Operating a restaurant is no easy feat, especially when you’re an independent operator.
Two area restaurateurs with recently opened locations—Lori Reich Rowe and Tony Fasulo (see story, page 17)—recently spoke to the Business Journal about entering the industry, lessons learned and how they’re staying competitive with curated experiences for their guests.
Below are their thoughts on succeeding in Orange County’s fast-paced food industry.
Peeling Back the Onion
Lori Reich Rowe’s father once told her he appreciated her moxie.
Her father, Lorin Reich, bought the Red Onion in Hawthorne in 1963 later spinning the concept into the Little Onion Mexican Restaurant, opening its Santa Ana door in 1972.
His daughter asked him first when she was 12 if she could work at the restaurant. He told her no.
She asked again when she was 14 and she heard no again.
It wasn’t until Lori was in her 20s that she began helping out as a hostess, a server and also assisting with the books before going on to work in corporate America for the next 20 years. When the recession hit, a tough business environment prompted her father to ask her for help to turn around the business.
A bet between Lori and her father, in which she was tasked with reaching certain financial goals for the business, cleared the path to her buying the restaurant from him in 2010.
Since that time, she’s bumped annual revenue for the Santa Ana location from $546,000 to $1.5 million, and last week opened the doors to a second Little Onion Mexican Restaurant in Irvine’s Walnut Village Center.
The Culver Avenue center, recently renovated and home to a Trader Joe’s, Smart & Final, Chronic Tacos and Burntzilla, among other tenants, is owned by Irvine Co.
A Passion for the Industry: “I really looked up to my father. He’s taught me so much. He was a single dad so he raised me. During the summers I would spend a lot of time with him going to the restaurant. When you look up to your parents, you just automatically see them as heroes, and you want to do what they do. I played restaurant [as a child]. I played the server. I played the owner. I played the bookkeeper. I love hostessing and making sure everyone enjoys the whole dining experience.”
On Turnarounds: “There were some definite gaps in the restaurant that really, really needed to be filled. We had sustained several recessions with just food and beer and wine—and not very good wine at that. The first thing I said was ‘I need to get my liquor license. I need real margaritas here.’ I had to remodel. The place was very dark; it was very masculine. It was not very colorful. And then, restaurants were putting their businesses on Facebook; we didn’t even have a web page. I changed the logo up, rebranded it. It just needed a lot of TLC. It was very natural [to do] because it’s like my house. It’s the house that I grew up in.
Lessons Learned: “I’ve learned that my father and I handle stress much differently [laughs]. That being said, I’m not a yeller. There used to be a lot of men predominantly working in the industry—male chefs and male restaurateurs. I see a lot more women in leadership roles in the restaurant business, which is great. There’s a lot of food safety standards that are very different today than they were 10 years ago. Obviously, there are higher operating costs.”
Trends: “I’ve seen the swings from either going hyper-fast casual where everyone was doing quick-serve or being creatively chef driven. I leaned more toward chef driven because I love full-service dining. It’s way more social, interactive. You get to go out and enjoy your friends and family. So that’s definitely what I’ve seen. With the core of restaurants, there’s a lot more creativity and talent with the chefs.”
Accepting Yelp: “With the introduction of Yelp, consumer expectations are certainly publicized now, so not only do people have opinions, but they voice it for the internet for all to see. That can definitely either be good or bad. For the restaurant, it’s one of the biggest things I struggled with because I want to be four- or five-star, but I have to remind myself different consumers have different taste buds. Different consumers have different emotions and food is an emotional thing.”
