On 2009-02-19 11:43, jpmartdog wrote:
I don't mean to be a doomsayer... but, having lived in Belmont Shore, Long Beach for over 10 years just 1 1/2 miles from Sams/Kona, I thought I would throw my thoughts into the thread. (Just moved back to Massachusetts though)
First of all - I love Sams - my restaurant of choice in the LB hood, whenever family visited or whenever I could break my non-tiki gf into having Mai Tais.
Sams is on PCH (pacific coast Highway) - a legend of a highway, but - they are also very close to the 5/405 interchange. The stretch of pch from long beach to huntington beach although scenic is not home to thriving enterprises, in fact most of the road is bound by a naval station, beach parking lots and preserved wildlife refuge. Most commuters opt to travel up Seal Beach Blvd to the 405 or on the other end - up Golden West blvd to the 405, choosing to miss this long barren stretch of highway.

Now in contrast the Kowloon in Saugus, Massachusetts is on one of the heaviest-traveled stretches of Highway in the Boston Metro area - 100's of thousand of commuters travel by the Kowloon EVERY DAY. Restaurants thrive on Route 1 in the Saugus, Danvers area. Kowloon is amazingly busy, with a dining capacity of 1200 patrons, they find themselves with a large waiting line every Friday and Saturday night. One has to remember though that Kowloon has the best exposure that a business could have. When 1000's of people drive by your full parking lot 365 days a year, it pretty much assures you of continued success. Kowloon continues to be as big a legend on Route 1 as the Orange dinosaur mini golf and the plastic cows at the Hilltop Steakhouse!

Sams/Kona/Don the Beachcomber - although loved by us guys, has a tough nut to crack - Restaurants thrive, just 1 1/2 miles away, in Belmont Shore - maybe 35 full service restaurants within a 1/2 mile strip, have waiting lines and bustling streetside cafes every day and night. Sams is on a stretch of PCH that is kind of forgotten wasteland. It is a nice strip to drive for a vintage LA experience with great beaches loved by surfers, but the locals don't even consider it when planning their dinner and lounge outings- "Kinda out of sight, out of mind"

I wish Sams/Kona/DonTB the best, more than you know, but I think this will be an ongoing storyline of underperforming cash flow. Somehow they have to reinvent themselves as being a 'Destination' to lure hungry, thirsty patrons regularly! The restaurant industry is all about volume, and until that happens, they will never flourish. Maybe Don the Beachcombers will become that destination.

The good news is that with the struggling economy, nobody wants to build condominium/office space in that location at the moment - so they probably have bought themselves a few more years of life, just through fate.

Thats what the mafia told Bugsy about building Vegas in the middle of the desert! We know how that story ends! Cha-Ching! Im stoked beyond belief!!!!!!!!

[ Edited by: Mongoloid 2009-02-19 16:48 ]

Great news!

jpmartdog,

You have a valid point. Sure, some of the places do fine, such as the Harbor House Cafe,( try getting in on a Sunday morning) but that section of PCH, including Peter's Landing, has been slow for the past 10 years.

I used to work at Sam's Seafood in 1987, so I'm hoping that there's a bit of a revival in that area, as it used to be THE area to party. I beleive it started to die out around 1993ish?

I wish the new Beachcomber much luck and Mrs. Kahala and I will be patrons.

P.S. CONGRATS CHUCK! You are awesome!!! You did it!!

• vegasguy owns the right for Don the Beachcomber? or part of it. For those who asked.. http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=16712&forum=1
  AND, No Negativity allowed! Jezzzzh! I hardly slept last night while dreams of mugs and bowls danced in my head... no, just kidding.. the ideas are endless. Like Jeff Berry running the Bar or ? ummm.. a certain someone from the bay area? :D
  I know it needs lots of marketing that wasn't done in the past that takes a ton of dollars $ and ad's in the HB, AAA tourist mags, Zagat all that stuff. I would love to see the X & all generations at Don's "The IN place" It needs to appeal to them to make it I think and it can be done.
  

[ Edited by: Hiphipahula 2009-02-19 14:41 ]

So who is jimmy B., or Mark Wilson? Are either of these names involved with DTB?

That's a good point Deke, there are lots of restaurants that thrive in Sunset Beach. Look at Captain Jacks (phenomenal!!) They survive because of the amazing quality of food, the high level of customer service (trust me on this, unbelievable), and the ambiance (lotsa fish tanks and nautical decor). It easily in my top three restaurants that I have dined at.

The only thing that Sam's ever really had going for it was the decor... It fell flat on lots of the other requirements for a good, sucessful restaurant (in my opinion). Most of my dining expereiences there have been really forgetable. Mediocre food and bad cocktails, paired with a wait staff that could care less about serving you...

If Don the Beach can dial in those things (maybe take some cues from Captain Jacks, up the road) and do some heavy, correct, strategic marketing, I think it can really work out.

I'm super excited about this. If you guys (Don the Beachcomers) need any help on the graphic design front, I'd love to help out.

What he said.

I actually found the food to be good, the drinks ok. What always bothered me was some of the staff. The shaved headed bartender was one of the rudest people ever. I don't know his name. Don't even care to, anyway. I just remember that the 5-6 times I was there, he was rude.

To give you just one example. There was some crazy guy sitting at the bar. And I guess they wanted to get rid of him, so they start hacking away at dry ice (for the fountain?) right on the freaking bar. They were hacking at it with a cleaver, really hard. Ice chips were going everywhere. I was sitting at the bar, and the chips were flying. it was ridiculous. This shaved headed bartender was so intent on making his rude point, that he did not care that I had nothing to do with it. I guess just punish everyone, right?

Another time:
We played the OC Weekly party. We took a break, and they put the music on. As soon as we were ready to start again, I politely asked them to turn it off. Shaved head man looked at me, and said "I am really busy. Find someone else".

If I had owned that place, he would have been the FIRST to be let go. Same day I bought the place, actually.

What happened to the older Hawaiian guy that was the bartender before? Now HE was a nice guy!

Just adding my two bits again because of the post above-

Yeah. The bald headed bartender.

Rude with an attitude.

No need to go into my experience here. Suffice to say the one time I visited the restaurant as KONA and sat at the bar I felt uncomfortable and basically unwelcome. And I was just a spectator.

That was last New Years Eve.

Just a comment on above aforementioned

Luckydesigns wrote:
That's a good point Deke, there are lots of restaurants that thrive in Sunset Beach. Look at Captain Jacks (phenomenal!!) They survive because of the amazing quality of food, the high level of customer service (trust me on this, unbelievable), and the ambiance (lotsa fish tanks and nautical decor). It easily in my top three restaurants that I have dined at.

I agree there is no better spot in the southland for Alaskan King Crab Legs than Captain Jacks- for years my friends would take me there for my Birthday dinner, then back to Sams for proper tropical drinks. You forgot to mention that a King Crab Dinner goes for $36.95 per plate!!!! without the cocktails!!! You also forgot to mention Captain Jacks is 1/6 of the size of Sam's. Small footprint means smaller rent/taxes/mortgage/costs. Large footprint means harder to fill up and harder to pay the rent. Without proper exposure the place that is six times bigger has to work six times harder to fill the place up..... and that is relative WITHOUT adding in the paramaters of negative experiences, not so good food and bad employee relations. Try to find anyone that would return again and again if the experience, including waitstaff/food quality/price and decor doesn't meet your minimum expectations. Decor is probably the least influential in your morning after critique(unless you are looking for Polynesia/tiki).

In the restaurant industry it's called 'perceived value'. That is the value that the customer leaves with and remembers in their mind the next morning. It includes the attitude of the bartender, the quality of the drinks, and the presentation of the product! The first thing we learn in the professional kitchen is perceived value and creating a customer experience that maximizes it! It is a lot easier to fill a small joint with perceived value. Sams/Kona/DonTB can do it..., but it will be a very big effort. Decor alone will never create longterm success. Captain Jacks has 30 years of serving 36 ounce prime rib and the biggest crab legs you've seen! They have found their niche and easily fill their meager space.

Once again, Don the Beachcomber has a tough nut to crack! Just trying to add some reality to the overexuberance!

[ Edited by: jpmartdog 2009-02-20 20:45 ]

Any news on when this is suppose to happen? We were going to go to this resturant during our road trip in August.

[ Edited by: Tiki Kupcake 2009-02-21 00:10 ]

On 2009-02-21 00:09, Tiki Kupcake wrote:
Any news on when this is suppose to happen? We were going to go to this resturant during our road trip in August.

[ Edited by: Tiki Kupcake 2009-02-21 00:10 ]

The changeover is happening immediately....you'll be in full Don the Beachcomber bliss by August. :wink:

As far as the shaved headed bartender being rude, you're obviously mildly retarded. If you've found that you've encountered lots of rude people in your life, my guess its probably you. Act like a jackass, and you'll be treated as such. Jess (that's his name, what a surprise you never asked) is one of the coolest people I've met.

On 2009-02-21 13:09, Afkarp's Moai wrote:
As far as the shaved headed bartender being rude, you're obviously mildly retarded. If you've found that you've encountered lots of rude people in your life, my guess its probably you. Act like a jackass, and you'll be treated as such. Jess (that's his name, what a surprise you never asked) is one of the coolest people I've met.

Jess gave my girlfriend a free bottle of Vue Champagne on new years!

I have to agree with Afkarp's Moai and Coco Joe. Jess is a nice guy. That night, maybe one or the other of you were just having a bad day, hour, moment...whatever. As far as I'm concerned Jess has always been extremely nice and a great bartender. He has gone out of his way for us on several occasions. The hubby and I go to Kona's at least once a week and have never had a single issue with Jess.

I would hate for this forum to become a way of badmouthing someone and possibly making him (or her) lose a job over a random incident. I really believe that you need to get to know someone before passing judgment, and think twice before posting it in such a public forum! Karma is a bitch!

Just my dos pesos...

[ Edited by: TikiMoai 2009-02-21 14:08 ]

On 2009-02-21 13:09, Afkarp's Moai wrote:
As far as the shaved headed bartender being rude, you're obviously mildly retarded. If you've found that you've encountered lots of rude people in your life, my guess its probably you. Act like a jackass, and you'll be treated as such. Jess (that's his name, what a surprise you never asked) is one of the coolest people I've met.

And you, Sir (or Miss), should not come on this site as a newbie and liberally throw around words like "mildly retarded" and "jackass" towards a respected senior member of this board. That matches exactly the alleged behavior of the one you are defending, making it that much more likely to have occurred as reported.

I remember that bartender on New Years, but do not remember him being especially rude. At least nothing that could not be explained by working really hard on an especially busy night. Unless he has a consistent pattern of rudeness on more than one occasion, I say cut the guy some slack.

on Track.... I'm excited and hope everyone will keep in mind that this change over in ALL areas might not be perfect at first or ever, nothing is ever perfect. I know we all have thoughts and ideas that sound very good and so easy to accomplish. Be in fact if owning, investing or even managing a business was so easy we would all be doing it and we would be perfect and therefore a great success at it. Easier said than done.
I'm thrilled, in a time when businesses are closing by the zillions and as many are losing their jobs, here is a establishment that is renewing it's self, funded and looking forward to great happenings to be and that makes me simply happy. Best Wishes!

"Most people in life you will not like. If you did we would each have a billion friends. You must except, tolerate or pretend"