Claim Jumper Founder to Be Honored

Craig Nickoloff, founder and president of the Irvine-based Claim Jumper restaurant chain, has been selected to receive a 1999 Golden Chain Award, considered the restaurant industry’s most prestigious prize.

Nickoloff will receive the Golden Chain honor during the 40th annual Multi-Unit Foodservice Operators Assn. meeting in Dallas in September. He was one of six award winners selected by the editors of the industry trade publication Nation’s Restaurant News. The award honors restaurant chain operators for recent and lifetime achievements.

Readers of the publication will now select an Operator of the Year from the six Golden Chain recipients.

Nickoloff founded the Claim Jumper chain, which is known for serving huge portions, in 1977 in Los Alamitos. There are now 23 restaurants in the chain, including the newest one in Phoenix. Seven more are scheduled to open in various states within the next 18 months.