When restaurant operating firm Grill Concepts LLC began to feel the heat from the economic downturn, the company’s co-founder Bob Spivak was called in to prevent the Woodland Hills company from getting burnt. The 68-year-old restaurateur’s journey with the company, which operates branded restaurant chains The Daily Grill and The Grill on the Alley, has been riddled with transition and change since the company’s founding in 1984, including a four-year break from his role as President and CEO. It all started with one fateful lunch meeting which spawned the launch of an upscale eatery in Beverly Hills, The Grill — presently known as The Grill on the Alley. The restaurant’s traditional American menu, which included prime meats and classic favorites such as chicken pot pie, quickly developed a following, particularly within the entertainment industry. Riding on The Grill’s success, Spivak and the Grill Concepts team developed a new concept, The Daily Grill, a more casual restaurant with lower-priced selections. To date, there are seven The Grill on the Alley locations and 21 The Daily Grills. The company also launched a quick-casual concept, In Short Order-Daily Grill in Seattle. Twenty-two years after founding the company, Spivak stepped down from his position as CEO and took on a consulting role for Grill Concepts as he pursued other interests and business ventures. During his absence, Grill Concepts’s rapid growth spurt was halted as the economic downturn took a bite out of the company’s sales, Spivak said. In an effort to get back on track and “bring the company back to its roots” Spivak was asked by a majority shareholder to return as CEO. Upon returning to his executive role in 2010, Spivak brought a fresh new take on the all-American dining concept he helped shape. The company last year launched Public School 612 in Downtown Los Angeles, a craft-beer-centric bar that caters to a younger clientele. This year, the company responded to the calorie conscious consumer with its new menu, Simply 600, which was rolled out at Daily Grill locations. The menu offers lower calorie options including the Turkey Club Sandwich, Fish Tacos and Grilled Atlantic Salmon. In 2010, Grill Concepts saw sales of $67.9 million, a 5 percent increase from the year prior. Despite the challenges, transitions and heavy competition that has sprouted within the restaurant world, Spivak says the company’s culture and customer-driven business model has remained in tact. “No matter what the problem is, our job is to make sure that when the guest leaves they know that we did everything we could do to satisfy them,” he said. “So, if we do all that, we don’t have to worry about the competition; they have to worry about us.” Question: How did all of this at Grill Concepts start? Answer: I was born and raised in the restaurant business. My father had restaurants in Los Angeles in the ‘50s, so I always worked in restaurants. Some of them were successful, most of them were not. When I was 38 years old, I found myself getting divorced with two children — a 9-year-old and a 10-year-old — and living at my father’s (home), because I didn’t have enough money for my own apartment. I had a dream of opening a traditional American grill — a very high-end prime steaks, chops and fresh seafood restaurant where the answer is, ‘Yes. What is the question?’ and the ‘Guest is always right.’ Q: There are multiple concepts today. Which one came first? A: The Grill on the Alley. It actually was just known as The Grill. We named it The Grill because we wanted it to be very simple and straightforward. We found this location in Beverly Hills that had actually been four restaurants over the past six years. The front door was on Wilshire Boulevard. It had a back entrance off of an alley, which was the receiving entrance where they brought the food in. We all thought that if we could make that the front door it would give the restaurant a certain cache. Q: How did the company evolve from the restaurant into the multi-branded operation it is today? A: It turned out that (The Grill on the Alley) was really what people were looking for. I think we did a really good job of focusing attention on the details. The food was impeccable and we really took care of the guests. We honored all of the reservations and honored whatever requests they had. We also had some good luck which was that the restaurant was on walking distance of William Morris, the largest talent agency in the world. Their agents starting coming to the restaurant and they really liked everything about it. They started bringing their clients in and entertaining their clients. Before I knew it, Barbara Streisand was a regular, Johnny Carson, Madonna, Sean Penn. You name it-they were there. The restaurant continued to have a great deal of success, and in 1989, we decided we would like to open a second restaurant. We thought maybe we would open a different type of grill. The idea was to open an Italian grill. Then we came to our senses and saw that we had been so successful with this traditional American grill, and thought, why not open a more popularly-priced, more casual concept. The Daily Grill was born. The first Daily Grill was in Brentwood and it opened in September 1989. We pretty much opened one a year for several years. Q: How did you come up with the menus for The Daily Grill and The Grill on the Alley? A: John Sola, who was the original chef at The Grill and is currently the vice president of operations for the company, has been with the company for the entire 28 years. John, my wife Leslie and I spent one day a week developing all the recipes in my apartment. We kept it very American and very traditional. We still do, but it is 28 years later and eating habits have changed a lot. We have items on the menu now like the Chinese chicken salad, seared sashimi, along with the old traditional items such as chicken pot pie and meat loaf. We’ve modernized the meat loaf a lot. We grind our hamburger fresh twice a day — before lunch and before dinner. Q: How do the two concepts differ or compare? Title: CEO AGE: 68 Most Admired: Muhammad Ali, Cesar Chavez and John and Robert Kennedy Career Turning Point: The lunch meeting in 1983, in which Grill Concepts was a result Personal: Married with four children and 10 grandchildren A: The Grill, which currently has a check average of $26 for lunch and about $70 for dinner, serves all prime meats. The service is very intense. We have two servers for every six tables, whereas at the Daily Grill, we have one server for every four or five tables, which is much more traditional. The check average at The Daily Grill is about $16 for lunch and $28 for dinner. At the Daily Grill we use Certified Angus high-end choice, the very best that is available just under the prime. At the Grill on the Alley we import a lot of fresh seafood from around the world where as The Daily Grill uses mostly fresh local seafood. Also at the Daily Grill, we have a program called Simply 600. For lunch, it includes 12 items all under 600 calories. They are all specially-designed items. We didn’t just take from one of our regular menu items and cut it in half and call it a day. Q: What’s your favorite item on the menu? A: Skirt steak. Q: Are you a health nut? A: No. I’m a moderation nut. My wife is a health nut. She doesn’t eat meat at all. She’s the most disciplined eater I’ve ever known. I try to vary it and I try to eat salads during the day. Every time I go to the Grill on the Alley, I go in saying ‘Tonight I’m going to have a skirt steak,’ and then I end up ordering swordfish. Q: What were the reasons behind leaving your position in 2006 and then returning 2010? A: I ran the company for 25 years and I decided there were some other things I wanted to do in my life. I had really accomplished more than I set out to. It was my 60th birthday when I made the decision. I always had three-year contracts and I had a contract that was due. I told (the board) I would sign one more three-year contract. During that time I would bring in my replacement and train him and work with him or her. I never intended to retire, and my wife bristles when she hears that word. I had a consulting agreement with the company, and I continued to be very involved in the company, but I was just not part of the day-to-day operations or the day-to-day decisions. At the time I sold a lot of my stock in the company, and in 2009, the company had a new majority shareholder. He came to me and asked if I would come back to the company. So we worked out an arrangement. Q: In your absence the company had to tighten the reins on some expansion plans. How did the company fare in the four years you were gone? A: There was another CEO (Philip Gay). We started growing faster than we ever had before. Unfortunately, 2008 came along and the recession hit and we had to tighten our belt. That was about the time they asked me to come back. Q: What do you think went wrong? A: It was just bad timing. We were in the largest expansion mode the company had experienced in a time where it was very difficult. Sales were decreasing and the economy was just not on our side. It was time to just go back to our roots. Q: Last year you also launched a new gastropub, Public School. How did that concept come about? A: I felt we really needed to come up with a concept that was more current; a concept that would appeal to a younger demographic. In the middle of 2011, we launched Public School. Rather than open up a free-standing Public School — we really didn’t feel the company was ready to do that — we would just convert the bar of one of our existing restaurants to another brand. The Downtown Daily Grill was selected for several reasons. The demographics in Downtown were definitely conducive to this type of gastro pub. And the bar was somewhat separate from the restaurant so it gave us the opportunity to create two brands under one roof. Q: What does the menu consist of? A: There are 20 microbrews on draught. Fifteen of them are American beers. Five of them are imports. Then there are several in bottles and cans. They are all microbrews. You cannot get a nationally advertised beer here. A gastro pub for me is a bar with chef-driven food. There are small plates, very culinary, instyle and eclectic — not Daily Grill-esque food at all. The big sellers are the lamb burger and, of course, the pub burger. We do our own fresh French fries that we serve in a brown paper bag. We believe that along with The Grill (on the Alley) and the Daily Grill, this will be another one of our growth vehicles for the next couple of years. We currently have an LOI (Letter of Intent) signed for the first stand-alone location. The closest I can tell you is it’s on the Westside. It will become public in the next two or three weeks. Q: What other expansion plans are in the works? A: We are going to continue to open Daily Grills, both free-standing and in hotels. Nine of the 21 Daily Grills are in hotels. We found a niche for ourselves. We have a hotel that we are very close to announcing that is in San Diego. And, we’re working on two other hotels. Our plans for 2013 will be to open two other Public Schools and two Daily Grills and possibly one Grill on the Alley. Q: Who is your competition and how do distinguish yourself from the crowd? A: In the chain area, we operate in the same market as Houston’s and Cheesecake Factory. Probably our biggest competition are the local restaurateurs in the areas we have our locations. The restaurant business is still about 50 percent local and independent and 50 percent chains. Q: What are your thoughts on this new wave of competition? A: Our philosophy is that we really don’t worry about our competitors. We consider ourselves to be our competitors. We just need to deliver the experience that we know we are capable of doing. No matter what the problem is, our job is to make sure that when the guest leaves they know that we did everything we could do to satisfy them. So if we do all that, we don’t have to worry about the competition; they have to worry about us. Q: Has any menu idea not taken off? A: Mixed sausages. We’ve tried it a couple of times and it’s failed both times. We’re going to try it again.
The Grill Master
