There`s a simple answer to the widespread concern about how to get the American economy going again: Clone Emilio Gervilla.
Gervilla is a Spanish immigrant, a chef turned entrepreneur who has launched four restaurants in less than four years in Chicago`s western suburbs. Emilio`s in Hillside came first, in 1988. He opened Lombard`s Bistro Banlieue in 1989 and Meson Sabika in Naperville in 1990 and returned to Hillside last November with La Perla.
In the process, the upbeat, outgoing 43-year-old chef has built an empire that encompasses more than 250 employees, 1,200 seats and gross revenues (from the three restaurants that operated throughout 1991) of about $4.5 million.
Of course, large volume, mass production and assembly lines are concepts American industry-including the restaurant industry-introduced to the world. But the quality of our products is suspect. So is the commitment of management to quality and to consumer satisfaction.
Here, too, Emilio Gervilla stands as an example. His first three restaurants have earned a total of seven stars from the Tribune. (La Perla has not yet been reviewed.)
There`s no central kitchen. Emilio`s and Meson Sabika offer tapas
(Spanish snacks), Bistro Banlieue has a casual French menu, and La Perla specializes in seafood-oriented Mediterranean cuisine. The food is fresh. The servers are knowledgeable and attentive.
Furthermore, Gervilla says the sort of things that consumers all over the world, not just Americans, long to hear and backs them up with an extraordinary work ethic.
No one, least of all Gervilla, would claim or his management style or his operations are textbook perfect. But he makes no excuses for shortcomings. Instead, his comments as he gave us a daytime tour of the four restaurants reveal how much the owner`s attitude colors the consumer`s dining experience. Gervilla`s commitment to cooking began when, as a youth in southern Spain, he realized he preferred working in his grandfather`s bakery-restaurant to book work in school. By age 18 he was working as an apprentice in a hotel kitchen in Granada. Other jobs followed.
”I never had any trouble finding a job,” he recalls. ”I worked hard because I wanted to learn. I learned to believe in my own sense of taste and that it was more satisfying to make people happy with simple food that didn`t have expensive ingredients.”
Gervilla came to the United States in 1973. After six years in Florida, he migrated to Chicago and soon began a long affiliation with the Lettuce Entertain You group and chef Gabino Sotellino that took him into the kitchens of Ambria, Un Grand Cafe and Cafe Ba-Ba-Reeba.
The menu at Emilio`s echoed Ba-Ba-Reeba`s tapas theme. It was a risk. He was gambling on the culinary curiosity and increased sophistication of suburbanites.
In addition to his optimism, the project revealed several other facets of the chef`s character.
”To get the money to open,” he recalls, ”I took a second mortgage on my home. I took money from my savings to pay bills. Others offered to invest, to become partners, but I had decided to do this by myself. I wanted to have only one person to please. I told my family if we work hard and have confidence in ourselves, it will be all right.”
And it was. Customers came from the first day and came back again and told the chef they wanted to help him succeed. By the end of the first month, Emilio`s had broken even.
”We had no storage, a tiny kitchen of about 500 square feet. The place was unbelievably congested,” Gervilla says. ”But there was so much support. People would wait for two hours to eat, then come back two days later.”
Even before he had his own restaurant, he paid attention to his customers.
”At Ba-Ba-Reeba,” he says, ”I would look at plates coming back to the kitchen and go through the dining room often to look at the food on the tables. If the plates weren`t empty or customers were not eating, I would try to find out what was wrong.”
He still keeps up the habit. ”I talk a lot with our customers,” he says. ”I may not remember all their names, but I remember them and welcome them back. You want to be available to them, give them something to taste, stay open an extra half-hour if they need time to finish, to treat them like people, not cattle.
”I don`t buy advertisements for my restaurants. I give that money to the customers-not as cash, but in complimentary sherry or olives or tastes of food-and hope they will like us and tell their friends. That`s my public-relations budget.
”The only way to succeed, to make lots of money,” he concludes, ”is to make the customers happy.”
Beyond his commitment to his customers, there are other aspects of Gervilla`s philosophy that should have a nice ring to the dining public.
His four rules: ”Everyone must work hard and work together. We must serve fresh food and make no compromises within the limitations of the kitchen. The prices must represent good value. We must always tell customers the truth, not make excuses.” (Not compromising means offering items such as rabbit, venison and goat and patiently ”teaching the customers to like them” through recommendations and free samples.)
On money: ”A lot of restaurants fail because they spend too much money, especially before opening. They go into debt and can`t get out. I don`t hire a lot of unnecessary labor and I keep things simple.” (He also saves money by taking over vacant restaurants that offer favorable leases.) ”To open Emilio`s, my wife and I bought secondhand chairs at $25 and repaired them ourselves. We both did painting. All the kitchen equipment was secondhand.”
”Once we make a profit, I put money back into all the restaurants. Customers appreciate it when they see you do something about the place.”
Emilio`s today is nearly double its original size. It`s also much spiffier. But the basic premise remains: Don`t spend for the sake of spending. ”Just now,” he says, ”I bought more chairs. I got them for $45 each instead of $180. That`s a big difference.”
With La Perla, Gervilla appointed himself general contractor and supervised the entire project. (”We worked very hard. We did it in two months,” he says proudly. ”I saved about $150,000.”) Now that the place is open, he and his wife are acting as managers and Emilio heads the kitchen himself.
On cooks: ”In the old days, the chef would simply tell a cook to do something and walk away. You can`t do that now. You have to spend a lot of time with them. I have no recipe cards. I teach the cooks, have them make a dish, then make them taste it. If a cook just follows a recipe on a card and never tastes, he will never become special, and neither will the food.”
On other employees: ” I respect my dishwashers as well as my cooks and try to treat them as equals. I hired 12 servers when I opened Emilio`s, and all 12 are with me still. They all have a piece of the action at La Perla. The people who work for you have to realize you care or they won`t care. If I see something on the floor, I pick it up. I don`t ignore it or order someone else to do it.”
On his schedule (12 hours or more a day, six days a week): ”My chefs and I work closely, but I don`t set a specific schedule. We`re on the telephone to one another all the time. In the morning, I usually go to Emilio`s and work on the setup. Then, a couple of days a week, I`ll go to the Bistro to taste things. I just show up. I`ve been at La Perla a lot during the opening. I go to Meson Sabika less often. The chef (Francois Sanchez) is my right-hand man. He knows the way I think. Every month I spend one or maybe two days in each kitchen reviewing the menu and working on new dishes. Once a week I go to market.”
On relaxing: It`s difficult to believe, but the chef does take time off, usually on Sunday. In summer, he swims and gardens, in winter he skis and in between he plays tennis ”a little bit.” In addition to his wife, there are two stepdaughters at home, one of whom has begun working as a manager at Emilio`s.
Admitting that mounting La Perla has been difficult, Gervilla says, ”I`m going to rest a little bit now.”
Don`t believe it.
Emilio Gervilla`s restaurants:
Emilio`s Tapas Bar, 4100 W. Roosevelt Rd., Hillside; 708-547-7177. Lunch and dinner, Monday through Friday; dinner only, Saturday and Sunday.
Bistro Banlieue, 44 Yorktown Convenience Center, Lombard; 708-629-6560. Lunch and dinner, Monday-Friday; dinner only, Saturday; closed Sunday.
Emilio`s at Meson Sabika, 1025 Aurora Ave., Naperville; 708-983-3000. Lunch and dinner Sunday through Friday; dinner only, Saturday.
La Perla, 2135 S. Wolf Rd., Hillside; 708-449-1070. Lunch and dinner, Monday through Saturday; closed Sunday.
