Ex-Taco Bell Chair, O.C. Restaurateur Join to Serve Up 10 Southland Eateries

Former Taco Bell Chairman John Martin and Orange County restaurateur David Wilhelm said Wednesday they are teaming up to open up to 10 restaurants in Southern California during the next two years.

Pacific Restaurant Adventures, a new company formed by the duo, acquired the Chimayo Grill in Newport Beach last month from Taco Bell Corp. for an undisclosed amount.

In addition, Pacific Restaurant is in escrow to buy the sites of two shuttered Orange County restaurants--Yankee Tavern in Laguna Niguel and Shame on the Moon in Laguna Beach--and will open a Mexican seafood eatery near the Huntington Beach Pier next spring.

“Our dedication is to deliver a very superior level of quality that we don’t have a lot of yet,” Martin said Wednesday. “We’ve got some very good restaurants in Orange County, but if you go to San Francisco, Chicago or even Los Angeles, there are more and better kinds of restaurants.”

Martin is banking on the talents of Wilhelm, one of Orange County’s most celebrated restaurateurs, to make that happen. Wilhelm, a 48-year-old Michigan native, opened several of Orange County’s best-known eateries, including Diva, Bistro 201, Topaz, Kachina and the Chimayo Grill. All are known for their trendy menus and lively atmosphere.

It was at Taco Bell that Martin first worked with Wilhelm, hiring him to oversee a fine-dining experiment that resulted in the Chimayo Grill, which opened in 1995. The concept succeeded in a location where three other restaurants had failed.

“We like the idea of converting existing properties because that gives us a chance to do something different and unique in each market,” Wilhelm said.

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While the region’s economy is booming, Pacific Restaurant is diving into an intensely competitive industry.

“I’m not sure that even with their reputations they can become miracle workers,” said Randall Hiatt, president of Irvine restaurant consultant Fessel International. “Generally, though, they seem to be taking sites in fairly established areas.”

Martin declined to say how much money the company had raised except to note that Pacific Restaurant is “well capitalized” to handle the ups and downs of the restaurant business.

Joining him and Wilhelm as partners in the venture are Rudy Pollak, a former Taco Bell executive, and John Cushman, chairman of Cushman Realty, a Los Angeles-based commercial real estate brokerage.

At Taco Bell, Pollak was vice president of administration and employee programs and was instrumental in the company’s 1994 decision to keep its headquarters in Irvine.

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Martin garnered a reputation as a visionary in his 13 years at Taco Bell. The Irvine-based Mexican fast-food chain’s sales grew to $4.5 billion from $600 million, and it launched a number of innovations including smaller kitchens, lower menu prices and reduced-fat food. The latter, however, proved to be Martin’s undoing as the menu bombed with the chain’s core customers: young men.

Taco Bell replaced Martin in October 1996, after sales at the chain’s established stores fell for six consecutive quarters.

Pacific Restaurant plans to convert the Yankee Tavern, owned by Ritz restaurant founder Hans Prager, into the Savannah Chophouse, an East Coast-type grill with a Southern spin. It is scheduled to open in February.

Shame on the Moon, a cottage across Pacific Coast Highway from the Surf and Sand Hotel, will reopen as French ‘75, a French bistro named after the popular World War II cocktail. The company is spending about $200,000 to upgrade and expand the interior, Wilhelm said. It is scheduled to open in late January.

The Huntington Beach restaurant, on the site of the old Maxwell’s restaurant on Pacific Coast Highway, will be named Chimayo on the Beach and offer tropical Mexican seafood. It is scheduled to open in late 1998.

Pacific Restaurant also will take over management of Wilhelm’s Sorrento Grill in Newport Beach. Other restaurant sites are yet to be determined.

Martin is involved in two other restaurant companies. He is chairman of Newriders Inc. of Newport Beach, which operates two motorcycle-themed restaurants, in Fresno and Florida. He also was part of an investor group that bought the Chevy’s Mexican chain from Taco Bell in June. Martin is on the board of directors at Chevy’s.