Trader Vic's Downtown Los Angeles!, Los Angeles, CA (restaurant) - Locating Tiki

B bongofury Grand Member (6 years) Ventura County Joined: Oct 15, 2002 Posts: 1565	B bongofury Posted posted on Wed, Mar 19, 2014 8:49 PM I remember talking to John Valencia (owner) at Damon's before Trader Vic's opened. He asked what he should do to get TC members to frequent the place. I told him not to count on us as we would be a small percentage of his clientele. I told him to just keep the drink and food quality high and consistent and people will come no matter what the decor is. The busiest restaurants in our area and others are that way. Unfortunately when times are tough the mistake is made to substitute that quality with cheaper ingredients. Always a mistake. Their overhead must be really high as I remember him talking on the news about how the NBA lockout of 2011 affected his business. A small blurb is here: http://www.marketplace.org/topics/life/nba-delay-will-cause-big-economic-ripples On the news I believe he said it cut their business by 15-20%, you do the math. Looks like they were bringing in a lot of money at that time. I will never understand how one could make such a huge investment, change things (for the worse), and expect to succeed.

I remember talking to John Valencia (owner) at Damon's before Trader Vic's opened. He asked what he should do to get TC members to frequent the place. I told him not to count on us as we would be a small percentage of his clientele. I told him to just keep the drink and food quality high and consistent and people will come no matter what the decor is. The busiest restaurants in our area and others are that way.

Unfortunately when times are tough the mistake is made to substitute that quality with cheaper ingredients. Always a mistake. Their overhead must be really high as I remember him talking on the news about how the NBA lockout of 2011 affected his business. A small blurb is here: http://www.marketplace.org/topics/life/nba-delay-will-cause-big-economic-ripples
On the news I believe he said it cut their business by 15-20%, you do the math. Looks like they were bringing in a lot of money at that time. I will never understand how one could make such a huge investment, change things (for the worse), and expect to succeed.

Post #711644 by bongofury on Wed, Mar 19, 2014 8:49 PM