Their Recipes for Success

Larry Mindel knew that hard work, passion and patience would be the keys to success when he opened his first full-service Il Fornaio restaurant 10 years ago. But he knew he would also need something more--some quality that would set him apart from the competition.

“I didn’t sit down and develop a formula,” he said. “I had been in the restaurant business for many years, and I knew the requirements--although I was short on the patience at the beginning.”

Restaurants operate in niche markets, and more and more of the most successful restaurateurs have formulas or philosophies, industry analysts say. Some of those formulas can be as simple as “Serve hot food hot and cold food cold,” said Richard Martin, the Los Angeles-based national reports editor for Nation’s Restaurant News.

But to be truly successful takes another factor, which may differ from restaurant to restaurant.

Mindel’s secret to growing Il Fornaio into a major chain was to develop a structure that allows each restaurant its own identity. All the restaurants have a basic menu of Italian fare, but the chefs are allowed to develop separate daily specials. Also, the chef and manager at each location are given stock incentives to motivate their staffs.

The chain became a public company last month, giving it the funding to step up its growth plans. Early next month Mindel will open his 14th Il Fornaio--on Ocean Avenue across from the Santa Monica Pier. It will be the fifth Il Fornaio in Southern California.

“If you’re not working hard, you can’t expect others to work hard,” said Mindel, the company chairman. “You have to have patience, because it’s a business fraught with disappointment.”

At Gladstone’s 4 Fish, the Pacific Palisades seafood mecca, the owners relied on a couple of factors to build on the restaurant’s peerless location on the beach. One was its large servings, which emphasized the theme of value, said Alan Redhead, chief executive of California Beach Restaurants Inc., the parent of Gladstone’s.

Another factor was creating an atmosphere of warmth and coziness to counteract the restaurant’s size and bustle.

“Value, love and evolution are the keys,” Redhead said. “Most people want to feel welcomed or loved when they go to a restaurant. And a restaurant has to evolve or change to meet changing customer demands.”

Most of the recent changes at Gladstone’s are designed to improve value and generate festivity. For example, the restaurant has separate monthly specials on lobster, salmon and crab. It also has a New Year’s Eve party featuring a laser light show, and it now accommodates more private parties. The changes have boosted business, and industry analysts say Gladstone’s generates more sales than any single restaurant in the state.

Other restaurants have relied on tradition to build and retain a clientele. Take the 75-year-old Tam O’Shanter Inn on Los Feliz Boulevard in Los Angeles’ Atwater Village. The Tam O’Shanter is the Southland restaurant with the longest run of success at a single location.

The two founding families, the Franks and Van de Kamps, still control the restaurant. Richard N. Frank is chairman of Lawry’s Restaurants Inc., the Pasadena firm that owns Tam O’Shanter and Lawry’s Prime Rib. His son, Richard R. Frank, is president and chief executive. The Van de Kamps have representation on the board of directors.

“Our three keys are consistent food quality, good service and a clean environment,” said Tam O’Shanter General Manager Edward LePere. “Location is not as important once you’ve established yourself.”

By demanding consistency, the Tam O’Shanter has maintained the loyalty of families over generations.

In contrast, the appeal of the novel and trendy location are keys to the early success of Ago, which opened in August. The Italian trattoria has been serving full rooms at its Melrose Avenue location in West Hollywood.

The restaurant is the creation of Agostino Sciandri, the chef at the highly successful Toscana restaurant in Brentwood. Sciandri, who is chief chef and co-owner of Ago, said the keys to success vary--depending on whether the restaurant is fairly new or well-established.

“The top factors for a new restaurant are location, service, ambience and food--in that order of importance,” he said. “The top factors in the success of an established restaurant are food and service. Location and ambience rank third and fourth.”

The Newsroom Cafe is a restaurant operation with both a well-established and fairly new dining establishment. The original Newsroom Cafe in Santa Monica opened in 1992, and the much larger version on North Robertson Boulevard in West Hollywood opened in 1995.

The restaurants have succeeded by catering to those who prefer healthier food. Encouraged by his success, owner Mark Geller is searching for a site in San Francisco for another Newsroom. Location, however, is overrated as a success factor, he said.

“Some say the keys are location, location, location,” Geller said. “The real key is consistency, consistency, consistency. A restaurant must have consistency of product and consistent service, and it should be consistently distinctive.”

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George White can be reached via e-mail at george.white@latimes.com