Love’s Owner Plans Changes in Restaurants

The big red heart that has been the centerpiece of the Love’s Woodpit Barbecue Restaurants logo for more than 15 years is about to be excised as the restaurant chain’s owner begins performing major surgery aimed at revitalizing the ailing Southland eateries.

And Butterfield Equities Corp. of Santa Ana, which owns the Love’s chain, also said Monday that it plans to launch a new chain of smaller, fast-food barbecue restaurants, with 15 of the quick-service, limited menu facilities scheduled to be built during 1986. Butterfield, a diversified holding company, also owns a savings and loan association and a real estate syndication business.

With the changes in its restaurant division, Butterfield is following much of the California restaurant industry, which is moving from starches to salads and lighter fare. Butterfield hopes to upgrade the “coffee shop” atmosphere of the existing Love’s restaurants by featuring light and airy interiors and a menu that will attract the calorie-conscious as well as hearty barbecue fans.

Plans for the 32 existing Love’s restaurants include a new name, major exterior and interior face lifts for at least some of the facilities and an expanded menu that will still feature barbecued ribs and chicken but will add lighter fare, including salads and sandwiches.

The new name hasn’t yet been decided on but will probably be “something like ‘J. D. Love’s Rib Eatery,’ ” said Raymond Johnston, chief executive of Butterfield Hospitality Group, the Butterfield subsidiary that operates the Love’s chain as well as a large Wendy’s Old-Fashioned Hamburger Restaurants franchise.

The Love’s restaurants have posted quarterly losses since long before Butterfield purchased the company in September, 1983, Johnston said. But the picture has improved from a $694,000 loss in the quarter ended March 31, 1984, to a loss of $286,000 for the quarter ended last Dec. 31, he said.