Sami Ladeki

Dialogue

(page 2 of 2)

TB: You shared a story, almost 20 years ago, about how you opened that first Sammy’s. Something to do with maxing out some credit cards.

SL: Actually, I went to the SBA and was able to do a small-business loan. But there was a last-minute glitch with the paperwork. They had paid me almost everything, but I was waiting for the last $50,000 check for operating expenses. It wasn’t really my intention to open with credit cards. But this truck driver showed up the next day with a first order of $15,000 worth of silverware and china ... and I said, “Do you take credit cards?” He said yes.

TB: Amazing.

SL: I had to open. I had to pay my employees and my bills. What are you gonna do?

TB: Looks like it was a good gamble.

SL: The first week we opened, nobody came. The second week, it was packed. There was a line outside. In the beginning, I made more money than I thought I would in my whole life. Two months later, I called the SBA and said, “I’m paying you off.”

TB: Okay, we just took a shortcut from New Orleans to La Jolla. You didn’t come to La Jolla right out of the Army.

SL: I went back to New Orleans. And then, in 1976, I got a call from Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. It was the ultimate hotel at that time. Sinatra was performing there...

TB: Did you meet Sinatra?

SL: Yeah. But you’d never want to meet this guy. You never knew what kind of mood he was going to be in. If you looked at him, and he was in a bad mood, forget it. I avoided him.

TB: Did you stay at Caesars for long?

SL: One year. It wasn’t for me. I was brought in to do corporate work. But it was different then; not corporate. Practically everything was free. The food and beverage revenue was $30 million that year. Fifty percent of that $30 million was comped.

TB: After you left Las Vegas, you hop-scotched around the country, from hotel jobs to nightclubs to restaurants. And then you landed in San Diego. How did that happen?

SL: I came here for a visit with my brother, and we went for coffee at the old Broken Yolk in La Jolla. He told me the space in the building across the way was available. It was just being finished. I loved the place and made a deal with them.

TB: You’ve been in food and beverage for more than 40 years. Are you a chef? Did you ever cook for anybody else – other than in the Army?

SL: I cooked for my girlfriends.

TB: And that was it?

SL: Well, I’ve always been around food. I studied it in school. I learned the principles.

TB: But all of the great pizzas and salads and pastas on Sammy’s menu – how do you get your recipes? Or do you just have good taste buds?

SL: I’d call myself an intellectual chef. It’s a result of all the connections I’ve made – my experience traveling, sampling different cultures. And also, I’m into it. I have a passion for it. And maybe it is about taste buds, too. There’s nothing on the menu I didn’t taste and approve.

TB: So you started this all on a shoestring – all the money you had, all you could raise and borrow...

SL: All successful people do it that way.

TB: You started with a few pastas, a few pizzas and a few salads – in La Jolla, which is already flooded with restaurants – and you became an instant success. What was the secret?

SL: To do something different. I visited every restaurant in San Diego County. I was unemployed, so I had all the time in the world. And there was no place in San Diego where they even had a wood-fired oven. They were all over Los Angeles, but nobody was doing that kind of pizza here.

TB: What’s your favorite menu item at Sammy’s?

SL: It’s not about my favorite; it’s the customers’ favorite. I have people coming back to San Diego from a trip – they still have their suitcase in the car – and they come in, and I say, “What are you doing here?” And they say, “I gotta have my chopped salad.” I can never take that chopped salad off our menu.

TB: And don’t ever take the Caesar salad off the menu. You’ve tried establishing other types of restaurants, with mixed success, but it basically comes back to Sammy’s, doesn’t it?

SL: For a while, I got tired of Sammy’s. I figured I needed to create a new concept. I guess I had to get it out of my system. The others made money, but it was becoming so difficult with all the Sammy’s, and then you have a steakhouse here and a fish house there, a hotel here and a Roppongi there.

TB: You have a reputation as a perfectionist. Are you a tough guy to work for?

SL: I take care of my people. I have four millionaires in the company. We give people a lot of incentives. I’ve always tried to create good working conditions for the staff. They work five days a week, either dinner or lunch. I didn’t want them working day and night. And they have to take two days off in a row. Everybody has a weekly schedule, so they can have a life.

TB: If I went to your house for dinner and you cooked, would I have to go pick up some takeout food later? Would I be able to eat anything you cooked?

SL: Oh, absolutely. I’m a good cook. I can make some Lebanese food for you. I can make humus, tabouli, spaghetti Bolognese. I’m interested in food, but when I left Lebanon to go to Germany to study, I studied political science – to be a diplomat. Thank God I didn’t stay with it. I would have started World War III. My goal wasn’t to be where I am now. My goal was to have $3,000 a month, a little car and an apartment for $750 bucks a month. It’s easy to make money. Now, my biggest problem is what to do with all the money.

TB: Well, if you have a problem deciding what to do with all the money, you let me know. I can help you with that.

 

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