Left Bank Co-Founder Tries Out New Financial Recipes
July 10, 2009
Left Bank Brasseries are cooking up a comeback.
Facing the recession and the damage it’s inflicting on the company bottom line squarely, the Corte Madera-based chain of French style brasseries is distinctly less of a chain than it was one month ago.
Two weeks ago, the company closed its Pleasant Hill and San Mateo locations, leaving Left Banks open in Larkspur, Menlo Park and San Jose, and the brand new LB Steak at Santana Row in San Jose. Including LB Steak, it is expecting revenue of $16 million this year, well below the $22 million the five Left Bank Brasseries brought in two years ago.
The restaurant closures were followed this week by the departure of Left Bank CEO Richard Miyashiro, who replaced Left Bank co-founder Edward Levine about one year ago so Levine could focus on his restaurant consultancy, Vine Solutions.
Now Levine is back to rebuild the company he started 15 years ago with chef Roland Passot of La Folie in San Francisco.
Since taking control last week, Levine said that he has already stripped out 45 percent of the company’s operating costs. Along with the departure of Miyashiro, Left Bank let go its sommelier and several other corporate staff members. It has outsourced its human resources, and brought in Thomas Bunker, a Left Bank veteran, as chief operating officer. Neither Levine nor Passot is taking a salary.
“I really needed to reduce our corporate expenditures,” Levine said. It was not one of my favorite tasks, but we had to do it to get back in line. … I’m back in the saddle to run this thing. It’s been a tough eight-to-10 months, and we need to get our business on a solid footing again.”
The Pleasant Hill location had always lost money, and the housing collapse out there has been much worse than in Left Bank’s other markets.
In San Mateo, the drop in corporate dining caused that restaurant’s failure. Corporate receipts used to total about $1 million a year, about a third of revenue, and they are down at least 75 percent, Levine said.
Next up, Left Bank will tinker to tailor its three remaining brasseries more closely to their local markets. No longer will they all have the same menus, same promotions.
“It’s back to basics,” Levine said.
Levine said the remaining restaurants are profitable, but they need to be more profitable. As for the three-week old LB Steak, while Levine acknowledges that now is not a great time to open a restaurant, he said the real estate partner there, Federal Realty, is committed to making it work.