Can Hollywood rescue a tired L.A. landmark?
Former Mayor Richard Riordan, 77, and up-and-coming film producer and hospitality impresario Sam Nazarian, 34, may soon have an answer – in what’s got to be one of the year’s most unlikely pairings.
The two have teamed up to transform Gladstone’s of Malibu, the highest-grossing restaurant in Los Angeles and a beach icon for decades, into a hip hangout for the under-35 crowd.
“So far they’ve done a super job” is the assessment of Riordan, who is majority owner of the coastal eatery and who turned over management to Nazarian’s SBE Entertainment Group on July 17. “They’ve already dramatically turned the place around.”
Nazarian declined requests for an interview. But Bill Tremper, vice president of marketing for the company – which owns and manages hotels, restaurants, nightclubs and real estate in Los Angeles and Las Vegas – confirmed that the company has moved ahead quickly to make improvements.
SBE has brought in a new chef to revise the menu and improve the quality of the fare, overhauled cocktail offerings, made some minor physical modifications, and dramatically reduced wait times for food and cars parked by valets.
“We feel like we’ve made some progress, and believe that there’s much more to do,” said Tremper, who would not elaborate on future plans.
According to Riordan, however, they will include lots of remodeling and “a different kind of music, something people my age don’t appreciate.”
“You’ll see a lot more,” he said. “Every day they have new ideas. We want to make the place more youthful, yet still appealing to older people who view it as a tourist attraction.”
Though the initial agreement that calls for SBE to manage the restaurant for three months ends in October, Riordan said he fully expects to make the arrangement long term.
Chance meeting
The pairing grew out of a chance meeting between Riordan and Nazarian at one of the L.A. restaurants owned by the SBE chief.
“I was eating, he came over to introduce himself and we started talking,” the former mayor said. “Things were not going badly at Gladstone’s, but not going well either. I felt that we were sort of drifting along and needed some young new thoughts.”
Opened in 1972 as a small restaurant in Santa Monica Canyon, Gladstone’s moved to its current location on Pacific Coast Highway at the end of Sunset Boulevard in 1982. Poised on the sand within spitting distance of the ocean, it has become one of Southern California’s best known and most popular beachside eating establishments.
Riordan, who owns several other restaurants, bought an 85 percent interest in Gladstone’s about five years ago. But the Pacific Palisades restaurant has seen better days.
“It’s dated, rundown and dirty,” said Kristofer Keith, owner of Spacecraft, a Hollywood company that designs and builds restaurants, nightclubs and bars. “Right now,” he added, the restaurant’s ambience “is a little fast-foody.”
Nor has the food gotten rave reviews. Writing last year in the Los Angeles Times, restaurant critic Leslie Brenner took a rather dim view.
“The most important reason there are so many leftovers at Gladstone’s is that the food, for the most part, is abominable,” she wrote. “This is among the worst menus I’ve seen. It’s terrible to gaze out to the ocean and imagine the volume of precious seafood being pulled out and ruined every day by this restaurant.”
Yet the place has done well for Riordan.
Restaurants & Institutions, an industry magazine published in Oak Brook. Ill., rated Gladstone’s as the highest-grossing restaurant in Los Angeles last year. With sales topping $14 million and an estimated 575,000 meals served, the restaurant ranked 43rd on the list nationwide.
“It’s a local institution,” said a more charitable Merrill Shindler, editor of the L.A. edition of Zagat, a restaurant guide that describes Gladstone’s as a “beachfront seafooder” where “so-so” fare takes a back seat to “dramatic” ocean views.
“The food at Gladstone’s is what it’s always been; it’s food with a view. When the cooking is simple it tends to be better, and when it gets more complex – like with sauces and stuff – it might not be quite so good,” Shindler said. “But there’s always the view – seagulls flying over the water and girls in bikinis running on the beach – so what’s the problem?”
According to Riordan, the problems were legion, including long wait times when the restaurants gets crowded on weekends and during the summer.
Tremper said staff has been reorganized to speed up service, while the former mayor said the restaurant now has a “no-wait policy” that involves opening up more tables if the place is packed.
But all those improvements really are just elements of the larger goal, which is to broaden the appeal of Gladstone’s beyond tourists and older diners. As Riordan puts it: “Really, the world belongs to 35-year-olds.”
Which makes 34-year-old Nazarian a logical choice for the job.
The impresario, whose parents immigrated to Los Angeles from Iran, made his name as a Hollywood nightclub operator, founding such hotspots as Hyde and Foxtail. His company has since diversified into film distribution; restaurants; and hotels, including the SLS Hotel in West Hollywood.
Restaurants the group owns or manages include Katsuya, Mi-6, the Abbey, Hyde Lounge and Area, each of which, according to a company release, “integrates world-class chefs, inventive cuisine and stunning design to create truly extraordinary culinary experiences.”
Plans by Nazarian to overhaul the former Sahara hotel and casino in Las Vegas, which he bought last year and has already poured millions into remodeling, have been put on hold because of the recession. But he’s also kept busy in film, acting as an executive producer on several movies, including “Mr. Brooks,” which starred Kevin Costner.
Shindler, at least, is an admirer.
“He’s got a lot of style,” said the editor. “His restaurants are very significant; they all make a mark, so it’s going to be really interesting to see what he does.”
Keith, of Spacecraft, agreed, saying Nazarian has a lot of wiggle room to make improvements.
“They could incorporate some more comfortable areas overlooking the water where you could kind of hang around,” he said, suggesting a bar expansion. “I don’t think it would be difficult at all; SBE has a great reputation for being able to bring in a younger and hipper crowd.”
But does the restaurant risk alienating its older, perhaps more touristy, clientele?
“Whatever is lost in that,” Keith said, “will be gained from other ground.”
So far the formula seems to be working. Already, Riordan said, the average Gladstone’s customer is spending about $6 more per ticket on food.
“It’s absolutely mindboggling what they’ve done in such a short time,” he said. “It’s had a very dramatic effect on the bottom line.”
