Honeymoon Hasn’t Yet Begun at Lawry’s Center
When the landmark Lawry’s California Center went up for sale last year, the former spice factory and restaurant complex, with its Mission-style architecture and Mexican gardens, was considered an ideal permanent site for Los Angeles’ first Latino museum. A group of community leaders hoped to purchase the 17-acre center just north of downtown, but its bid was rejected for being substantially below the asking price. Disney Studios had also showed interest in the property.
Now Jim Lucero, CEO of CL Holdings Inc., a New York corporation, says he is currently in the process of acquiring the center.
“We’re going to do something that has never been done in the restaurant business,” he told The Times. “We are going to include, as part of our wedding banquet package, a honeymoon to one of five destinations.” A wedding chapel will also be built.
Lucero, who describes himself as the creator of the endless-refill policy at Carl’s Jr., designer of a credit-card device for drive-through fast food and inventor of an ice-box security system, plans to drop the “Lawry’s” but will keep the California Center name. The restaurant will remain unchanged, he says, “to a certain degree.” He wants to reinstitute the choose-your-own-steak concept. “The only difference is now you will be able to pick your own live lobster or your own live fish-of-the day too, and it will be fileted and broiled right on the spot,” Lucero says. “I don’t think that’s ever been done before either.”
Chick Marshall, Lawry’s general manager of the retail division, says Lucero has yet to sign a contract of sale, or open escrow on the center. “I don’t know why he hasn’t,” says Marshall, “because we have been negotiating with him since before the first of the year.” The $18.5-million site remains for sale, and Lawry’s will announce its new hours next week.
EARL’S PEARLS: Restaurateur-mogul Robert Earl is planning three sequels to his film-themed New York burger joint Planet Hollywood: one at South Coast Plaza, one at the MCA Universal entertainment complex and one in Paris, where his Hard Rock Cafe is doing, as he puts it, “very well.” Celebrity investors in the original production, which opened last October, included celebrities Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis and Sylvester Stallone. Earl and Schwarzenegger also co-produced Schatzi (see First Impressions).
Earl won’t confirm any of the sites. “We haven’t signed anything yet,” he says. “But absolutely, we have been looking at those areas.”
BRIEFLY: The Chaya restaurant group has opened Place Sazaby on Robertson Boulevard, just for private parties. The 4,300-square-foot space, with a maximum seating of 250, adjoins Chaya Brasserie and the food comes from the Brasserie kitchen. . . . “We keep hearing about the negative effects of the recession and are tired of it,” says George Kookootsedes, general manager of John Dominis, “so we have reopened JD’s on Friday and Saturday nights for music and dancing.” The cover charge at the pricey seafood restaurant overlooking the Newport Marina is $5 (no charge if you dine at the restaurant). . . . Bellapasta, a branch of Tuttopasta at 4th and Hill streets, has opened on 9th Street, also in downtown Los Angeles. . . . Also new to downtown, Corleone Pizza, a family run business located on the Broadway side of Grand Central Market.
