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TheBuzz Erika Engle |
‘Restaurant Row hex’
catches up with Meritage eateryA heartbroken William Cheng and Mariano Lalica, the remaining partners in the Restaurant Row spot Meritage, have posted a sign in the door indicating the place closed for business Monday.
They didn't have the capital to keep going, the two said.
"I'm broke," Cheng said. "Every dollar I have, I put back in. I did my best."
From a high of 50 employees when the restaurant opened in October 2002, 18 remained and are owed back pay.
"The first thing I want to take care of is to pay back the employees," said Cheng. He also wants to honor outstanding gift certificates somehow. There's also the matter of back lease rent. Cheng didn't divulge the amounts of the arrearages.
Restaurant Row management did not comment.
The Meritage space was previously occupied by the short-lived Ferno, Baci at the Row and other dining concepts over the years.
At the outset, Cheng, Lalica and then-partner Laurent Chouari faced an uphill battle and everybody told them so. In addition to daunting statistical failure rates for new restaurants within the first three years, the partners were battling what Lalica called "the Restaurant Row hex (with people saying), 'Do you know how much people failed at this spot?' It was overcoming all of that."
"We turned a few heads, but we just couldn't consistently bring it in as if we were to be at Ala Moana Center or Ward Centre, which has constant, everyday traffic. The location is tough."
Chouari left the partnership six months ago.
The partners were also undercapitalized, they said.
Steps away, Sansei Seafood Restaurant & Sushi Bar has been open since May 2000 and recently expanded its concept with a new wine bar, called Little Vino, serving Italian food pupu-style.
"For us as a newcomer, it was in everyone's (lease) to open for lunch" at Restaurant Row, Lalica said. But not long after 9/11, Ruth's Chris steak house discontinued lunch service.
When Sansei ceased its popular lunch business in May of last year, the Meritage partners hoped for a bump in business, but its midday prices were considerably higher than Sansei's had been.
"I was trying to take away customers from Palomino and Kincaid's," Lalica said. They're not cheap either, "but they're always crowded."
Had Ruth's Chris and Sansei stayed open for lunch, Lalica feels Restaurant Row would have remained a stronger business lunch destination.
"You have to carry the same amount of staff and you're not getting the same price points as you do for dinner," he said. Meritage shuttered its lunch business in the spring, opening only for dinner.
It was full, of mostly local clientele, for special occasions and on the weekends, Lalica said. The number of dinners being served was increasing, but with no advertising budget, the word-of-mouth and local culinary accolades were not enough to keep the bottom line out of the red.
A plan to bring in a culinary class during the day to increase revenue never materialized.
Last year at this time the partners got a small cash infusion to help the restaurant through the slow season, but they had no such fortune this year.
Lalica has a corporate chef job lined up in Waikiki.
Cheng is looking for another operator to take over or buy the 4,400-square-foot space, with seating capacity for 100.
"I still think we were successful in terms of impact," Cheng said. "Everyone's calling me and saying, 'wow, you guys were so great.'"
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Erika Engle is a reporter with the Star-Bulletin. Call 529-4302, fax 529-4750 or write to Erika Engle, Honolulu Star-Bulletin, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., No. 7-210, Honolulu, HI 96813. She can also be reached at: eengle@starbulletin.com