partners paid for the shares. As for George Soros, "I've never met the man," Stage said.

The Soros company has other restaurant investments. In 2007, Soros Strategic Partners and Kinderhook Industries paid $180 million to buy seven restaurants in the

Mastro's Steakhouse

chain in Arizona.

Stage said he owns 25 percent of the Dinosaur, and several minor investors own the remaining 5 percent.

Stage, 49, and former partner Michael Rotella opened the original Syracuse restaurant in 1988, after years of cooking for fellow bikers on a mobile grill they carted to biker shows. A second

restaurant in Rochester

opened a decade later.

Last month, TV show "

Good Morning America

" named Dinosaur the best barbecue joint in the country.

Now the Dinosaur is seeking its fourth location, which may open in a vacant building on the waterfront in Troy.

According to the Times Union, the city has offered an estimated $463,000 in upfront tax breaks, plus a 20-year payment in lieu of taxes at a reduced rate. Dinosaur plans to pay $1.65 million for a building last occupied by Fresno's, a restaurant that closed in 2007, the paper reported.

Although his investors have deep, deep pockets, Stage said he is still running the business and has no immediate plans to expand beyond

Troy

.

"That's it, brother. I do one at a time," Stage said. "I have a hard time looking beyond one."

Tim Knauss can be reached at tknauss@syracuse.com or 315-470-3023.