New beginnings for Yakima restaurants

Jorge Estrada, Brandon Russell, and Pete Blue will be seeking success for their respective Yakima restaurants in 2009.

They come with differing dining concepts, a range of business and management experience, and not surprisingly, determination for their restaurant to succeed.

But as they face the future, they all have a past.

Part of that past is that of the Yakima Valley restaurant industry overall. According to the Washington Restaurant Association, nearly 25 percent of restaurants in Yakima County fail or change hands yearly, much higher than the state average of 17 percent.

Jinxed location?

Earlier this month, Jorge Estrada opened George's Steakhouse at 1101 S. Third Ave. in Yakima.

Before opening the new restaurant, Estrada ran another eatery with the same name in Wapato.

When he decided to open in Yakima to attract more traffic, he found that the terra-cotta Southwestern-style building had the right location and decor.

The location, however, has been home to a number of short-lived restaurants. Over just a few years, customers have eaten Mexican, Italian and Asian food at that location.

But Estrada believes that his past successes will help him overcome the odds. He said the restaurant has already attracted business from customers who ate at his previous eateries in Wapato and Naches, which are no longer open.

He said he has developed customer service and restaurant management skills that will be key in successfully running the new restaurant.

"My enthusiasm is contagious," Estrada said. "If I'm happy, the employees are happy, which makes the customer happy."

But a building with such a high turnover doesn't fare well for future operators, regardless of the restaurant's concept or the operators' skills.

"Trends suggest to us that he probably won't succeed or the barriers he's up against are pretty steep," said Dennis Reynolds, an Ivar Haglund Distinguished Professor at the School of Hospitality Business Management at Washington State University. "(Customers') expectations are going to be skewed. If (the restaurant) doesn't wow them the second they get their meal, they're not coming back."

But Estrada can also turn the location's history of turnover into an opportunity, said Anthony Anton, president and CEO of the Washington Restaurant Association.

"The situation allows for case studies that brand new facilities don't have," he said. "(He has) a chance to learn from other restaurants."

Employees don't forget

About a year ago, Brandon Russell closed Russillo's Pizza and Gelato-Tuscany, a full-service Italian restaurant at the former Yakima Mall food court at 399 E. Yakima Ave.

For the past few weeks, Russell, with the support of the community and a generous investor, has been working to open Russillo's Pizza and Gelato at a place where they've seen success -- Track 29. This new incarnation will have a Roman theme.

Russell first opened the restaurant at the downtown shopping complex at 1 W. Yakima Ave. in 2004 and spent several years there before expanding to the other location.

But the restaurant's reopening has irritated former employees who have still not been paid for work at the previous restaurant.

The state Department of Labor and Industries still has 18 open claims of unpaid wages totaling $11,468.

Jacquelyn Bliss, 21, worked as a server at Russillo's for several months before it closed last year.

Her first paycheck bounced initially and when it came time for the second paycheck, the restaurant closed for good. She still hasn't received the second check. She filed a claim with L&I for about $500 in wages.

Bliss has mixed feelings about the restaurant reopening.

"I'm kind of upset, that (they) owe me money, but I can understand things can go wrong," she said.

Chris Flue started working at Russillo's in October 2006, first as a manager at the restaurant's first Track 29 location and then later at the larger restaurant as a chef and bartender.

After dealing with bounced paychecks for several months, he decided to quit. He received his final check from the restaurant, but couldn't cash it.

He has a claim with L&I for about $1,000 in unpaid wages.

Lonnie Davis, who is the main investor for the new restaurant, said that although the restaurant is adopting the same name and concept, it's under a new corporation, and there is no legal obligation to pay these employees back.

"The Russillo's you see opening has nothing to do with Brandon Russell and his debt," he said.

Russell said that he intends to pay all the employees back. And he encourages employees to stop by the new restaurant to work out an agreement. "We haven't had any funding to pay any wages," Russell said. "And we won't until we open the doors. That's part of the reason we decided to reopen here, so we could get that squared away."

But Flue is skeptical. "I couldn't trust Brandon to give me paychecks the last time; how's that going to change?" he said.

His reaction isn't surprising, Reynolds said.

"It's hard to change your past," he said. "Whatever happened last time, could happen this time."

But Russell and the restaurant also have a chance to prove themselves.

"If the concept is unique enough and he has a big enough draw, he can beat the bad reputation," Reynolds said. "People's memories are short."

And some people's memories are clearly positive -- Russell said the community support he has received in the past few months was a driving factor in reopening the restaurant.

But that support can quickly vanish if the restaurant doesn't provide solid service and good food quality, Reynolds said.

"He better have fixed all those things and be ready to go and ready to compete," he said.

Making the transition

Earlier this year, Pete Blue, along with partner Steve Pinza, decided to transform Pete's Nightclub into a family restaurant/sports bar.

Blue said that their loyal clientele from the nightclub was growing older and having children, reducing the likelihood that they would continue going to nightclubs.

So the partners have spent the past few months renovating the building at 28 N. Second St. into a new restaurant.

Anyone entering The Second Street Grill, which opened last month, will see no sign of the building's past as a nightclub.

The dancing cages, which looked like two platformed dance floors, are gone. What was once the club's dance floor is now a circular bar with several high-definition televisions all the way around. On the brick walls are black and white photos of various aspects of Yakima Valley history such as a picture of a Selah baseball team from decades past.

"The audio, the lighting, the comfortable furniture, the art work, it all has to be first class," Blue said.

Despite the makeover, customers are still calling it "Pete's" or "The New Pete's."

Have people forgotten about the club's mixed past?

While it was a very successful club that brought a variety of entertainment from dueling pianos to '80s night and providing the venue for several fundraisers, it had the perception of being a troublesome nightspot.

The Yakima Police Department once said that the club was one of the city's three most troublesome nightspots. In February 2007, five people were stabbed in a parking lot across the street from the club, following a nonalcoholic rap contest held there.

Blue has long stressed that the incidents were far and few in between. And now that it has changed into something else, he believes the past is a non-issue.

"We were the best nightclub in Yakima, now we'll be the best sports bar and restaurant in Yakima, it's that simple," Blue said. "Now we've created something for everybody and not just for a limited few."

Restaurant experts don't think he has much reason to worry, especially since the business has already undergone a huge transformation.

If the new restaurant successfully executes the new theme and food, and provides good customer service, having patrons refer to it initially as the old name shouldn't be a problem, said Alex Susskind, associate professor at the School of Hotel Administration at Cornell University. If anything, nostalgia and memories for the old club may create loyalty for the new restaurant.

"It's going to be difficult to build brand equity in the Second Street Grill name, because people don't identify with it," said Reynolds, the Washington State University professor. "But they will identify with the concept."

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Each of these restaurants has a past -- a past that needs to be acknowledged and addressed.

"You first have to understand what the problem was," said Susskind, the Cornell University professor. "If you don't understand what the failure was, you'll never overcome it."

And future success of any restaurant will depend on how an owner/operator executes a plan, from managing the business to maintaining its cash flow to keeping employees paid and happy.

"You can recover from something if you know how to manage the business," Reynolds said.

* Mai Hoang can be reached at 577-7685 or mhoang@yakimaherald.com.