Every morning when Elizabeth An comes into Crustacean Beverly Hills, the upscale restaurant owned by her family, she makes sure that the pillows at each of the tables are creased at the center.

That sort of attention to detail is typical of how she has run the family business, AnTran Holdings LLC, for the past two years. It was started by her grandmother about 35 years ago and now includes several upscale restaurants along the West Coast. But with plans for growing the company even further, she has decided to create a corporate structure around the company.

“We started off a long time ago as a mom and pop operation. Now we are a much larger family business,” said Elizabeth An. “As we grow, I see the importance of bringing in outside professional help, but I also want to maintain our identity which is very personal and very boutique.”

Officially named the company’s chief executive earlier this year, the younger An is currently in the midst of expanding and diversifying its restaurants internationally, creating lifestyle products around the company’s brand and opening a 20,000-square-foot headquarters in Culver City.

One of her first moves as the chief executive was creating a catering business as part of Crustacean. The company has catered events with crowds as large as 800 people, a pre-wedding party for former vice president Al Gore’s daughter and a fundraising event for presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton. The new Century City headquarters will contain a 10,000-square-foot corporate kitchen for catering events.

Recently, Brett Doherty, formerly the head of catering at the Patina Group, came to the company as vice president of operations and Patrick Mayworm came aboard as chief financial officer.

“It was a tough decision,” Helene An said of bringing executives from outside the family. “It’s like being married to several husbands, and a divorce is really complicated. We are going through some growing pains.”

The new executive team is working on expansion plans that will bring Crustacean to Japan and China. The company has a partner in Tokyo that has signed on to open five restaurants there, and the plan is to open a restaurant in Shanghai before the Olympic Games in China.

AnTran Holdings is also in the final stages of opening a bistro restaurant called Xao Xao inside a major retailer at South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa and has started the launch of a branded line of lifestyle products for the kitchen and dining room including chop sticks, teapots, and table accessories, as well as sauces, rubs and teas.

The company is still working on a way to box and market its signature dish, garlic noodles. They are only served in the Crustacean restaurants and are prepared in a secret kitchen that only authorized personnel are allowed to enter.

Downtown Proposition

The Central City Association has begun working on a plan that would make it easier for nightclubs and restaurants to open along Seventh Street in downtown L.A.

Conditional use permits, which provide site-specific zoning exemptions, can currently take as long as two years for the city to process. If the group’s plans come to fruition, the process of applying for and receiving a conditional use permit would be expedited to 90 days for new restaurants, retail and nightclubs in the Seventh Street area.

“One of the most important changes needed to make this a 24/7 downtown is more nightlife,” said Carol Shatz, president of the Central City Association. “And it is getting more difficult for good club operators to get their permits approved.”

The group’s leadership hopes to build support among its membership and then take it to the City Council and planning department.

“We already have an initiative on Seventh Street to bring more retail and development to the area. This is a natural evolution of that,” said Shatz.

Celebrity Vault

Most of us might consider dropping $3 to buy a celebrity magazine at the supermarket. Klaus Moeller and Cole Sternberg are aiming way higher with their celeb items.

Last week the duo sold about $100,000 worth of photos of Frank Sinatra from their new studio, Celebrity Vault in Beverly Hills. Among the buyers was TV personality Simon Cowell.

Guitars belonging to Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash, Elvis Presley’s original contract with the William Morris Agency and autographs of the Beatles are some of the items that are currently for sale in the gallery.

“It looks like a museum, but everything is for sale,” said Moeller, the chief executive and founder of the store.

Moeller and Cole opened Celebrity Vault in March to sell photographs of celebrities and celebrity memorabilia from a gallery-type environment. They were profitable within a few months.

Russian Expansion

Russia has been identified as a key focus for the Beverly Hills-based Hilton Hotels Corp. Last week it signed a deal with Belgravia Asset Management Ltd. that allows Belgravia to open 25 hotels with about 3,000 rooms in Russia and other parts of Central and Eastern Europe.

The first will be a Hampton by Hilton Hotel in St. Petersburg that is expected to open during the second quarter of 2008.

Staff reporter Sarah Filus can be reached at (323) 549-5225, ext. 235, or at [email protected].