Real Mex Restaurants, parent of the El Torito, Acapulco and Chevys Fresh Mex restaurant chains, is scheduled to go up for auction later this month as part of an ongoing Chapter 11 reorganization.

According to court filings last week, bids are due before Jan. 20, and an auction would be held on Jan. 26 with the court expected to make a ruling on the results by Jan. 30.

Cypress, Calif.-based Real Mex filed for bankruptcy in October, saying the move would speed a turnaround. At the time, company officials said they were considering a sale of assets, as well as negotiating with existing bondholders and stakeholders about a possible purchase.

Sun Capital Partners is the majority owner of Real Mex, and sources say the private equity firm may still be interested in the chain. Real Mex also has generated interest from outside parties, although no stalking horse bid has emerged to date, according to two people familiar with potential deals.

Boca Raton, Fla.-based Sun Capital also is the majority owner of Friendly’s Ice Cream Corp., which filed bankruptcy in October and went up for auction in late December — only to be repurchased by Sun Capital in a credit bid deal expected to close this month.

The nation’s largest operator of full-service Mexican restaurants, Real Mex in June of last year operated 178 units under the El Torito, Acapulco and Chevys brands, as well as one-off Las Brisas Restaurant in Laguna Beach, Calif.; and small regional concepts Who-Song & Larry’s, Casa Gallardo and El Paso Cantina.

The Chevys chain includes 30 franchised locations.

The company also operates a food production subsidiary called Real Mex Foods.

Roughly 30 restaurants have been closed within the past six months, according to Real Mex spokesman Rick Van Warner.

Currently, Real Mex operates 144 restaurants, including 60 El Toritos; 50 Chevys; 20 Acapulcos; six El Torito Grills; four Casa Gallardos and the four one-offs: Las Brisas, Who-Song & Larry’s, Siniqual and El Paso Cantina. In addition, Chevys franchisees operate another 24 locations for that brand, the only Real Mex concept with franchise locations.

Most of Real Mex’s restaurants are in California, which was particularly hard hit by economic headwinds over the past few years.

The company said in court filings that revenue totaled $315.5 million through late August, a decline of 3.2 percent compared with the same time frame the previous year, in part because of restaurant closures and declining customer traffic.

Real Mex has been reworking its leadership over the past several months.

David Goronkin, formerly president and chief executive of Bennigan’s Franchising Co., joined the company as chair, president and chief executive in June. Since then, Edie Ames was named Real Mex’s chief operating officer overseeing the El Torito and Acapulco brands, and Brian Wright was named president of the Chevys brand.

Van Warner said ongoing operational and cultural changes across all brands are taking hold.

“We’re pleased with the progress the brands are continuing to make,” he said. “We’re looking forward to exiting Chapter 11 after the next few weeks and having a stronger platform for growth.”

The entrepreneur backing Umami Burger and Katsuya speaks about risks and opportunities

August 25, 2011 | By Lisa Jennings

Sam Nazarian, founder, chairman and chief executive of SBE.

As it approaches its 10-year anniversary next year, Los Angeles-based SBE is emerging as a deep-pocketed and diverse multi-concept operator of restaurants, hotels and nightclubs across the country.

Founder, chairman and chief executive Sam Nazarian has assembled a mushrooming collection of concepts, from José Andrés’ restaurant The Bazaar in Beverly Hills, Calif., to the first West Coast franchise operation of New York hot dog icon Papaya King.

Currently, SBE is taking its five-unit, upscale-casual Asian restaurant Katsuya national, with up to 20 locations planned for the next five years. And earlier this year, the company became an equal partner in Adam Fleischman’s five-unit Umami Burger.

Nazarian spoke with Nation’s Restaurant News about re-invention and the perils of sitting stagnant in the restaurant business.

What does your partnership with Adam Fleischman [pictured left] and Umami Burger bring to SBE?

It will be a separate entity, a separate company. But we have committed the equity and are very excited about Adam as a brand and Umami as a brand.

The difficulty in our business is that lightning in a bottle is very hard to catch. And what Adam has been able to do with Umami is to create a brand that resonates in a space that’s very crowded, and also to create scalability. With our partnership, we can help guide a guy like Adam to go from five to 50 stores.

What is the goal for Umami Burger’s growth?

Our goal is to get to 60 [restaurants]. That’s a function of time, finding the right locations and the right markets. We have a healthy pipeline already. The response is tremendous.

It’s an emotional brand … It’s not necessarily white tablecloth, or how many Michelin stars you have. It’s the connectivity of the product with the end user.

Culinary awareness is at an all-time high. Shows like Top Chef have made it that much more a part of the culture today. You see people really wanting to know about their food, their wine, the eco-friendly buildings they’re in. They want to know about the designer, the inspiration. I did not see that when I was growing up.

What are your plans for Katsuya?

I think it could exist in any major urban center. We have four versions of it now that we think touch all different kinds of consumers. We could hit 15 to 20 units within the next four or five years, just domestically. We’re looking at international opportunities too, but it’s still too fresh of a brand to go international right now.

Is The Bazaar restaurant in the SLS Hotel and your partnership with José Andrés growing?

Yes. SLS Miami opens in the first quarter next year and José is culinary director of the SLS brand.

One of the things we can be good at as a company is to be a really good platform for these amazing rock stars to flourish, whether it be an Adam, or a José or a Katsuya or Danny Elmaleh.

The restaurant space to me is a paradigm right now. Anybody today who says they know what will happen 10 years from now doesn’t know what they’re saying. This is an ever-changing business. You have to take risks. You can’t cookie-cutter anymore.

I think the institutional companies are at a big disadvantage to the companies willing to take risks. At a time of economic uncertainty, this is the best time to take risks. You’re taking risks when most people aren’t, and that’s what we’ve been able to do.

Tell me about your new concept, Mercato di Vetro.

At Mercato, for the first time that I’ve seen within a 4,000- to 5,000-square-foot restaurant, we’re putting the kitchen in the middle of the restaurant, where everything from the entrecote, to the mozzarella and salamis, to the pasta is being made.

Everybody comes in and you sit around and watch these “performers,” or chefs, and you see what you want to order. If you like it, you take it home. It’s a very simple philosophy.

What are your plans as the first franchisee of Papaya King in Los Angeles?

It’s a brand with unbelievable history and connectivity to a lot of people. A lot of people have tried to replicate it in New York. It has so much brand equity. It’s a specific experience of a juice and a hot dog cooked in a specific way with specific integrity. From Babe Ruth, to Julia Child to Martha Stewart, you name it, everyone’s eaten there.

We’ve talked about doing six or seven a year for the next three or four years.

What’s next for SBE?

It’s not something new, but it’s an evolution. I’m obsessed with communicating with clientele in the way they want to be communicated with. That, to me, is a game changer. The shotgun approach of advertising and blast emails and how to put butts in seats is so archaic.

The people that are doing it right are smaller operators with 20,000 followers on Twitter. The new aspect of SBE is culturally changing the process internally of embracing technology and at the same time maintaining originality. It’s working with social media and our marketing department, asking them to forget everything they’ve learned and to listen to the customer.

August 9, 2011 | By Ron Ruggless

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U.S. commercial restaurants closed at a faster rate than new openings, creating a two-year pattern of decline, according to the latest restaurant census released Tuesday by The NPD Group.

The Port Washington, N.Y.-based research firm found U.S. restaurant unit counts declined by 2 percent, or 9,450 restaurants, between April 1, 2010, and March 31, 2011, compared with the same time frame a year earlier.
Independent restaurants comprised most of the decline, with 8,650 closures, NPD said. Chain restaurant unit counts remained relatively stable.
“The decline in independent units is the steepest we’ve seen since NPD began conducting the ‘Spring ReCount’ census in 2001,” said Greg Starzynski, NPD’s director of product development-foodservice. The census is conducted each spring and fall.
“A volatile economy, frugal consumers and a lack of financial backing have made it a difficult business environment for independent restaurants,” Starzynski added.

In the most recent ReCount census, NPD found the total number of restaurants fell to 574,050 from 583,500 in the previous-year period.

However, the NPD CREST study, which tracks consumer usage of commercial and non-commercial foodservice outlets, found that for the year ended May 2011, visits to U.S. restaurants held stable compared with the previous year, when visits were down 3 percent.
The CREST study also found consumer spending at restaurants improved by 2 percent for the year ended May 2011, compared with the same period a year ago, when dollars were down by 1 percent.
According to NPD’s ReCount census, the number of quick-service restaurants declined by 1 percent, or 3,495 units. Full-service restaurant units, which include casual-dining, mid-scale and fine-dining restaurants, fell by 2 percent, or 5,965 units, from the Spring 2010 ReCount census.
By comparison, the total number of domestic restaurants fell about 1 percent, or by 5,551 outlets, to 579,102 locations in NPD’s Fall 2010 ReCount.
And in the Spring 2010 ReCount, the number of restaurants fell by 5,204 units, a 1-percent decline from the total number of eateries recorded a year prior, NPD said.

While unit counts were down through March of this year, NPD said restaurant traffic trends were improving.

Chipotle Mexican Grill founder Steve Ells said Wednesday he is developing an Asian fast-casual concept that he expects to debuting into the Hospitality Industry  in mid-2011.

Company officials were reluctant to give details on the plan, but said it would follow the Chipotle service format and its focus on “food with integrity” in ingredients, said spokesman Chris Arnold.

Arnold said the new concept will be similar in pricing to Chipotle, and that the restaurant will open in one of about 40 existing Chipotle markets. Denver-based Chipotle operates more than 1,000 restaurants nationwide.

Ells, who serves as Chipotle’s co-chief executive and chairman, said in a statement, “Since opening the first Chipotle some 17 years ago, I have often thought about how other types of food might fit the Chipotle model.

“Chipotle is not successful because we serve burritos and tacos,” he added. “Our success comes from finding the very best sustainably raised ingredients, prepared and cooked using classical methods in front of the customer, and served in an interactive format by special people dedicated to providing a great dining experience. And while our Chipotle restaurants will, of course, remain our primary focus, we are also excited to see how this format works with other cuisines in the Hospitality Industry.”

Analyst Sharon Zackfia with William Blair & Co. said the news was the “next logical evolution” of Chipotle.

“They have always been open to the idea that their Food with Integrity model is not specific to Mexican cuisine,” she said. “And Asian in general is one of the fastest-growing categories in the U.S., though it’s very fragmented.”

Other Asian fast-casual concepts include the 168-unit Pei Wei Asian Diner brand, owned by P.F. Chang¹s China Bistro Inc.; the 90-unit Pick Up Stix chain owned by Carlson Restaurants Worldwide; and the Flat Top Grill and Stir Crazy brands owned by Chicago-based Flat Out Crazy Restaurant Group, which operates about 28 locations of the two brands combined.

Chipotle’s new Asian concept, however, will no doubt get an initial lift because consumers are already so connected to the company’s core brand, said Dennis Lombardi, executive vice president of foodservice strategies at consulting firm WD Partners.

The format also works well within the Hospitality Industry in terms of speed of service, customer engagement, and customization — as well as greatly reducing problems with order accuracy as guests are part of the food preparation process, he said.

“Using the Chipotle service model for an Asian concept and having Chipotle do it will give them incredible credibility,” Lombardi said.

I read this morning in Nations Restaurant News that Denny’s Corp. plans to test a fast-casual model of its family-dining restaurant concept in Orange County, Calif. called Denny’s Café.  The new fast-casual store will open Nov. 1 and have a smaller footprint than Denny’s traditional stores. It will seat 75 to 90 guests.

Denny’s is brilliant and I fully expect casual dining companies to follow.  With the average Panera Bread having higher sales volume then the average casual Dining chain restaurant (Applebee’s, Chili’s, Ruby Tuesday), it becoming apparent that America wants a casual dining or family dinning food product with quicker service. 

Hospitality Companies are beginning to realize that better service often means self service.  The reality is that in most chain restaurants the server slows things down.  It takes forever to place your order and get your drinks and then at the end of the meal they hold you hostage waiting for the check and payment.   This happens because often these servers aren’t professional restaurant servers.  They are waiting tables while in college or while in between jobs but they don’t look at as a career. 

If a customer can cut 10 minutes off of the beginning of the meal and 10 minutes off of the end of the meal, they can now go out to lunch every day and make it back to the office without having to explain to their boss what kept them away.  At night, families can go and have a good meal and get home with enough time for the kids to work on homework.  On weekends you can go and have dinner and not worry about missing the movie you are planning to go to.   

There will always be a need for full service restaurants and I have to admit that I enjoy going to them and having great service.  However, Fast Casual is here to stay within the hospitality industry and in my opinion may take over the lower end casual dining market by the end of the decade.  Thank you Denny’s for paving the way.

Bertucci’s Executive Chef Stefano Cordova was chosen, as well as other chefs, by First Lady Michelle Obama to participate in her program which calls on the nations chefs to adopt a school in an effort to help educate kids on food and nutrition. Chefs- Move To Schools .

Chef Stefano is interviewed by award-winning journalist Callie Crossley of WGBH in New England. Earlier this month, Chef Stefano was invited to the White House to kick off the campaign. Chef Stefano, along with 299 other national chefs, has traveled to the White House for today’s official kick-off. “Chefs Move To Schools” is part of Mrs. Obama’s larger initiative of ‘Let’s Move!’ to solve the childhood obesity epidemic.“I am honored to participate and represent the Bertucci’s kitchen in the First Lady’s ‘Let’s Move!’ campaign along with others in my field from across the country. I have always been an advocate for healthy, fresh and smarter ingredients in preparing dishes for our guests – especially children,” said Chef Stefano Cordova, Vice President and Executive Chef for Bertucci’s Italian Restaurants. “We are excited to adopt a local school where we’ll put the First Lady’s plan in motion to create healthy dishes incorporating tastes children love. Our whole wheat pizza and multi-grain pasta are popular with families in our restaurants.”

To listen to the interview via podcast, please click on player below.

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One of the most important tools in a job seeker’s arsenal — and possibly the one that is treated most casually by the job seeker — is the resume. How well could a carpenter perform with a broken hammer, or a surgeon with a faulty instrument? Likewise, landing the job that’s right for you will be far more difficult without a powerful, accurately targeted marketing tool.

Crafting an effective resume requires stepping back, making objective assessments of oneself, being organized, and writing well.

Where to Start

Before sitting down to write your resume, it is best to have a clear plan. As a result, it will be helpful to consider the following:

Find your direction

As you would for any journey, decide where you want to go. The more specific you can make this decision, the better. If you have been a widget-maker all your life and you wish to continue in this field, the decision is simple; if you want to switch to making thingamajigs, you will need to dig a little deeper and possibly do some in-depth personal assessments.

Once you have decided upon a goal, you have a resume target. This will guide you in selecting the details that match (as closely as possible) the requirements of the type of position you seek.

Uncover your qualifications and accomplishments

Identify the information you will be using including work history, education and/or training, certifications, accomplishments, strengths, etc. Keep in mind that your accomplishments and strengths help ensure you stand out from other candidates with similar skills; therefore, it is essential to draw out those most relevant to the position you are targeting so that you may showcase them in your summary and work history.

Many people, surprisingly enough, have difficulty recognizing their strengths and completely overlook some of the best accomplishments they have to offer. The trick to uncovering these key points involves looking at what you do (and/or have done) from the employer’s point of view: How have your actions benefited the organization?

Everyone has accomplishments, yet often we are unaware of them. If you are particularly proud of something you have done, it is probably an accomplishment. Also, it can help to think in terms of challenge / action / result: What challenge existed? What action did you take? What was the result? If you can quantify the results — by using percentages, dollar amounts, or time frames, for instance — you will give your resume more authority and “punch” when an employer reviews it.

Consider the visual elements

Determine the design of your resume. If you generally submit a resume utilizing 8-point font and quarter-inch margins on all sides (a mistake often made by those who believe in the one-page myth), objectively assess the entire document. Will it stand out in a stack of resumes? Will your skills, strengths, and goals be quickly and easily identified?

White space can be used to your advantage. In fact, if you are at a mid-career level, a two-page resume is most common; and executives or those at highly experienced levels may find a two- or three-page resume is appropriate (depending upon your history and goals).

The idea is that you need not be concerned about keeping your resume to one page. It is more important that you present your most relevant qualifications and strengths in a clear and concise manner that maximizes the impact.

As You Craft…

Now that you have a plan, the next step involves crafting the resume; it is important to keep these fundamental strategies in mind:

The 15-second review

Employers are likely to spend only about 10-20 seconds on the initial pass. Your objective is to capture his/her attention while encouraging a more in-depth reading. This can be a valuable guide when deciding what to include in the summary and what to eliminate: Will it have enough impact to pass this rule?

The basic elements of an effective resume will include:

• A clean, visually appealing appearance that invites tired eyes to read.
• A dynamic and powerful summary of qualifications that targets the position requirements.
• Accomplishments emphasized in the initial summary and/or work history.
• Keywords and phrases appropriately placed throughout the document.
• A strong, well-written work history that highlights the last 10-15 years; earlier positions may be included in condensed fashion unless the skills are particularly relevant to your current goals.
• A section highlighting education, professional development (workshops, seminars, or other training that relates to your job goal), and other relevant certifications, publications, etc.
• Depending on your level, field, and goals, a table or list of specific technical skills may prove beneficial.

Summary of qualifications

Think of this as the “headline” to the “advertisement” that will “sell” you to the employer. Select your top skills, abilities, and strengths while ensuring they pertain directly to the type of job you are pursuing.

While it is critical to align your qualifications with the type of positions you are pursuing, quality of the writing is important, too. Write concisely, and write well. Keep in mind that while the language should be strong, sentence fragments are standard practice for resumes; however, cover letters need to be complete sentences (i.e., in first-person narrative form).

Work history

If you have a resume that details every job you have held beginning in high school, it will be a relief to know you may be able to eliminate them and free up a great deal of space for important information. You want to include information that demonstrates your strengths and illustrates your track record utilizing skills relevant to your job target. Positions you have held during the last 10-15 years are considered the most important unless you are a Senior Executive and you need to show a more complete career track. Sometimes earlier positions can be included in a block of additional experience.

It is important to be concise and pointed. Back up the statements made in the summary of qualifications with information that demonstrates how you used your skills and how they benefited your previous employers. Here, too, it is vital to remember your target, choosing and arranging information so that it will highlight your most relevant abilities and background.

Education and Training

An overview of your education is typically reserved for the end of the document; however, if it directly relates to your job target, you may place it early in the resume following the opening skill summary. This can be especially helpful if, for instance, you have a degree in widget making even though your work history has been largely in thingamajigs.

Give brief information that includes the level (e.g., associates, bachelors, etc.), kind (e.g., arts, science, etc.), and area (i.e. major and/or concentration) of degree(s) that you possess as well as the awarding institution and location.

If you have attended seminars include these. If you have obtained certifications in your chosen field, or ones that show you could easily secure any required certifications, list them either before or after the continuing-education portion of this block. The relative importance of the certifications will determine their position; for instance, a technical certification will be more important for a job involving information technology than one involving hospitality services.

Finally — A Resume that Gets Noticed!

You are just about done, and you should have a much stronger resume document. Just a few additional points to consider:

• Personal information — age, marital status, health, religion, and ethnicity should not be listed when seeking positions within the US. (When pursuing jobs in other countries — particularly with non-US employers — various personal data is often included, depending upon the country.)
• References are rarely included because they are submitted at a later stage in the process when mutual interest has been established between you and the employer.
• Often, particularly for a job you really want or need, there is no substitute for having a resume professionally prepared. Just knowing that writing specialists — who are highly trained and keep up with industry and job trends, and innovations in resume preparation — are preparing a powerful document for you can be a big boost of confidence, which allows you to wow interviewers. And you can’t put a price on that.

Either way you do it, think positive and be confident as you enter your job search!

Resume Strategies for New Graduates

Emphasize skills gained through experience and studies to fully develop a powerful, qualitative resume.

An effective resume captures an employer’s interest within the first 15 seconds. Typically, a new graduate’s most relevant skills are gained through academic study. However, unless a candidate’s education is in a highly sought after area, competing with more experienced candidates may prove challenging—especially if one does not have related work experience. Thus, a well-designed resume with a qualitative (versus quantitative) focus will immediately pique interest and maximize the marketing potential of your recent education, practicum, internships, etc.

Rarely will the title of a program or degree fully convey the full breadth of one’s skill set. A carefully designed resume—through strategic presentation of key program elements and your personal areas of focus—will quickly demonstrate to an employer the skills you bring to the table; this in turn allows you to stand out from other candidates. An Academic Skill Conversion™ resume leverages your hands-on classroom, project, lab, and internship activities as they pertain to your current career goals. And if you have related work and volunteer experience, it can be used to add further value to your overall presentation.

Also, it is not uncommon for new graduates to underestimate the strength of transferable skills gained through work that is unrelated to the degree. For example, you may have held service-oriented positions in the retail or hospitality industries. In these instances, it can be advantageous to show professional strengths that demonstrate aptitude in customer service, administration, or general operations. This is achieved by developing a well-targeted qualifications profile.

In addition to an effective qualifications profile, you can present specific details of projects in the experience section that follows your profile and education. If you have work, volunteer or internship experience, it would be listed here, in reverse chronological order. Ultimately, the key to a successful job search will be largely determined by the power of your presentation. You’ve worked hard to earn your degree, and now it is time to have your degree work for you.

McDonald’s USA chief information officer David Grooms spoke to Nation’s Restaurant News about the chain’s thinking behind its promise for free Wi-Fi to all U.S. customers in the New Year.

Steve Tanner, executive vice president and chief financial officer of Real Mex Restaurants Inc., is planning to step down in February and the company has begun the search for his replacement, Real Mex said this week.

Celebrity chef Todd English has inked a deal with the Elad Group, the owner-developer of The Plaza Hotel to create The Plaza Food Hall, a gourmet food court featuring fresh and prepared foods for sit-down dining or purchase.