It didn't take long for Edie Ames to get hooked on life in the restaurant business. She started as a teenage waitress at a Bakers Square in Chicago, and that was it. She liked the fast pace, the energy and the interaction with people. “The restaurant industry just grabbed hold of me at that point, and then I had no desire to do anything else,” Ames says.

It wasn’t just enthusiasm for her job that helped her get where she is today as president of Morton’s The Steakhouse, overseeing more than 5,000 employees and 80 restaurant locations worldwide. Ames attributes a lot of her success to learning the importance of building relationships with people early on—a lesson she learned from her mentor, T.J. Kaikobad, during her days at Malone’s Grill & Bar in the small town of Dalton, Ga.

“I used to think he was unbelievably insane,” she says. “He would take just a random employee, a cook, and he would sit down with [him] and he would spend an hour with [him], and I never understood what he was doing. He would do it day after day. What he was doing was building his warriors. These people would absolutely do anything that he needed them to do. They would go to war.”

Since learning the power of relationships, Ames has been going to war on behalf of her employees and consumers. That people-centered approach has been at the core of everything Ames does—including the years she helped Kaikobad open his own two restaurants followed by 11 years at California Pizza Kitchen, where she served as vice president of operations and training.

Since joining Morton’s about four years ago, the 42-year-old Ames stays in tune with her staff and the needs of Morton’s guests by visiting restaurants—now up to eight locations a month, requiring her to travel more than 150 days a year. During these Quality Circle meetings, Ames sits down at separate times with groups of hourly employees and managers to find out what guests are asking about and what changes could make Morton’s a better place to work.

“Based on that feedback, I run the company,” she says. “That is how I make decisions. I like to think that they are making my life very easy because they’re telling me exactly what their guests are asking for and they’re telling me what’s important to them.”

That face time also sends a message to employees worldwide that the leadership at Morton’s values its workers. The emphasis on employee development echoes Courtesy of Morton’s The Steakhouse that sentiment. Ames has always had a passion for training and development and is growing the available career paths that help employees reach higher positions with the company. If a cook wants to become a chef, Morton’s can help him get there.

Keeping in touch with employees (including posting her direct contact information in every Morton’s location) and investing in them has paid off for Ames, especially in the wine and spirits department. By listening to staff suggestions, Ames realized Morton’s needed to evolve to meet consumer demands. The missing links were a more welcoming bar and an expanded wine program. Under her direction, the company set to work on getting assistant managers to participate in an entry-level sommelier program (an impressive 92 percent have already passed). It also began renovating its existing bars to make them less like holding tanks, as they were once called.

Ames launched the Bar 12*21 concept, which focuses on providing guests with a hip and more open bar scene. The name honors the original Morton’s steakhouse, which opened on Dec. 21, 1978, in Chicago. “The risk was minimal, to be quite honest,” Ames says. “We knew that by opening up, letting the light in and making [the bar] a more comfortable place, we would see a return on our investment.” At the beginning of 2008, wine and spirits sales accounted for 29 percent (and growing) of the company’s total revenue. Additionally, all 80 Morton’s restaurants won Wine Spectator's Award of Excellence in 2007 and 2008.

Ames admits making changes at such a well-established company wasn’t easy. One of her biggest obstacles since joining Morton’s was getting longtime executives to understand the need to connect with employees, and convincing them of the importance of innovation and constant evolution. She says genuine hospitality comes from giving guests what they want—even if it’s something out of the ordinary.

So while the new line of tasty Mortinis, martinis with flavors like pomegranate and pineapple, may not be the traditional staples of a classic steakhouse, guests have welcomed them with open mouths. The growing wine-by-the-glass program has also been a popular addition, a success Ames attributes to the sommelier training and increasingly knowledgeable staff. She says the training isn’t just about selling wine and giving employees opportunities to learn.

“It’s also about the stories you can tell about different wines and different winemakers and different regions of the world,” she says. “So when I think of our sommelier program, I tie it right back to relationship-building with the guest and the power of those relationships.” Continued steady expansion suggests that diners definitely have a good relationship with Morton’s. In 2006 and 2007, the company opened 10 new steakhouses and renovated 16 to include a Bar 12*21. Since Ames has been at the helm, Morton’s revenue has increased steadily each year to $354 million in 2007. And more locations are on the way, including restaurants in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., and Mexico City.

Just how is Ames going to fit more locations into her already grueling travel schedule? She says she’ll do whatever has to be done. Her husband of 10 years, Chris, is COO of a gourmet sandwich and salad chain, and he also travels extensively. “We completely understand what the other one is going through,” she says. “He is so supportive, and he just gets it.”

Regardless of the time she spends on the road, Ames says she enjoys the travel, and it’s the best way to make sure the company is moving forward in the right direction. “We can be great,” Ames often says. “But we can never be done."