Plans Simmering for New Chain of Mexican Restaurants

Ventura County restaurateur John Blonder of Simi Valley has teamed with Encino resident Ira Laufer, a longtime Ventura County businessman and a past deputy mayor of Ventura, to form Casa Fresh Inc., a Mexican fast-food restaurant.

Casa Fresh, under construction in Northridge, is due to open early next month. The partners anticipate following the opening with a run through Ventura County, setting up restaurants in Ventura, Oxnard and Thousand Oaks within the next six months.

Blonder and Laufer, former high school classmates in New Jersey, were partners in the Longfellows restaurant chain in Ventura and other Southern California locations from 1968 to 1973, as well as the Big Green House restaurant in Ventura from 1973 to 1979.

Blonder also owned John’s at the Beach in Ventura from 1966 to 1981, John’s at the Beach in Santa Barbara from 1970 to 1975 and the Bodega Bay Seafood restaurant in Thousand Oaks from 1981 to 1991.

With this latest venture, said Blonder, 64, he and Laufer hope to take advantage of their nearly three decades of exposure to Ventura County taste buds. They also are looking forward to grabbing a piece of the growing Mexican food market.

“I’ve been researching this for the past three years,” Blonder said. “From 1986 to 1990, the fastest growing segment of the whole food service industry was Mexican restaurants. And what we’re seeing now, where it’s really at, is the fast-food segment of the Mexican food business.”

According to a Consumer Reports marketing survey on eating trends, Mexican restaurants saw a 14% increase in customers between 1988 and 1989 and an additional 10% increase between 1989 and 1990. The majority of that increase was attributed to the growth in popularity of quick-service Mexican establishments, which accounted for two-thirds of all Mexican restaurant business.

Blonder said he expects many of Casa Fresh’s customers to be working adults, rushing home after work to get the children some dinner. “We expect about 40% of our business to be take-home,” he said.

Casa Fresh restaurants will have no freezers and no microwave ovens, Blonder said. Food, he said, will be delivered and prepared fresh daily, with no lard and no MSG.