SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ENTERPRISE : Rubio’s Fish Tacos Rides a Wave of Success : Restaurants: Chain has grown rapidly with trends favoring fresh food and socializing, but the L.A. market seems to be a tough catch.

Ray and Ralph Rubio run a small restaurant chain that is a veritable institution in San Diego but has been less well received so far in its debut in Los Angeles.

Slower-than-expected sales at their 2-month-old Encino outlet, the father-son team figures, might have something to do with the somewhat limiting image conjured by its name, Rubio’s Fish Tacos. Then there’s the matter of the chain’s mascot: a smiling fish named Pesky Pescado who comes attired in corn tortilla and cabbage and, sometimes, a baseball cap.

Actually, it probably boils down to one of those fundamental questions for north-of-the-(San Diego County)-border diners: Just what is a fish taco, anyway?

“People can’t picture a fish taco,” said Ralph, who tasted the ichthyic delicacy during a spring break trip to Baja in 1978 and wangled the recipe from a vendor named Carlos. (The event is immortalized in Rubio’s paper place mats, which bear the headline “How One Guy’s Vacation Changed the Way We Eat.”)

“People picture a trout on a tortilla. They say: ‘It can’t be. It doesn’t make sense,’ ” said Ralph, who persuaded his businessman father to join him in launching the first Rubio’s restaurant in 1983 on the site of a failed hamburger joint in San Diego. In reality, Rubio’s basic fish tacos are of the soft variety, containing shredded cabbage, salsa fresca, a white sauce and a strip of fish, either covered with batter and deep-fried or wearing no batter and grilled, finished with a squeeze of lime.

The concept apparently made sense to somebody, even many somebodies. Overall sales at Rubio’s Fish Tacos are on the rise and should reach about $15.5 million this year, said Ralph Rubio, who is president of the chain that employs nearly all his family members. The Rubios estimate that they have sold close to 16 million fish tacos at an average pace now of 11,000 a day. Employees total 600, up from three in the early days.

In addition to the Encino outlet, they operate 21 of their upscale fast-food restaurants in San Diego and Orange counties.

Rubio’s Fish Tacos embodies many of the trends sweeping the restaurant industry, both locally and nationally.

In Southern California, restaurant experts say, we like our food fast but fresh, with good service and nice decor--and make it Asian, Mexican or Italian.

A recently released study of the restaurant industry by the Deloitte & Touche accounting firm concluded that cocooning is out and socializing is in, with a corresponding solid growth in restaurant revenue both nationwide and in Southern California.

Deloitte & Touche projected that commercial restaurant revenue nationwide would rise to $259 billion this year from $246.1 billion in 1994; Southern California figures were not available, but the trend here is similar, said co-authors S. Herbert Perlmutter and Steven M. Steinhauser, who are based in the firm’s downtown Los Angeles office.

The Deloitte & Touche study, conducted for the National Restaurant Assn., also noted that the restaurant industry is becoming more competitive all the time, forcing restaurants to court customers with fresh ingredients, nice ambience and good service. Even fast-food eateries, which make up the fastest-growing segment of the industry, are being pushed upscale in the race for consumer dollars.

“The bar has been raised tremendously over the last couple of years in terms of what it takes to be successful,” said Perlmutter, a Deloitte & Touche partner.

In addition, technology and employee training are crucial components in the competitive melee, they said.

Restaurants also are turning to such non-traditional locations as hospitals, airports, schools, gas stations and entertainment or sporting venues. “They’re bringing the food to the consumers rather than waiting for consumers to come to them,” Steinhauser said.

Rubio’s food is ethnic, but with an emphasis on health. The restaurant chain has broadened its menu over the years beyond the fish taco to include many traditional Mexican favorites, including a HealthMex line of low-fat items.

Its outlets are airy and reminiscent of the nicest restaurant you’ll never find on a Baja beach. And Rubio’s can be found in strip malls as well as in some non-traditional locations, like Jack Murphy Stadium and the Irvine Spectrum.

The Rubio’s chain is using more technology to control costs better. Electronic cash registers not only ring up sales, but keep track of how well different food items sell and serve as time clocks for employees, said Rafael (Ray) Rubio, chairman of the company.

“By 10 a.m., [Ralph] has on his desk, and I have on my desk, how we did the day before,” the elder Rubio said. This detailed knowledge helps keep food and beverage costs down. The Rubios expect even more accurate reporting next year after they put personal computers in each restaurant.

The Rubios’ plans for Rubio’s are ambitious.

They hope to be operating 60 to 70 company-owned outlets in Southern California by 1998, when they would like to do a public stock offering. They’re aiming for 150 stores nationwide by the year 2000, and they talk of going global in the 21st Century.

Rubio’s brought in its first outside investors this year, doing a $3.5-million private stock placement. The lead investor was Rosewood Capital of San Francisco.

The Rubios say they have no plans to change their basic formula, though people still come in expecting that trout on a tortilla. To drum up interest, the Encino store tried a “Fish Taco Frenzy” two weeks ago, giving away more than 1,000 free tacos.

“We have to do a lot of educating up here,” Ralph Rubio said, adding that the fish taco was not an instant success in San Diego either, even though locals were more familiar with the Baja specialty.

“The food for us is more important than anything,” he said. “That’s the heart and soul of our culture.”