A CHRONICLE OF THE PASSING SCENE : Back in the Culinary Saddle

Yes, the Classroom Restaurant and Equestrian Bar & Grill have reopened at the Equestrian Center in Burbank.

Yes, the award-winning former Century Plaza chef Raimund Hofmeister is back at the helm.

Yes, he has reorganized his financing for the school, which will now be known as the Los Angeles Culinary Institute.

No, it’s not going to be all smooth sailing from here on in.

“We have a world-class school here, where working chefs can hone their skills toward becoming the top of their field,” said Hofmeister last week at a chef’s luncheon. The luncheons are sponsored by Hofmeister to show off his students’ talents.

The menu of Napa salad (with baked apple and goat cheese with warm roasted shallot dressing), beef filet (with grilled scampi, sauce bernaise and pepper jus) and roesti potatoes, puree of pumpkin and fresh asparagus was followed by chocolate mousse rosettes and kiwi “Art Deco.”

Too good.

Too bad not many people know about the reopening. The lunch room was almost empty except for a few former regulars and Hofmeister’s guests.

The chef admits he might have been overly optimistic in opening a world-class school and restaurants in this economy. “Perhaps I should have started smaller or should have waited, but I did not,” Hofmeister says. “This was my dream, and dreams do not wait.”

Finances forced him to shut down the entire Equestrian Center operation for several months, but now he has regrouped, with 40 students in three classes. The Equestrian Bar & Grill is now open every day but Monday, and the gourmet Classroom Restaurant is open Thursday and Friday.

The professionals now coming in for the 18 months of training are paying $2,000 more for the course than the original $13,500. “I never set out to be the cheapest cooking school, just the best,” says Hofmeister, “and that takes money for location, equipment and the teaching staff.”

Hocking the Family Rolls-Royce

Wondering who is doing well in this economy? Check out Sam Gonen’s Canoga Park store, The Collateral Lender, 20900 Sherman Way.

Gonen has the usual hock-shop merchandise of jewelry, musical instruments, stereos and VCRs, which are the small-ticket items these days.

He specializes in cars.

Between his Van Nuys, Beverly Hills and Canoga Park stores, he estimates he has--on the showroom floor and in storage--as many as 150 automobiles, everything from sedate Rolls-Royces to souped-up Camaros.

And in the past couple of years his clientele has changed dramatically. “Now I get laid-off aerospace engineers, school teachers and business people, many of whom are first-timer customers,” he says.

To make mortgage, credit card and private school payments, these first-timers are willing to hock almost anything. One guy even tried, to no avail, to hock his horse.

For those with deep problems, hocking the second car may look like the answer. Sometimes the first car follows not long after.

People sign over the ownership papers and can get as much as half the car’s value on loan, the amount depending on the car’s popularity in this depressed economy, says Dave Goldstein, the Canoga Park store’s manager.

By law, the customers have four months and 17 days to repay the money, but “if people can’t come up with the cash, we allow them to pay an interest fee and storage and take another four months,” Goldstein says. If they still can’t come up with the money, Goldstein says he is forced to do something he doesn’t want to do--sell the cars. “With the demand for cars and prices going down all the time, it’s not a good situation for anyone.”

Pawn brokers from Santa Barbara to Palm Springs send people to him to hock their automobiles, because it is a specialized service, he says.

“Today there are probably more crooks in banking and the savings and loan business than there ever were from pawn shops.”

His proof? His Canoga Park shop used to house a branch of Independence Bank, which federal banking authorities shut down earlier this year for illegal practices.

Unfriendly Environment

Two years ago, Sagebrush Cantina owner Bob McCord decided to open a recycling center on some unused land near the cantina in Calabasas. The land was earmarked to eventually become part of the projected freeway overpass.

“I thought opening the center would be a good thing to do for the ecology, and people liked the idea,” he says.

That was two years ago. The Los Angeles City Department of Building and Safety received one complaint about the center, and McCord was told he would have to get a zoning variance or shut the place down.

McCord was furious. “I had already spent $50,000 on landscaping, personnel and other costs. Why would I want to spend another $3,000 for a zoning variance on land that was going to be eaten up eventually in a freeway overpass?”

He removed the dumpsters, put up a sign saying the center was closed, and people could complain to Councilman Marvin Braude’s office.

People did. Even after the center closed, mounds of cans, glass and bundled papers continued to grow there.

“We’ve gotten more than 100 calls,” says Devon Rosenheim, a Braude deputy, “so I tried to find out exactly what had happened.”

When the center was operating, she said, one person had called to complain that it was larger than the 400 square feet allowed by city regulation, and that a zoning variance was needed to keep it open.

Rosenheim said the caller knew a lot about department rules and regulations. “We suspect it was someone who just didn’t want the center there. He just didn’t want to look at it on his way to and from work.”

Meanwhile, because of the current collection of recyclables, “It’s going to cost me another $500 or so to have the stuff hauled away,” McCord said.

Do the Clerks Dress Like Cheerleaders?

Enough of this down stuff. Let’s get motivated.

There’s a new shop in the Promenade Mall devoted to succeeding and excellence. It’s called Successories, and, according to its manager, Brian McGilvray, it’s about old-time values that will yank businesses right out of the doldrums.

It’s no mystery why the predominating hue of the shop and its brochures are the color of money: green.

The shop is full of motivational plaques, books, tapes and lithographs that tell the viewer, listener or reader to get out there and get with it.

“In this economy, many businesses are finding they need more than good merchandise. They need staff willing to give customers the extra service that used to be expected. What you see here are the visual reminders of what it takes to succeed,” McGilvray said.

He says the store franchise was dreamed up by a Chicago entrepreneur about a year ago, and, in keeping with its theme, it’s meeting with success.

There are lithographs and posters with inspiring pictures. There are plaques and medallions and awards that say things like “Success through Service,” and “Expect to Win.”

There are motivational tapes by guys you’ve seen on television, such as the ubiquitous Tony Roberts. There is a jar full of fortunes--minus the cookies--with, yes, an uplifting thought for the day.

Overheard

“Vote for me even if you don’t like all the things I stand for. My opponent is a Neanderthal disliked by members of his own party.”

--Politician at Calabasas gathering proving the personal attack is not dead.