LABJ’s LA Stories
Chowing Down
Is the restaurant business up or down these days?
While nationwide data show a flat or downward trendline, L.A.’s top eateries seem to be holding their own, at least based on an informal Business Journal survey.
Our mission: How easy was it to make reservations for a party of four at 7:30 on a Saturday night? We made our checks on Tuesday and found, with some exceptions, plenty of takers.
Some sample responses:
Spago: “I can do a 5:30, 6:00, or 8:00.”
Campanile: “You’re all set.”
M & #233;lisse: “I have 6:30 and 8:30. Or I can put you on the waitlist for 7:15.”
One Pico: “I’ve got 6:00, 6:30, 8:30.”
Angelini Osteria: “I have 6:00, 6:15, 9:00.”
The hostess at Patina at first said she had tables at 6:15 or after 8:30, then called back. “I actually now have an opening at 8:00. Would that be good for you?”
Takao had an opening at 7:30, as did Michael’s, Prado and Asia de Cuba. Saddle Peak Lodge could do 7:45, while JiRaffe had slots at 6:30 and 8:30.
Katherine Wang
Out of Sight
When the Chicago Tribune released its list of the 50 Best U.S. Magazines earlier this month there was the expected, such as the New Yorker (No. 2), Time (16) and National Geographic (39), as well as the unexpected, Wooden Boat (6), Texas Monthly (14) and Vegetarian Times (46).
Only one local title, Reason, made the list (No. 21), and the monthly Libertarian journal, whose clarion call is “free minds and free markets,” just barely qualifies.
Although it’s headquartered on Sepulveda Boulevard in West L.A., Reason’s “web editor is based in San Francisco, our art director is in Phoenix and our printer is in Arkansas,” said Editor-in-Chief Nick Gillespie, who is based in Oxford, Ohio where his wife teaches at Miami University.
“I would venture to say that if were any more virtual we wouldn’t know we were working for the same publication,” he said.
Still, Gillespie believes Los Angeles remains an apt base for Reason, as a city where, despite a difficult business environment, “you can do what you want to as long as you don’t bother anybody else.”
Darrell Satzman
Forgettable Moments
Adweek just published its “Ten Lowest Moments in Advertising,” and Los Angeles can take credit for two of the 10 botched campaigns.
In 2001, Torrance-based Saatchi & Saatchi and Toyota Motor Co. developed what Toyota spokeswoman Diana DeJoseph calls a “buzz campaign” to promote the RAV4 SUV and buzz it did.
One of three postcards, distributed in a number of Los Angeles bars, restaurants and night clubs, pictured an African-American mouth, with a gold likeness of the RAV4 displayed on one of the front teeth. Toyota was aiming the ad at a “youthful, fashion-conscious audience” that understood tooth art. The Rev. Jesse Jackson called it discrimination. Toyota pulled the ad and apologized.
Sony Pictures Entertainment is responsible for another Top 10 goof, conjuring up a faux critic to give its movies good reviews. David Manning, whose quips turned up in Sony movie ads turned out to be a phony. Sony paid $325,000 to Manning’s supposed employer, the Ridgefield Press in Connecticut a real newspaper.
Rebecca Semcken
Animal Crackers
Holistic food, pink futons and day spas are all part of the Los Angeles culture for dogs and cats, that is.
“Wedding gowns and clothing are hot this year,” said Doug Poindexter, executive vice president of the World Wide Pet Supply Association, which will be holding its 53rd annual pet industry trade show, called SuperZoo in Anaheim starting July 11.
The trade group, founded in 1951 as Animal Crackers, represents 450 manufacturers, distributors and retailers of pet supplies.
Poindexter believes Los Angeles culture encourages more lavish spending on pets than, say the Midwest or East Coast. He owns an English setter, two cats and more than a dozen koi and goldfish.
“When there’s a downturn, people tend to spend more time at home and their family,” he said. “We’re all spending more on our pets.”
Kate Berry
The Roving Eye
High Flier
Sammy Sosa received a seven-game suspension when he was found to be using a corked bat during a June 3 game. For Westlake Village-based Tuffbat, the discovery was a home run.
The bat manufacturer, which counts dozens of major leaguers as users, received an onslaught of free publicity that has sent sales of its high-end bats soaring.
The firm said it sold $15,000 worth of its X Bats, the model used by Sosa, the day after the incident. The rush was due largely to publicity generated when the large black “X” emblazoned on the barrel could be seen on television and in newspapers.
Jack Kasarjian, a real estate developer and winery owner, founded the company in 1999 as a hobby. His plan was to make only top-of-the-line bats carved from the hard maple in a 600-acre forest he owns in upstate New York. The site is adjacent to a lumberyard, which makes the bats for him.
Allotting only $50,000 a year for advertising not enough for player endorsements Kasarjian relied on word of mouth to become a player in the equipment industry.
That effort was helped when he convinced his neighbors Mike Lieberthal, a catcher with the Phillies, and Matt Franco, a first baseman with the Braves to give the bats a try during spring training last year.
Kasarjian said that by the end of last season, 86 major leaguers were using his bats. He said 161 players now use the bats, which cost $60 each.
“With the kind of money they make, it certainly makes sense that baseball players would want to get the best equipment available,” he said.
He expects to sell 25,000 to 30,000 bats this year, up from 8,000 last year.
David Greenberg
