"GROWING CAFES - Fred Eastman, left, owner of the Greenhouse Cafe chain, which started in Lancaster, opened his seventh link in a central Cleveland mall a year ago.ROB LAYMAN/Valley Press
Posted on 11/14/2003 9:25:40 AM PST by BenLurkin
If California sells well in California, it sells even better in Cleveland, Ohio. Fred Eastman, owner of the California Greenhouse Cafe, has turned a small Lancaster restaurant on Commerce Center Drive into a thriving seven-location chain and has plans for further expansion.
Eastman's most recent addition is an eatery at The Avenue at Tower City Center in Cleveland, an idea hatched by Eastman and Forest City Enterprises, which owns the Antelope Valley Mall.
Originally from Cleveland, Eastman has connections in the Forest City organization. His acquaintances there urged him to make the move to the Midwest, and it proved to be a success.
"They love our food and concept, and they thought a California-theme restaurant is just what the mall could use," Eastman said.
In 1992, he bought the first cafe in the chain in Lancaster with a business plan in mind.
"I studied it and made changes to make it a viable restaurant," he said. "Today, we do five times the business at that location."
One good thing led to another. He opened the Oxnard cafe in 1994, the Santa Clarita and Saugus locations in 1995, set up in Thousand Oaks and the Antelope Valley Mall in 1996 and started cooking in Victorville in 1997, and in Cleveland in November 2002. Plans are in the works to set up a cafe in Simi Valley in 2005, Eastman said.
The Cleveland cafe has interested several developers, so future expansion is likely to move east. An NBC News segment on how Clevelanders deal with winter by sitting under California Greenhouse Cafe palm trees at the Tower City Center mall didn't hurt the Cafe's popularity - or potential - at all, Eastman said.
Overall he has about 250 employees, including those who work at his two Texas Cattle Company and Sub Machine restaurants in the Valley, but the cafes seem to spearhead his growth efforts.
"They all do real well," Eastman said. "Those in the outlying areas take a bit longer to become recognized, but once they are, they take off."
Not without a great deal of effort and oversight, however.
"It's a lot of work to do what we're doing," he said. "We have to maintain the same standards in all the kitchens. It's a tough job."
He has made a name for his company by ensuring all menu items in each cafe are made from scratch in the restaurants' full kitchens, Eastman said. Spaghetti sauce and salad dressings are made fresh every day, and no pre-cooked chicken darkens a California Greenhouse Cafe refrigerator door.
Greenhouse Cafes have expanded their market coverage in the last few years by catering to businesses and schools, sometimes on-site and other times in the cafes' banquet rooms. The Palmdale cafe has a banquet facility that will seat up to 90 diners.
His managers, Lorraine Roth of the Palmdale branch and Patricia Sandoval of the Lancaster one, help set the stage for consistency that draws customers to the cafes wherever they find them.
"Our customers are thrilled when everything's the same - even though they are 2,500 miles away," Eastman said.
"GROWING CAFES - Fred Eastman, left, owner of the Greenhouse Cafe chain, which started in Lancaster, opened his seventh link in a central Cleveland mall a year ago.ROB LAYMAN/Valley Press
...now in the market for a limousine.
Possible but less likely out in the high desert.
"Beware - there may be Greenhouse gases..."
You guys are rough!
Nonsense Ben!!
Can't speak for the Talleyman; but, I'm now a kinder, gentler poster than pre-Y2k.
Yup, even my wife's noticed.
Definitely quailify for one of the new breed of "compassionate conservatives" we've heard so much about.
I'm sure of it.
In fact?
...am damned near metro-male. {g}
;>)
Me? I'm the soul of gentility. Just ask my parole officer!
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