Grill Concepts Inc. is not afraid to try new things.
Back in 2012, the Woodland Hills parent company of the Daily Grill chain and Beverly Hills’ Grill on the Alley began catering to millennial diners with the launch of its Public School eateries, which feature localized décor, rotating craft beers and cocktails, and an international menu of comfort food dishes.
Now the firm is at it again, readying its new Point concept, which will feature a string of contemporary restaurants whose fresh seafood menus will change depending on what’s in season. Though millennials are a target, Grill Concepts is attempting to lure a wider array of customers to the new chain, while some successful aspects found at its other restaurants will also be applied.
The first location of the new venture, Laurel Point, will open this summer at the former Daily Grill location at Laurel Canyon and Ventura boulevards in Studio City.
“Much of what we have learned through Public School we are bringing over to the Point, from current food trends to service style,” said Grill Concepts’ newly appointed chief executive, John Sola.
Shifting gears is nothing new to the 63-year-old Sola, who has been a part of the Grill Concepts team for more than 30 years.
The former Arcadia resident moved to Lake Tahoe in his 20s with the goal of becoming a 21 dealer at Harrah’s Casino Resort. Instead, he took the first thing offered him – a food prep job that involved serving on the buffet line.
Three years later, Sola had worked at every restaurant at the resort. But he decided to move back to Los Angeles to advance his career. After a stint at the now-defunct Chronicle restaurant in Santa Monica, Grill Concepts founder Robert Spivak hired Sola to be the executive chef at Grill on the Alley in 1983.
The restaurant’s steaks and Cobb salads quickly became a hit among Angelenos. Sola was promoted to executive vice president of operations a few years later, and he helped launch Daily Grill in 1989 with the goal of making classic American fare available to local diners at low prices.
“When we started the Daily Grill, at the height of the era with large plates and small portions, we were instead interested in giving people what they wanted – generous portions and consistency,” Sola said.
Educated palates
Though Daily Grill’s first location was in Brentwood, Sola said the chain’s downtown L.A. restaurant became its busiest branch – that is, until the 2008 recession hit along with the emergence of Staples Center, L.A. Live and the rising popularity of bars specializing in mixology.
“Daily Grill ended up being a sleepy concept that had to change with new, more sophisticated and younger diners,” noted Kevin Burke, founder and managing partner of West L.A.’s Trinity Capital, who observes restaurant trends in Los Angeles. “The burning question in the restaurant business is whether or not you know who your customers are. You need to keep close tabs on different generations, as those customers and their eating habits will migrate.”
Sola acknowledged that Daily Grill had fallen a bit behind the times. Also eating into its bottom line were chef-driven casual boutique eateries such as Father’s Office in Santa Monica.
A trip Spivak made to England about five years ago ultimately provided the catalyst for change.
“(Spivak) and his son loved going to the pubs, especially because of the unusual craft beers,” Sola said. “When he returned, he came to me with the idea that (would enable us) to compete with places like Father’s Office, providing an education to customers about food and local or regional craft beers, hence the name ‘Public School.’”
In 2012, the bar of the downtown L.A. Daily Grill transformed into the prototype Public School 612. It took about five months for business to pick up, said Sola, and by then Public School 310 in Culver City had already opened, followed by Public School 818 in Sherman Oaks last year as well as spots in Thousand Oaks, Las Vegas and Dallas. The downtown location has since been rebranded as Public School 213, to continue the practice of including the local area code in the name of the restaurants.
Sola added that the company regularly checks social media sites such as Instagram as well as customer review sites such as Yelp to find out what types of people are going to the restaurants and learn what they like – and don’t like.
“The changes are astronomical in terms of the sheer number of different flavor profiles millennials are demanding,” Sola said. “People in all age groups are anxious to try the next thing out there, and we’re always anxious to try it in our kitchens.”
Lessons learned
Sola said the company is also trying to bring a bit of Public School’s flair into its older brands.
“We have installed additional taps in several Daily Grill locations to accommodate craft beers, even though customers will still be able order Bud or Heineken,” he said, adding that both Grill on the Alley and Daily Grill will incorporate seasonal items into their menus.
One thing Grill Concepts tries to keep consistent across all its brands, he said, is a team approach to management. For example, all staff – including front-of-house employees – go through the same training and are responsible for everything including cleaning tables and bringing requested items to customers.
But there have been operational hurdles.
In 2014, two servers and a busboy working at the Daily Grill location near the Los Angeles International Airport filed a class-action wage-theft lawsuit on behalf of more than 100 current and former employees, claiming the company had not complied with a living-wage law passed by the Los Angeles City Council in 2007 concerning hotels and restaurants near LAX. The complaint alleges that total lost wages among all employees at the restaurant amounted to $100,000 annually.
Christopher Gehrke, Grill Concepts’ vice president of human resources, said the company has moved to correct the issue.
“The company immediately updated the minimum wage when it learned of the ‘revised’ ordinance and paid all Team Members employed, or previously employed, back wages for the entire difference from the date of the ordinance revision,” he wrote in an email. “We are currently in the later stages of this litigation and we hope that resolution will occur sometime in the late summer.”
Sola maintains that the company’s relationships with staffers are as stable as ever. He pointed out that Grill Concepts encourages employee feedback through twice yearly meetings, an annual survey and a suggestion box. If there is a major change affecting a particular restaurant, such as adjusting a tip policy, he said he makes sure impacted staffers will be made aware of the situation and have a say in the matter.
“You need to be a good listener with your team as they need to be with the customers,” he said. “This culture is why I stayed with Grill Concepts. Whenever I go out to the restaurants, I want the staff to get to know me and hear my story, so they know we’re on common ground.”
