Relationship With His Landlord
In this final installment, the peripatetic Mr. Handal, fifty-two years old, talks passionately — he washes his hands passionately — about two family experiences that profoundly influenced his adult life and about two appearances earlier this year in bankruptcy court. In yesterday’s first report on the permanent closing of San Gennaro, a founding father of the present incarnation of Downtown freely talked about his often-thorny dealings with landlord Stu Freeman over the years, especially the past four months. Mr. Handal left no doubt he is being forced to close down San Gennaro, long a Downtown eatery of choice, because Mr. Freeman decided to end their unusual lease agreement, which has been month to month for a decade. Mr. Freeman, assuming the stance he has throughout the ordeal, declined to comment.
Chapter Two of Inside Handal Story
For all of his out-thereness and open-facedness, Mr. Handal has spoken sparsely about his upbringing and the rhythms of his family, where he is the youngest of four surviving children.
“I am not someone who likes to toot his own horn,” Mr. Handal said at the end of yesterday’s installment, when the subject was philanthropy toward the community. “This is something I learned from my father. I have to tell you, growing up the way I did in Brooklyn, it was great. I couldn’t have had a better childhood. My father got out of the Army (at the end of World War II), and he had a scholarship to Fordham University. He couldn’t afford the bus fare from Brooklyn to the Bronx. He and his brother pooled all of their money, about $500, and started an import company. By the late 1960s, they were doing $80 million a year. My father was the kind of guy — and this is where I learned from — the Monsignor up the block would come down and say, ‘Oh, we’re not going to have enough money to support the sports program.’ Shortly, my father would slide a $10,000 check under his door at the rectory, very anonymously. That is where I learned about giving, about doing for people.
“Twenty-nine years ago, when I wanted to open a restaurant after I moved out here, on the July Fourth weekend in 1977, I went back to New York to get my brother packed up. My brother was one of those problem children, like the rest of us. In our family, the children took care of the children. I was packing him up to bring him back here so we could open a pizza place. Back in those days, there weren’t many good pizza places out here. I left there on July 5, and came back here. My brother was still packing. The morning of July 8, I got a phone call. He was killed by a drunk driver. That really changed my life. It really made me think about giving, much, much more than I had before. That was the beginning of my getting involved in community, in children’s organizations, in Alzheimer organizations. It didn’t matter what their color or what their religion was. It was about need, about being able to do something and make a difference. That is how I have modeled myself all these years.
A Pathway Into Culver City
“I remember when I came into Culver City in 1995. I had been buying and selling restaurants that were in trouble. I had a restaurant in Brentwood. I heard from a friend there was a restaurant available in Culver City, that the owner was in big trouble. He was a lawyer who had a French guy as a business partner. The French guy left him during the redevelopment and stuck him with the restaurant. The guy who called me was a mutual friend. I went down and made a deal. Actually, I called Albert Vera, who was a friend of mine. I said ‘Albert, what should I do?’ In Albert’s inimitable way, with his very good Italian accent, he said ‘You no buy it, I’m gonna take it.’ So I took the deal.
On a Mission To Be Different
“The restaurant was called Bella Pasta, and it was horrible. But it was and is a beautiful room. It was laid out like an old New York supper club. My purpose was to bring something else to Downtown. I brought in people like the Johnny Recine Show and the Michael King Show and the bands. Losing San Gennaro loses night-time entertainment for old and young. It loses the Comedy Club (on weekends). It loses the home for the Lions Club. It loses the ability for all of these organizations to use the Banquet Room and raise money for themselves. It loses the ability for many, many 501c(3)s in this town to come and use the back room, free, for seminars. It’s a multi-functional building, and we were able to use all of the square footage, both to make profit and to make friends.
“By forming the Downtown Business Assn., it was really a challenge at the time. Mayor (Steve) Gourley and then (Ed) Wolkowitz talked about how the merchants didn’t really know what they were doing in Downtown. By forming the DBA, we stepped the merchants up to the plate. We made them take control of part of their own destiny. To the credit of the Redevelopment Agency and the City Council, they saw good progress, they jumped aboard and helped us along as we continued to ask for more direction, which became the Business Improvement District. I am proud to say I brought the Business Improvement District to their table, but I am not proud to say it still is the only one in Culver City. This concept should have been taken city-wide, giving the merchants a great chance to get things done without having to rely on the city to do it for them. And as is being proven in Downtown, the ones who win are the landlords. Higher rents, different tenants.
It has been a good run.”
Question: What started the split between you and Mr. Freeman, the landlord?
“Telling me in January that he was canceling the (decade-long) month-to-month lease was pretty much like being served the papers. That was the end of it. Stu had made up his mind that he wanted something different. He wanted more money. It was not related to any of the bankruptcy business.
“What I can tell you is that your newspaper reported incorrectly. The bankruptcy that you reported on was actually in Brentwood (the location of Mr. Handal’s other San Gennaro restaurant). It wasn’t Culver City. But your paper portrayed it as Culver City, and it made Culver City look in imminent danger. That was a serious error that cost San Gennaro money and business. But that’s a whole ‘nother story.
‘Unrelated to the Bankruptcy’
“The fact of the matter is that I don’t think (the landlord’s notification) was related to the Brentwood bankruptcy. I am very pragmatic about it. The man can get $3.50 or $4 a square foot, and I can’t pay it. I was the first one to say, ‘I can’t pay it.’ It just doesn’t make sense.”
Question: Psychologically, how do you feel about leaving Culver City? Does it hurt?
“Leaving doesn’t hurt me. I had a great run here, a really great run. Show me a restaurant, other than Petrelli’s, that has done what we have done in a community. We have been here a half-month short of eleven years. I challenge you to find a restaurant that will give… It’s interesting. Co-chairing (Saturday’s 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Downtown) Car Show, we went to a certain restaurant and asked them to be a sponsor. We would put cars in front of their store that were named similarly. They said their advertising budget was fully booked. They couldn’t sponsor anything for the Car Show. We went back to the same restaurant a couple weeks later to ask the restaurateur to buy one of the fifty-eight trophies for a hundred dollars. They said no, they couldn’t. Their advertising budget was booked, and we should come back in January to talk about next year. I don’t know that anyone has hit me up for (as little as) a hundred dollars. I would kiss the ground if all I got were hundred-dollar hits.
Speaking of Irreplaceable…
“When we leave, you’re not going to find the San Gennaros in town, the truly philanthropic restaurants. Again, I have no animosity. I have no anger. Yes, you have eleven years in business in an area, and time’s up. Time to move on. One door closes, another door opens.”
Question: Since the initial action occurred in January, how did you get to mid-May?
“Stu gave me a thirty-day notice of termination. Then he served us with papers to get out. Toward the very end of the time period he served us our papers, while we were trying to negotiate something, consulting with our attorneys, the strategy then was to file a Chapter 11 (bankruptcy) on Bella Pasta (the restaurant’s corporate name). That would buy us more time to either (a) negotiate, (b) find another place or (c) it was kind of like being told you have sixty days to live. Wrap up your affairs, take care of business, and be prepared to go to the other side.
“There is reality in life. Lot of people don’t like to face reality. When my brother died at nineteen years old, that’s reality. That’s the true reality. That is something I face every day with a whole lot more anger than I do losing a restaurant lease after eleven years. My priorities are very different.”
Question: What will you do on Monday morning, after closing up San Gennaro the night before?
“We come with the movers, we pack up our stuff, and we leave. Some things will go into storage. Some things will be sold. Some things will be, who knows? We have to look at what
we have. What is next for me? We are finalizing negotiations right now on a ten thousand-square foot restaurant in Beverly Hills. Hopefully, I will be taking over, I would like to say after the weekend of May 21. That is my goal. It is a new restaurant that has been open a couple of months. It has not been very successful. It will have a change of menu, and it will bring the same concept of parties, entertainment, fun, philanthropy to Beverly Hills. The cuisine will be very similar to what we are doing now. The restaurant has two bars, a huge dining room, a screening room, a lounge area that seats a hundred and a patio. It’s in a municipal parking structure on a major street in the north end of Beverly Hills, between Santa Monica and Wilshire. Our goal is to bring in a form of the San Gennaro restaurant, but a little different scale, a little shorter menu. And the staff that I have now will come with me, absolutely. My staff is like my family. Based on the fact that this place seats three hundred and fifty vs. Culver City, which seats ninety-nine in the dining room and forty-nine in the back room, I would say I will bring every available person with me because they don’t have much staff there now. The rent is a dollar a square foot cheaper than $4. And there is a fifteen-year lease, so I don’t have to look over my shoulder every day. It is a great location, and it is prettier than any restaurant I ever have seen,
“The easiest part was the restaurant owner and myself doing our part. Now it’s in the hands of the attorneys. The owner is not a restaurateur. He got into business with a bar owner, a guy who used to own a very hot, hot bar on Sunset. Unfortunately, owning a bar is a lot different from owning a restaurant. It’s easy to own a restaurant and run a bar. It’s very difficult to run a bar and own a restaurant. But that partner has been bought out already by the gentleman I am dealing with. Escrow will open and close in, like, forty-eight hours. All of the due diligence has been done over the last thirty, thirty-five days.”
Question: What is the ability that you have to succeed in a business where most people fail?
“Determination, vision and implementation. You know, you have a vision of what can be. I saw Culver City as an area where I had a vision of what that restaurant could look like and be. I implemented the plan with great determination, which is evidenced by the fact that certain people in this town are probably standing at the exits to see me pass through for the last time as a restaurateur. But it is that kind of determination that will always keep me involved in Culver City. Because you leave the city, doesn’t mean you will leave the philanthropy of what you have been building here. The new place will have plenty of room for people to come on Saturday, hold a pasta lunch and raise some money.”
Question: You will keep a finger in this city?
“Absolutely. There is one particular finger I will keep in this city for very specific people. The other fingers will be used to help everybody else.”
“I am not a horn-tooter. But people know I am involved. I engage people. I empower people. The West L.A. Chamber of Commerce is a perfect example of taking a very, very small community group in a very, very large area and turning it into one of the most successful Chambers of Commerce in L.A. County.”
Postscript
“The story of this weekend, quite honestly, is about San Gennaro leaving. The January bankruptcy that was reported really has nothing to do with it. It is strictly a story of the landlord, the rising rates Downtown. The bankruptcy that was eventually filed (in March, regarding the Culver City location), which wasn’t reported, that was a defensive mechanism to get me more time to negotiate or to find another place. As far as the (January) filing in Brentwood, that filing was an issue with a particular vendor we had to deal with, who now wishes he hadn’t forced me to do it. I own the Brentwood store one hundred percent.
“We will be submitting our plan in the next twenty days to come out of the bankruptcy. And we will operate as normal. In the meantime, we will be open here from 11 to 11 on Saturday, and we will open at 3 on Mother’s Day, until 11.”
