It certainly found some—in San Diego.

Chef Brian Malarkey, a fixture in the celebrity chef community, is a regular judge on the Food Network’s “Guy’s Grocery Games” and “Tournament of Champions” and hosts “Beachside Brawl.” He was a contestant on Bravo’s “Top Chef All-Stars” Season 17, a “Top Chef” Season 3 finalist, and the winning mentor on ABC’s “The Taste.”

Malarkey has also judged a variety of television cooking programs, including “Chopped All-Stars” and “Cutthroat Kitchen.”

Outside television work, Malarkey counts a thriving restaurant business. He has opened numerous restaurants, including the acclaimed Herb & Wood in San Diego. In fact, most of his restaurants have been in San Diego. Until Irvine Co. recruited him to come to Orange County.

The result is Herb & Ranch at the landlord’s UCI Research Park, the 185-acre office park next to the University of California, Irvine.

The food hall is arguably the most notable amenity that Irvine Co. has added to the campus since it underwent a major makeover following chipmaker Broadcom’s departure nearly seven years ago.

The multi-tenant campus—now home to companies like fintech Acorns, the UCI Beall Applied Innovation lab and the innovation hub and test kitchen for Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE: CMG)—is expected to become a residential hub in the near future, as Irvine Co. plans a sizeable new apartment complex for the campus.

Variety & Brain Food

“When the Irvine Co. first contacted me about doing an eatery here, we thought you have to have something that has diversity,” Malarkey said during a meeting with the Business Journal at Herb & Ranch last month.

“When you are taking care of a campus, people who are repeat customers will get menu exhaustion if you have one standalone restaurant that looks and feels a certain way. You can’t do a lot with the menu.

“I had this idea for a long time of how to offer a variety of food very quickly,” he said, “because this is during work hours and you want it fast, and you want brain food.”

Malarkey took the food hall model and twisted it around to fit his concept, which he says eschews “heavier stuff like pizza and hamburgers, those things can slow you down.”

“We wanted stuff that activates the brain and makes sure the second part of the day is better than the first part.”

With Herb & Ranch, Malarkey has created a food hall with several different concepts, but with a shared kitchen and a walkway through each concept so his workers can float from one concept to the next as needed.

Herb & Ranch has coffee and breakfast items, as well as lunch dishes including caprese sandwiches, wraps and farm fresh salads.

Food Hall Student

Malarkey studied other food halls to see what worked and what needed improving—including dirty kitchens.

“There is nothing I hate more than seeing a filthy kitchen. I want my food fast and clean.

“There’s another thing that drove me crazy about food halls—you order on an iPad,” he said. “I need human interaction in my life.”

Something else that Malarkey improved on is speed.

“Everything in here takes less than a minute and a half. You get fed faster than they can ring them up. This is built to do a ton of volume. This year it has gone through the roof.

This place is designed to be a battleship. The kitchen is big, we are gaining more and more traction. It’s almost limitless what the kitchen can do.”

Pandemic Reset

Malarkey noted that Irvine Co. took a leap of faith with his concept, and it’s worked well for everyone, although there were hiccups at its unveiling—early 2020.

“Right before COVID, there was a day we did 400 covers in one hour, and it worked. Three weeks later we were shut down.”

Area restaurants, including food halls, went through a period of being open, closed, take out, patio dining, and finally fully open again. Herb & Ranch is still standing, unlike many others.

Cross Utilization

One advantage to the food hall concept at UCI Research Park, Malarkey said, is that his employees know how to work every food station, so if the station is not busy they assist one that is busy.

“Labor is huge, so we cross-utilize,” Malarkey said.

He thinks this concept is one to last.

“You are going to see this pop up everywhere,” Malarkey said. “People are studying this system. I am surprised we have not seen more of these pop up yet, but this is the food hall of the future.”

Herb & Ranch: 5301 California Ave., Ste 140, Irvine, (949) 316-4491, herbandranch.com.

The post Top Chef Star Creates ‘Food Hall of Future’ appeared first on Orange County Business Journal.

Johnson succeeds previous executive Randy Sharpe, who exited the Cypress-based company in February to become CEO of Wahlburgers, the restaurant chain of celebrity brothers Mark, Donnie and Chef Paul Wahlberg.

Johnson joined XRG in 2018 and moved up to chief operating officer in 2022; he was previously working for XRG’s former iteration, Real Mex Restaurants, before private equity firm Z Capital Partners acquired the company out of bankruptcy and reorganized it in 2018.

His “operational expertise and proven ability to lead cross-functional teams to execute on near- and long-term strategic initiatives has contributed to the success of XRG over the last six years,” Z Capital’s Founder and CEO James Zenni said in a statement.

XRG owns and operates 12 different restaurant concepts, with a focus on Mexican cuisine, including El Torito, Las Brisas, Sol Cocina and Solita. The company reported systemwide sales of $285 million for 2022 and currently counts over 60 locations in the U.S.

The post Xperience Restaurant Group Promotes COO to Chief Executive appeared first on Orange County Business Journal.

The co-founders are set on opening more doors as in-fill for places Lazy Dog already exists.

“That’s the plan, to take some of these markets that we don’t have a huge presence in and grow there,” co-founder and Executive Chef Gabe Caliendo told the Business Journal.

These markets include Texas, Illinois, Nevada, Colorado and California.

Although the restaurant chain operates four stores in Orange County, he said that further expansion in Southern California is a challenge due to the cost of real estate.

“It’s tougher to come by,” Caliendo said.

The firm will end 2024 with 50 restaurants.

Caliendo said he is focused on keeping Lazy Dog at the top of its food game. The restaurateur prides himself on operating a kitchen that creates almost every dish from scratch using homemade ingredients direct from local suppliers.

This allows Lazy Dog to make two to three menu changes each year, including new meals for the chain’s TV dinner line, which was introduced during the pandemic.

The chef recently added a fried rice and spicy tuna dish to the menu for the first time, partly inspired by his admiration for Nobu. When deciding to remove certain fan favorites from rotation, Caliendo said it was to avoid becoming stale.

“We have to be the risk-takers in order to stay ahead of the pack,” Caliendo said.

Lazy Dog grew 11% in revenue last year reporting systemwide sales of $398 million in 2023. The company is ranked as Orange County’s 10th largest restaurant chain, according to Business Journal data.

The post Lazy Dog Expands in Existing Markets appeared first on Orange County Business Journal.

The Kuwait location is also the Newport Beach-based company’s first foray into the Middle East.

Its exclusive partner in franchising is Alshaya Group, a Kuwait-headquartered, family-owned franchise operator established in 1890. Alshaya’s portfolio of retailers and restaurants stretches across the Middle East, North Africa, Europe and Turkey.

“Leveraging Alshaya’s market expertise will enable us to quickly gain access to these vibrant economies,” Chipotle Chief Executive Brian Niccol said in a statement.

Previously, Chipotle’s international footprint consisted of 41 restaurants in Canada, France, the United Kingdom and Germany. The chain has more than 3,400 locations in the U.S., with plans to open as many as 10% more each year, it said. Its last new location opening in Canada was in British Colombia in 2021.

“Together, we’ll continue to gather insights on regional preferences and adapt accordingly as we grow our presence in the region,” Chipotle’s Chief Business Development Officer Nate Lawton said.

Chipotle has a market cap of $79 billion and is the second largest restaurant company headquartered in OC, behind Taco Bell.

Chipotle and Alshaya said their plans call for also opening this year a restaurant in Dubai and one in the United Arab Emirates.

Chipotle’s Lawton leads the chain’s business development group, formed in May 2023.

Chipotle has also launched a new restaurant design in the Kuwait City outlet, featuring three different ordering methods for customers. They include QR codes on the tables that help people download the restaurant’s mobile app and a kiosk ordering system in-store.

The company’s revenue grew 14% to $9.9 billion in 2023 and analysts are expecting
another 14% growth this year to $11.3 billion.

The post Chipotle Begins Franchising, Launches in Middle East  appeared first on Orange County Business Journal.

Salisbury, this year’s Family-Owned Business Awards keynote speaker on May 30, has since expanded El Cholo outside of California and ramped up his company’s charitable giving.

He opened late last year the first out-of-state branch of El Cholo, in Utah, in a 9,000-square-foot space in the Sugar House region of Salt Lake City, into which Salisbury, a 1950s alum of Brigham Young University, had seen many Californians move, believing the transplants had an emotional connection to the El Cholo name.

“We put it right back in their backyard,” he said.

To be sure, there’s risk, given that Salt Lake residents dine out less often than Californians, Salisbury said.

“It’s a bit of a challenge, but we’re up and running,” he said.

Salisbury’s grandparents, Alejandro and Rosa Borquez, opened El Cholo’s flagship location, originally called the Sonoro Café, in Downtown Los Angeles in 1923. His parents, Aurelia and George Salisbury, later opened a second location of El Cholo on Western Avenue.

Salisbury later opened El Cholo’s first branch outside of LA, in La Habra in 1962.

El Cholo now has six locations in California.

Along the way, Salisbury acquired two fine-dining restaurants in Newport Beach, The Cannery and Louie’s by the Bay.

All are managed by his Restaurant Business Inc., headquartered in La Habra.

“I view our restaurants as a continuation of education for people who want to play a role with us for the next 100 years,” he said.

At the same time, Salisbury’s been extending the family’s legacy to those beyond
his restaurants.

In the last year, he’s ramped up the company’s philanthropy, having fundraised $1 million for pediatric cancer research. He said the company intends to support a different nonprofit each year.

The post Ron Salisbury Builds on His Family’s History appeared first on Orange County Business Journal.

Newport Beach-based Mutt’s this fall is launching a lunch delivery program for students at Corona del Mar Middle and High School and surrounding elementary schools.

The idea came to the couple when they were dropping off lunches for their three sons at their schools, only to see tables filled with takeout boxes, Alex Murray said.

So, they decided to “make it easier for parents to order good quality, affordable food,” he said.

Parents and students will be able to use a mobile app to order lunches up to one month in advance, Murray said.

They are now testing the concept and developing a menu they hope kids will enjoy, such as sliders, wraps and chicken tenders.

The Murrays’ goal is to eventually expand the delivery program to schools outside of the Eastbluff community in Newport Beach, he said.

Possible Expansion

Mutt’s opened in 2021, intended to be the family-friendly sister restaurant to local beach bar Mutt Lynch’s, originally founded by Meghan’s parents, Gail and Dan Lynch, nearly 50 years ago.

The couple now oversees about 150 employees at both restaurants.

They said they’re in talks with Irvine Co. about expanding into another location within Irvine or Newport Coast, as well as scouting other sites.

The last year hasn’t all been easy for restaurants, Murray said, citing both a new California law mandating increased minimum wages for restaurant employees, and increasing insurance premiums.

He said Mutt’s plans to cut costs, without raising prices, in part by eliminating half its menu offerings during slow summer months.

The post Mutt’s: Serving Up Meals for the Community appeared first on Orange County Business Journal.

The coffee chain counts 38 locations across New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Washington D.C., with the newest store marking its entry into west coast markets.

“Southern California has always been alluring – it’s a great market with great people and opportunities but it’s definitely a big jump,” Founder and CEO Gregory Zamfotis told the Business Journal.

“Here, we thought the concept would be well-received,” Zamfotis said of looking into Orange County for the first coffee shop in California. “This will be the first of many, we hope,” he added.

Gregorys Coffee is also the latest coffee chain to partner with Simon Property Group, the owner and management firm of The Shops at Mission Viejo and other shopping centers in the U.S., to open multiple stores in Simon-owned malls.

“Malls are a great way to get established in what are natural traffic drivers and to be alongside the great tenant rosters that are already there” Zamfotis said.

The Shops at Mission Viejo is ranked as the seventh largest shopping center in OC determined by taxable sales of $384 million for 12-months ended June 2023, according to Business Journal research. The mall has 1.15 million square feet of gross leasable space with around 150 open stores.

The post Orange County’s First Gregorys Coffee Opens in Mission Viejo appeared first on Orange County Business Journal.

Nearly three decades ago, during his medical studies, Metevier worked in an in-patient facility in Florida with troubled adolescents.

The nearly four-year experience “broke my heart,” he said.

A pivot to the restaurant industry came soon afterward, setting in works a career that included over 20 years at Yum Brands Inc. (NYSE: YUM), the parent company of Irvine’s Taco Bell.

While at Yum Brands, he moved up the ranks, from a general manager to chief operating officer of the $39 billion-valued firm’s KFC division.

In 2018, he joined Newport Beach’s Mountain Mike’s Pizza, owned by local restaurant chain investors and operators Chris Britt and Ed St. Geme, as its COO.

Around that time, the pizza chain counted fewer than 200 stores and reported revenue in the range of $156 million. It then counted an average sales per store of about $800,000.
Last year, Mountain Mike’s reported revenue approaching $300 million—up over 80% over the past five years—at its 281-store chain, making it Orange County’s 12th-largest locally based restaurant chain by systemwide sales.

Sales now run closer to $1.1 million per store annually, on average.

All the chain’s stores are currently franchise-owned.

With more growth on the menu—Mountain Mike’s is expected to surpass the 300-store count later this year—comes a new role for Metevier; he’s the restaurant firm’s new chief executive, taking over the role previously shared by Britt and St. Geme.

Franchise Focus

Britt and St. Geme first took a controlling stake in Mountain Mike’s in 2017, and the duo—who also own and run the locally based Juice It Up smoothie chain—became 100% owners of the business in 2022 by buying out their previous financial partner, Levine Leichtman Capital Partners.

“We’ve done a lot of the heavy lifting, now we’re capable of growing unit count,” St. Geme told the Business Journal about the deal.

In Metevier’s first five years at Mountain Mike’s, the chain added almost 100 new restaurants to its portfolio.

Another 100 are in the pipeline. The new CEO is targeting the opening of 30 stores this year, as well as signing 50 new restaurants deals by the end of 2024.

Mountain Mike’s will also enter two new states, Washington and Wisconsin, this year.

Targeted markets include states such as Florida, Tennessee and Minnesota.

Currently, the company operates in eight states. It has over 260 locations in California, by far its largest market.

“The one number I focus on is 100%, [to have] 100% successful openings for our franchisees,” Metevier said.

Pizza Partners

Metevier credits Mountain Mike’s franchisees as the key to the chain’s current growth rate.
The executive said there was the absence of a franchise-recruiting function when he joined, and said prior growth was due to existing franchisees and their recommendations.

In prior years, most of the chain’s growth came from existing franchisees. Now, newer partners are driving much of the expansion, according to Metevier.

The pizzeria has 140 franchisees in the organization now.

In California, it can cost upward of $400,000 to open a store, according to state franchising filings.

“It always comes back to making sure the franchisees are engaged in their local communities to promote business, do fundraisers, and bringing the little leagues to the restaurants,” Metevier said.

Mountain Mike’s tends to open in grocery-anchored centers with high visibility and aims to focus on community demographics of families and sports fans.

The chain currently partners with the San Francisco 49ers and Los Angeles Angels.

Future Plans

In the next three to five years, Metevier said Mountain Mike’s could reach 400 or more restaurant locations, and be in 15-plus states.

“But we would much rather build a foundation for a long-term dynasty,” he added.

“We will be a national brand, it’s a matter of timing. We’re going to do it in a thoughtful way with the right partners.”

Fried Chicken, Biscuits & Pizza

Jim Metevier counts over 30 years in the restaurant industry, most of it spent with Yum Brands Inc. (NYSE: YUM) and its KFC division.

After deciding to get his MBA at business school, Metevier connected with KFC recruiters at a job fair and was hired as an assistant manager at a restaurant in Orlando in 1992.

He would go on to work the next 22 years for Yum Brands, as he joined the corporate office and moved his way up through KFC operations working in finance, marketing and development strategy.

Metevier eventually became the chief operating officer of all KFC’s U.S. operations.

“I had done almost everything I could do at Yum without going international,” Metevier told the Business Journal. “It made sense to go out and be president of a company where I have the ability to set the strategy.”

Metevier then joined a family-owned breakfast concept based in Graham, N.C. called Biscuitville Fresh Southern, where he served as president for a year. That chain, with restaurants in Virginia, South Carolina and North Carolina, counts 80 locations.

That’s when Metevier got the recruiting call from Newport Beach’s Mountain Mike’s Pizza, which he hadn’t heard of before.

Once Metevier met with owners Chris Britt and Ed St. Geme, who knew “how to walk in the shoes of a franchisee,” and tried the pizza, he was set.

“They gave me full opportunity to set the strategy and build the team,” Metevier said.

The corporate team has grown from three to 30 people since Metevier joined. Mountain Mike’s total system sales over the past five years have grown 82% with 2023 revenue of $297 million.

The post KFC Veteran Keeping Mountain Mike’s In Fast-Growth Mode appeared first on Orange County Business Journal.

On April 1, the minimum wage at fast-casual restaurant chains rose to $20 an hour, from $16. The “Fast Act” law was signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom last September.

The increase is expected to have a noticeable impact on OC.

The 29 largest locally based chains employ nearly 22,000 in OC, at both their headquarters and their nearly 640 area restaurants, according to Business Journal data.
Including non-locally based restaurants, the industry employs nearly 138,000 in OC, according to state figures.

“We know we have to take something as a significant increase, when you talk about a 20%-ish increase in wages,” Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. (NYSE: CMG) Chief Financial Officer Jack Hartung told analysts during the company’s latest earnings report.

Automation

Many restaurant operators have been working to offset the wage increase by reevaluating food, labor and other operating costs.

A popular labor-saving initiative has been turning to automation in the kitchen and simplifying different food prep processes that employees have traditionally handled.

Newport Beach-based Chipotle, with 15% of its 3,400-plus restaurants in California, has been at work the past two years to incorporate a few different robot helpers behind the counter making chips and guacamole, as well as managing digital orders.

El Pollo Loco Holdings Inc. (Nasdaq: LOCO), headquartered in Costa Mesa, announced last year its intention to add salsa processing equipment throughout its 495 companywide restaurants.

That initiative is in addition to kiosks gradually being added to its locations since 2022, for customers to order food without the need of a staffer’s help.

Among non-local firms, Sweetgreen Inc., a Los Angeles-based fast-casual chain (NYSE: SG) focused on salads, bowls, plates and sides with a store count topping 200 locations, is using a new location at Huntington Beach’s 5 Points Plaza shopping center to test out its new Infinite Kitchen technology, which takes on the process of assembling meals.

The Surf City location is one of the first two Sweetgreen stores in the country to feature the Infinite Kitchen, which is designed to increase consistency, efficiency and productivity at the $2.8 billion-valued chain, while also enhancing the team member and customer experience.

Faster Salsa

Along with El Pollo Loco’s recent accelerated push for more in-store kiosks, the restaurant chain has turned a technological eye to the kitchen.

Its salsa fresca will be made with the new processing equipment that is on the way.

The equipment is expected to start entering locations by mid-2024, “which will further drive consistency of our products while also improve labor efficiency as the new equipment is both easier to use and easier to clean,” Chief Operating Officer Maria Hollandsworth said in a recent earnings call.

El Pollo Loco is testing out an automated dishwasher to help streamline operations.

“For 2024, we expect our pricing to be in the mid to high single digits to help offset the impact of the April 1 California minimum wage increase,” Hollandsworth said.

The chain anticipates wage inflation between 12% and 14% for 2024, largely driven by the state wage increase.

El Pollo Loco is rolling out an initiative to improve in-times and out-times for efficiency among other labor-saving projects. Overall, the company is looking to these initiatives to help offset roughly a third to a half of the impact of the wage increases.

“The rest of it, we’re working on taking some pricing. We’ve already taken a little bit,” Hollandsworth said.

El Pollo is currently valued at $286­ million with shares trading around $9.17. Its fourth-quarter revenue fell 3.2% to $112 million.

More Accessible

One company that appears unfazed by the wage increase has been Irvine’s Kura Sushi USA Inc. (Nasdaq: KRUS).

“In terms of our California markets, our employees are already making wages that are competitive with the $20 that people are going to be making at QSR,” Chief Executive Hajime Uba told analysts on a January earnings call.

The restaurant chain, with 54 locations, has taken a 1% price increase in January and said it believes it’s “enough to offset the labor increases and really keep our margins flat year-over-year.”

“We really want to demonstrate to the world at large, not just our existing guests, how great a value Kura Sushi is,” Uba said.

Last year, Uba told the Business Journal that the average check at Kura had grown to about $28.

Most sushi plates at its restaurants come at a flat per-plate price, around $3.60 each.

Other items, such as noodle soups and hand rolls, can also be ordered.

Uba expects the growing price increases at other restaurants to make Kura Sushi a more accessible option.

The chain, already known for its tech-centric business model and revolving sushi bar, in 2022 introduced the robotic KuraBot server and last year focused on driving traffic through a new rewards program and improved its digital ordering system.

Total sales increased 30% to $57 million for the chain’s second quarter, it reported last week. Kura Sushi’s shares were trading around $104 apiece with a market cap of $1.2 billion at press time.

The post OC Food Chains Tackle State Wage Increase appeared first on Orange County Business Journal.

The Korean-inspired rice bowl chain said it took a break to grow Flame Broiler’s leadership team and expand the company’ s headquarters. Flame Broiler, founded by Young Lee, also acquired 13 locations from existing franchisees during that time.

Chief Operating Officer Christian Lee and Chief Technology and Marketing Officer Daniel Lee, sons of the founder who were appointed to the chain’s executive team last year, also added the titles of President and Chief Innovation Officer, respectively.

“We eagerly look forward to the leadership of Christian and Daniel Lee as we continue to expand our family and embrace change,” Founder and Chief Executive Lee said in a statement.

“The re-launch of franchising marks a significant milestone for Flame Broiler, opening up new opportunities for growth and innovation,” he said.

Flame Broiler counts around 165 U.S. locations, with more than 60 in Orange County, and reported $86 million in systemwide sales for 2022.

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