Big bucks for a slice of the pizza

PROSPECTIVE investors were stunned Oct. 5 when the private placement offering for the much anticipated Nancy Silverton-Mario Batali restaurant hit their desks. Shares in the Italian kitchen are being offered at a record $100,000 each, a startlingly large sum in Los Angeles, where buying into a top restaurant rarely costs more than $25,000 a share, and never more than $50,000.

It’s a lower-risk, lower-reward offer than most L.A. restaurant deals. Investors are to be reimbursed 100% before Silverton and Batali get a cut of the profits, according to prospective investors familiar with the offering. After that, however, it’s an owner-heavy 75-25 profit split. A more typical owner-investor profit split is 50-50 from opening day. Principals in the offering were not available for comment.

“Investing in any restaurant is inherently risky,” says Michael Karlin, an investor who bought into Gino Angelini’s La Terza, among other restaurants with chefs he admires. Never invest money you can’t afford to lose, Karlin says. Then, when all you get is a decent table and better than average service, you won’t be disappointed.

Silverton and Batali have made a lot of money for investors in their existing restaurants, earning them a base of loyal investors to call upon. And the $2 million they want to raise isn’t out of line when compared with, say, the $5 million the Mastro Group spent on its Beverly Hills steakhouse.

Still, there are risks. In a difficult restaurant climate, this is a wildly ambitious project -- three restaurants in one, including a trattoria, a pizzeria and an enoteca. Westsiders may balk at driving 45 minutes to an hour for dinner on the corner of Highland and Melrose avenues. And then there is the name: Trattoria del Latte, Enoteca del Latte and Pizzeria del Latte. The milk obsession is making some prospective investors a little nervous. What if the public is lactose-intolerant?

According to people familiar with the deal, the location, formerly Emilio’s, then Alessi, was dictated by Silverton’s love of wood-burning pizza ovens. Getting a permit for a new one is next to impossible, so she was limited to spaces with existing ovens. And this spot was huge, big enough to allow for an enoteca offering wine and small plates in a bar catering to a late-night crowd; a trattoria as the main attraction with traditional dining-room service; and, for families, a separate room serving pizza and gelato.

Corie Brown

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Small bites

* All wines on the list at the Raymond restaurant in Pasadena are half-price Tuesday and the following Tuesday (Oct. 25). Mission Wines owner Christopher Meeske consulted on the list. Christian Felippa, former sous chef at Citrus in Hollywood and former executive chef of Ten in Newport Beach, is now the Raymond chef.

Raymond, 1250 S. Fair Oaks Ave., Pasadena, (626) 441-3136.

* The new Taste restaurant on Melrose Avenue isn’t losing any time getting into the special-nights swing. Its Monday pizzetta night features entree-size versions of its crisp-crust pizzetta appetizers for $12.75; a wine flight of three 2-ounce pours is $10.

Taste, 8454 Melrose Ave., West Hollywood, (323) 852-6888.