Restaurant development + design

Four Tips for First - Time Restaurateurs

"In my nearly 20 years of designing kitchens and consulting, I see some very consistent mistakes during the planning stages of a new restaurant. When owners are eager to put their dreams in action, they often push the smaller things to the side. It’s imperative, however, to complete the due diligence...

Here are my top four things that first-time restaurateurs really need to look at before even thinking about starting the design process.”

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Bar Business Magazine

Q&A with Eddie Navarrette

"Unrealistic expectations in the permitting process and not doing the correct due diligence when taking over an existing location or a new location that you're proposing to have a bar in. Opening up a bar is one of the most difficult things to do in hospitality.”

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ice.edu

What restaurateurs need know signing lease

"Making deals is in Eddie Navarrette’s DNA. His father was a car salesman and he’s since earned the nickname “Fast Eddie” for his ability to efficiently navigate the murky waters of city and state permitting and ABC licensing, an acronym for the Department of Alcohol and Beverage Control. His firm FE Design & Consulting works with restaurant and hospitality clients in Los Angeles.”

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Eater LA

Staple LA Spot Celebrates 10-Year Anniversary With $20.09 Steaks and Lobster

"It’s the ten year anniversary of Fig in Santa Monica, and to celebrate the restaurant inside the Fairmont Miramar is doing some serious throwback pricing. On Saturday night only Fig, once home to chefs like Ray Garcia and Yousef Ghalaini and now home to chef Jason Prendergast, will turn its entrees back to the price $20.09 as a celebration of the year they opened — including dishes like a pork tomahawk, short ribs, ribeye steaks, whole branzino, and lobster rigatoni. Sounds like a steal. The night’s menu and pricing is below.”

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globest.com

How Sustainability Can Offset Costs for Hospitality Users

"Sustainable practices can mean big cost savings for hospitality users. Implementing sustainable practices could reduce both utilities costs as well as labor costs, according to Eddie Navarrette, hospitality permit expert and chief consultant at FE Design & Consulting. In addition there are several environmental regulations that can impact the bottom line of hospitality users.”

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la.eater.com

How to Open a Bar or Club

"In an effort to minimize the already lengthy approval times for alcohol licenses, the Los Angeles Department of City Planning is hoping to develop a new Restaurant Beverage Program that will aim to “reduce processing times and costs for certain sit-down restaurants who wish to serve alcoholic beverages at their establishments.”

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smallbusiness.chron.com

How to Open a Bar or Club

“If you enjoy the night life and are a people person, opening a nightclub or bar may be a perfect fit. Such a venture allows you to meet a wide variety of guests and enjoy watching those guests have a good time. Generally, bars and night clubs are happy places where people go to have a good time.”

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modernrestaurantmanagement.com

What Trends Do You Think Will Impact the Restaurant Industry in 2019?

“One of the trends you may see is a smaller footprint for in-restaurant dining because of the uptick in delivery, there’s no need for all those seats. With fewer people sitting down in a restaurant and ordering out, there isn’t a need for one big concept. Instead of having one restaurant concept that takes up 5,000 square feet of space, instead, operators will have 4 restaurant concepts in that same space.”

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supercall.com

14 L.A. Bars the Locals Don’t Want You to Know About

“If you find yourself in the City of Angels, you’ll no doubt run into a long line if you hit up the city’s most popular bars on the weekend. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Take advice from 14 locals, and visit these under-the-radar watering holes instead. Not only will you have a more authentic L.A. experience, but you won’t have to wait 30 minutes for a drink.”

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upserve.com

The Benefits and Challenges to Opening a Small Restaurant

“Tiny homes, tiny cottages, tiny living—tiny is big these days. Small and intimate is quickly replacing big box chain dining as diners seek better experiences for their bucks. The benefits? Patrons say they assume food will be better in a more intimate restaurant, that more attention will be paid to guests, and that the ingredients will be sourced locally. There is also the assumption that slighter restaurants don’t have as much money to market themselves, so a busy petite café usually signifies a proven hotspot.”

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simpleorder.com

How one man and his team are advocating for restaurants at the government level- removing barriers for restaurants to open and paving the way to success

“We don’t have to repeat this ad nauseam, we all know that running a restaurant is hard. If the work itself isn’t hard enough, there are a plethora of local government, state and national laws that create more hoops for restaurants to jump through just to open their doors and function. Understandably, there are laws to protect employees, communities and overall health of your guests, but many laws in many places around the world are also antiquated, redundant and unnecessary.”

issuu.com

HOW TO: Setting up for success

“The easiest way to understand brand is to equate it to a company's reputation. More specifically, a brand is all the thoughts, feelings, associations, and expectations that the customer experiences when exposed to a company's name, products, buildings, signs, and employees.”

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fesmag.com

Functional by Design: Bars

“Food may have the big name-making potential, but any restaurant operator will tell you that when it comes to adding energy and boosting profitability, the bar is the star. Markups and margins on liquor are exponentially better than those on food. What’s more, liquor isn’t perishable, and a tight team in a relatively small amount of space can run a highly profitable bar.”

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simpleorder.com

Feature of the Week: FE Design and Consulting

“With 19 years of experience in the business, Eddie and his team have quickly become the experts on the issues that truly matter to restaurant businesses. His experience and sage advice is a crucial element to get restaurants up and running and functioning efficiently.”

Modern Restaurant Management

The Benefits and Challenges to Opening a Small Restaurant

“Tiny homes, tiny cottages, tiny living—tiny is big these days. Small and intimate is quickly replacing big box chain dining as diners seek better experiences for their bucks. The benefits? Patrons say they assume food will be better in a more intimate restaurant, that more attention will be paid to guests, and that the ingredients will be sourced locally”

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Food and Wine

Meet the Most Important Restaurant Guy You’ve Never Heard of

“Ever wonder why L.A. bars close at 2 a.m.? (If you think this city has no nightlife, you’ve obviously never been to Coffee Bean at 9 p.m., the joke goes.) Turns out it’s a state law leftover from the end of Prohibition that never got repealed.”

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American Express

How to be more productive by delegating and empowering your team

“Business leaders may think that it's easier and faster to get things done themselves. But delegating to your team is not only essential for growth—it helps empower employees and connects them to the bigger picture.”

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Modern Restaurant Management

Extending Last Call to 4 a.m. – What Potential California Nightlife Rule Changes Mean to a Hospitality Expert

“Once all the i’s are dotted and the t’s are crossed, it’s important to note business won’t boom immediately. It will take some time for the public to catch up but when they do, it will be absolutely worth it.”

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DOWNTOWN NEWS

What Does Downtown Need, ‘Fast’ Eddie Navarrette?

“Downtown’s changing very quickly, and I can’t expect it to stay the way I remember it and want it,” Navarrette, 40, says. “Great cities like San Francisco and Sydney have thriving, pedestrian-friendly, safer neighborhoods where there’s a lot of resources and amenities. I’m so happy to see there’s now a real Downtown happening in Los Angeles.”

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LAist

What Would A 4 A.M. Last Call Look Like In Los Angeles?

"It’s the age of Uber. Drunk driving is on the decline. I think a 4 a.m. last call would go a long way towards making L.A. a nightlife destination. I know when I moved here from New York I immediately felt the loss," Nick Theodorakis, a film producer who lives in West Hollywood, told LAist.

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Young Upstarts

5 Essential Tips For Entrepreneurs Opening A Small Business

"Opening a business can be an intimidating endeavor. From creating a viable concept to implementing cost-effective processes to ensure continual progress, building a business takes time, strategy and the right kind of advice."

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LA Weekly

4 a.m. Last Call Proposal Gets Some L.A. Love

"The LOCAL Act recognizes that cities like Los Angeles could benefit — if it chooses to do so — from developing a plan to expand nightlife in neighborhoods like downtown L.A.," Wiener said in a statement. "By taking this nuanced approach to empower — but not require — local communities to extend alcohol sales hours, we can support nightlife in California while also recognizing that there is not a one-size-fits-all solution for each and every city in our great state."

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LA Business Journal

Another Round?

"I think some people are a bit naïve to think that more hours equals more profit,” said Salar Sheik, owner of Sawtelle-based Savory Hospitality Restaurant Consulting. There’s only a certain amount people can consume in a 24-hour period."

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LA WEEKLY

CALIFORNIA’S LAWS ABOUT RESTAURANT BATHROOMS ARE MORE PROGRESSIVE THAN L.A.’S

“Last September, Governor Jerry Brown signed AB 1732, a bill requiring all single-stall restrooms in the state of California to be designated “gender-neutral.” It is the nation’s most inclusive restroom-access law, and it went into effect on March 1.”

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CITIZINE.TV

PLACELIST: SALSA DANCING IN L.A. WITH EDDIE NAVARETTE

“Fast Eddie of FE Design shows us where hips don’t lie in Los Angeles: When the sun goes down, the permit specialist behind some of LA’s trademark landmarks like Lemonade, Sprinkles and Hotel Erwin transforms into a professional salsa dancer.”

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LOS ANGELES DOWNTOWN NEWS

INSIDE THE ARTS DISTRICTS HUGE NEW BREWPUB/SKEEBALL JOINT

For decades, people came to Traction Avenue in the Arts District in search of discount electronics. Gideon Kotzer, the namesake of Crazy Gideon’s, became something of a local legend for his outlandish TV commercials — he’d literally smash a TV to show how crazy he is for having such low prices. Crazy Gideon’s closed in 2010. Now, the electronics have given way to beer and skeeball. The Arts District Brewing Company, a project from nightlife magnate Cedd Moses’ 213 Hospitality, began serving in mid-December.

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LOS ANGELES TIMES

NEW INITIATIVE AIMS TO HELP SMALL BUSINESSES WITH L.A. PERMITTING BURDENS

The Department of Building and Safety has done a good job, but what hasn’t changed much is wrangling in other departments and agencies, said Eddie Navarette, chief consultant for FE Design and Consulting, who works with businesses to navigate the red tape at City Hall.

“Hopefully, the city of L.A. will be open to hearing feedback from organizations dealing with these types of problems with restaurants,” Navarette said.

“These initiatives are on the right track,” he said. “I feel they put some of [the restaurants’ concerns] in there, which is really great.”

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LOS ANGELES TIMES

TANGLED LOS ANGELES PERMIT PROCESS HAS RESTAURANT OWNERS HOWLING

“Seventy percent of my clients have already signed a lease and are in some sort of trouble,” says Navarrette, who handles the cases of 50 to 100 restaurants per year and calls himself a “permit specialist extraordinaire.” He guides his clients through the maze of requirements and represents them at the right offices.

Navarrette believes that the root of the problem lies, in large part, with the number of cooks in the kitchen, but he also says there is a hierarchy of projects that is skewed toward helping big business. “Successful restaurants can pay lobbyists money, and these guys will take city officials to lunch,” he says. “There should be the same type of assistance available to small business owners.”

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LOS ANGELES MAGAZINE

TALE OF THE TAPE

Eddie Navarrette knows all about the mess—he’s among the dozen or so “expediters” who are hired by restaurant owners to stand in lines and deal with the permits and inspections. “The first thing I ask potential clients is if they’ve signed a lease,” says Navarrette, who is known in the trade as “Fast Eddie” (he got his nickname playing in a rock band). “If they have a lease, there’s no turning back. If they don’t, I’ll sometimes discourage them from moving forward.”

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GRUB STREET

WHO ON EARTH IS RESTAURANT RAINMAKER “FAST EDDIE?”

BlogDowntown charts the ongoing journey of Two Bits Market, a sandwich and organic ingredient store in the Alexandria Hotel, which like many local businesses is doing its best to navigate the bureaucracy of opening a food-based project. Beset by permitting pains and crushed under labyrinthine laws, owner Brandi Lozano sought the help of Eddie “Fast Eddie” Navarette, which like Two Bits, is another name that sounds like it bounded out of Guys and Dolls. Who is this restaurant rainmaker with a hat full of miracles?

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BLOG DOWNTOWN

ONE LONG ROAD FOR TWO BITS MARKET

Brandi Lozano, owner of the future Two Bits Market, has been pouring her heart and soul into opening the store for more than a year. “I learned a lot of humbling lessons learned in the process,” she said. For Lozano and her two business partners, the permitting process has been a struggle from day one. “I warned her that it would take a lot longer than she was anticipating,” said Vianey Delgadillo, Lozano’s business partner and owner of the Down & Out. “I didn’t want to hear it,” added Lozano. In March, Lozano told blogdowntown that she hoped to open in May, but that was before delays in preparing the space came to light.

Lozano and her partners decided to pursue a different way of getting permitted. They turned to Eddie Navarrette, owner of FE Design, a professional expediter firm that helps restaurant owners through the permitting process.

“They call him ‘Fast Eddie.’ Where I was stonewalled, he was able to get answers and move everything along,” said Lozano. “Unfortunately, what Brandi went through is a typical roadblock from the Bureau of Sanitation,” said Navarrette.