Owner David Cohn is teaming with executive chef and partner Deborah Scott to debut Chop Soo-ey, which will not only showcase Scott’s Asian fusion cuisine and her passion for barbecue, but also serve as a mobile billboard for promoting several of the more than a dozen Cohn restaurants.

While many of the startup food trucks that are emerging in San Diego were born of an adventurous spirit by chefs aching to have their own restaurants, Cohn says he sees no reason why a corporate enterprise can’t reproduce the funky feel of the gourmet food truck revolution.

“We used to be the little startup guy doing small innovative things, and now we’re considered the big guys,” said Cohn who runs the restaurant group with his wife Lesley. “It’s like saying chains can’t build great restaurants.

“Let the people on the street determine which trucks they like. We think there’s room for anyone who wants to go out and try it. If you create the right buzz, it will work.”

And there’s certainly no lack of whimsy in the truck’s design, hatched by Cohn and Scott. They’ve hired a Los Angeles artist to wrap their truck with a colorful graphic featuring the San Diego skyline dominated by a menacing samurai pig wielding a cleaver. There will also be room on the truck to promote three of the Cohn restaurants: Kemo Sabe, Indigo Grill and Island Prime C Level.

Although the 15-year-old Kemo Sabe, located in Hillcrest, is slated to close this fall when its lease expires, Cohn said he’s hoping to eventually move it to a North County coastal location.

Meanwhile, his new mobile enterprise will evolve gradually, first appearing at charity events, street festivals and farmers markets. The truck will be also used for catering private parties, and by October, Cohn said he plans to park the truck near bars and nightclubs, hoping to capitalize on hungry night owls looking to grab a bite during the early morning hours.

“We don’t want to compete with other restaurants by parking near them,” Cohn stressed, “but one market we think is not being served is the 2 o’clock-in-the-morning bar market.”

Cohn and Scott will use social media and a special website to communicate where the truck is parked on a daily basis.

Scott said she plans a frequently changing menu of small plates featuring favorite dishes from her restaurants, like Kemo Sabe’s “skirts on fire,” which features a charbroiled skirt steak, and stuffed Mexican white prawns wrapped in bacon. She’s also toying with the idea of Carolina-style ribs, brisket on a biscuit and curly fries with blue cheese, caramelized onions and cubed fried pork belly.

Menu items will probably range from $3 to $8, she said. The trucks themselves, she noted, are fairly pricey, costing $110,000, plus several thousand dollars more to embellish and outfit with kitchen equipment.

The trucks, in fact, are in such demand as their popularity has spread across the country and especially in Southern California, that Cohn says he’s already ordered a second one.

“We might use it to promote the Corvette Diner or the more casual side of what we do’” he said. “We’re trying to make it fun. We’re not looking at this from strictly a business standpoint. We looked at it from a marketing and PR standpoint to market our other restaurants.”

By Lori Weisberg | Union Tribune | September 3, 2010

After five successful years in the Maui restaurant biz, Pineapple Grill has proven to be no “flash in the pan.” With a long list of awards, it’s celebrating its fifth anniversary this month with a special chef’s signature menu. “As a ‘big mahalo’ to all of you who have supported us, we’re presenting the chef’s signature three-course dinner throughout the month of July,” says Chris Kaiwi, Pineapple Grill’s vice president and managing partner. “It runs all night on Fridays and Saturdays, when we offer our dinner service from 5:30 p.m. until closing.” Savor miso-sake glazed prawns, farmer’s chop salad, Asian-braised short ribs and lemon-and-porcini-dusted monchong, to name a few. Or, go a la carte with new menu items of Olowalu Nui Farms summer tomato gazpacho with seared shrimp and avocado relish with balsamic syrup; and mac-nut and basil-pesto-crusted Hawaiian mahimahi in a saute of local kale, leeks, French lentils and applewood-smoked bacon. While the food is enough to entice you to dine there, Pineapple Grill will take it over the top by letting customers enter to win the grand-prize drawing. “Anyone who orders this three-course meal will be entered to win the grand prize of an Apple iPad,” says Kaiwi. But there’s more. Second prize is golf for four with lunch at the Bay Golf Course, and third prize is a four-course dinner for two with wine pairings. Ever since it opened, Pineapple Grill has stacked up too many awards to list here in The Maui News and in other publications, and Kaiwi attributes its huge success to the support of its owners. “We have the strong support of David and Lesley Cohn of the Cohn Restaurant Group,” says Kaiwi. “This is not just a Maui restaurant. We’re part of 13 others owned by the Cohns on the Mainland.” The group was rated among the top 50 in the nation by the National Restaurant News recently — a testament to the experience of its savvy owners. “We recently sent our Executive Chef Ryan Luckey to the Cohn’s home base in the San Diego Gas Lamp District. He certainly has a renewed respect after his return from seeing it all firsthand.” Some of their award-winning restaurants include Indigo Grill, Kemo Sabe, Blue Point Coastal Cuisine, and La Jolla Strip Club: A Steak Place. The website reads the group is “obsessed with hospitality.” “They have a motto, anything anyone requests — absolutely,” says Kaiwi. “If you want it a certain way, we’ll try our best to do it for you.” Kaiwi also says the Cohn’s philosophy carries over to the staff, who then present that kind hospitality to diners on a silver platter, so to speak. “They are the epitome of great and caring restaurant owners and it really shows in our up-and-coming staff,” says Kaiwi. “Chef Ryan is incredible in his culinary approach. Sheehan McCoy, assistant general manager and wine director, is also really on top of everything in his field.” You will love Chef Ryan’s new entrees of grilled sweet Thai marinated jumbo prawns with Kula vegetables, sauteed in coconut sauce with lemongrass-scented jasmine rice; and his grilled fresh-lime-marinated shutome with ratatouille of Maui Gold pineapple and mango. Pair either entree with the Treana white wine from the Central Coast, a masterful blend of viognier and Marsanne, inspired by the great wines of France. In addition, Pineapple Grill offers nightly specials, so it’s always fresh and you always have something new to try. For instance, Sunday is prime rib night. Monday is the dinner for two paired with wine special. The king crab extravaganza is snapping every Tuesday. “But Wednesday is the craziest night of all,” says Kaiwi. “We offer half off wines by the bottle. Sheehan has developed a really worldly list. Wines come from Italy, France, South Africa and South America. They’re not just from California. We’re very proud of our list. It doesn’t read like a library book. But it’s really focused and food friendly, too, and people love it.” The Wednesday wine special applies to 85 percent of the list. Thursdays, Mauians rock to Jawaiian music by Damien Awai and 50 percent off the bar menu for Industry Night all evening. Friday, come and enjoy the Ocean Beach Party with live music by Scotty Rotten. You may sip Maui’s own Ocean Vodka drink specials all night and get 50 percent off of the bar menu from 8 to 10 p.m. Saturday, you may listen to jazz on the green from 7 to 10 p.m. with more bar specials. Diners also flock there for nice golf course lunches with yummy gourmet items thrown into the mix — all proving that Pineapple Grill is here for the long haul.

The son of a grocer from the Midwest, David Cohn first got the restaurant bug when he and his wife, Lesley, opened a small 1950s-style hamburger and hot dog joint called Rory’s on Mission Gorge Road in 1982. Twenty-eight years and 13 restaurants later, the Cohns remain enamored with the restaurant industry, with no plans to halt their expansionist path.

Even in economic downturns as steep as the current one, Cohn said restaurants can be highly successful, but only by paying careful attention to a multitude of details and strategically planning for future locations and concepts.

Rather than sticking to a tried-and-true chain theme, the Cohns have introduced restaurants with widely varying concepts, from a whimsical diner and grill-your-own meat eateries to waterfront fine dining.

The couple has chosen to finance all of their restaurants themselves without taking on any debt and prefer the control they have over their operation without having to answer to investors or a board of directors, Cohn said. While the Cohn Restaurant Group has made some modest adjustments to adapt to the ailing economy, Cohn insists that it is important to never do anything that would noticeably detract from the customer’s dining experience.

He spoke last week about the evolution of his business and the important lessons he and his wife have learned about sustaining successful dining establishments.

QUESTION: What drew you to the restaurant business?

ANSWER: I’d worked a little bit as a bartender and was always enamored with the business. I grew up in a family that did a lot of entertaining and always had people over. I just enjoyed the hospitality end of it, and I think Lesley felt the same way. I thought there were an awful lot of chains in San Diego and there was room for something more creative here.

QUESTION: Once you opened your first restaurant, what influenced your decision to open more?

ANSWER: We didn’t have a plan to open 10 more restaurants or 13. No question, it was one restaurant at a time. We enjoy that part of the process — the brainstorming, getting together and talking about what the restaurant would feel like, taking a look at the neighborhood. We look at micro-markets and see what fits that particular area, but we always wanted to create a family restaurant. Some of it was growing up in the ’60s and having the anti-chain mentality.

I’ve taught a couple classes in restaurant concept. I tell the students that doing it the way we’ve done it is not a smart way because you’re always better off taking one concept and continually fine-tuning it. It’s a lot more work to have multiple concepts.

QUESTION: How do you pick your locations and concepts for your restaurants?

ANSWER: When we get that call to do a restaurant in a strip center in Mira Mesa, we’re not interested. We’re interested in neighborhoods. Hillcrest was our first neighborhood, and we immediately immersed ourselves in the community, got involved in local associations and worked to improve that community for many years. The Gaslamp Quarter was the same way. We looked at it when it was just teetering on success but had the potential to be a great neighborhood.

Our second goal was to be in those one-of-a-kind locations, so when the Cafe del Rey Moro (now The Prado) became available in Balboa Park, we decided to respond to the city’s request for proposals. Here was a chance to do something in a really unique location and become a part of San Diego history in that location.

A year ago we opened in Oceanside, and I don’t know that I’ve ever had that much negativity with opening a restaurant. People there didn’t feel that area was being served by decent restaurants, but we also heard, “Oh, it’s all military, no one’s done well with a more upscale restaurant there,” all of which we felt to be untrue. Today, it’s an amazing experience to walk into the restaurant there and have someone thank you for opening a restaurant in their community.

As for picking the concepts, we sit down with a group, some chefs, some of our people who’ve been with us for a while, and we’ll also meet with community leaders and ask, what’s missing here? In Oceanside, they said there were plenty of low-end and mid-scale restaurants, but when they wanted to go out for a nice dinner, they’d have to travel fairly long distances.

QUESTION: The restaurant business is inherently difficult, but what one thing about running a restaurant have you found most challenging?

ANSWER: It’s all in the details. I know it sounds like a cliché. When you take each individual component, none of them are terribly complicated, but when you put them all together and add the pressure of time and people, it becomes a very complicated business.

Everything happens fast in restaurants. In the morning, the people who receive products have to make sure they’re correct, and people working the prep list and making stocks and soups and sauces have to do everything properly because we’re going to serve that in a short period of time. Also, people know what they want and are becoming more educated, or they’re on specific diets, have food allergies or Oprah told them to eat this or not eat that, so restaurants have to get better at being more custom-oriented.

QUESTION: How have you adjusted in the current economic downturn, as fewer people eat out or choose to cut their dining-out budgets?

ANSWER: We’ve done more promotions. We try to do more value-added than simply discounting, like a three-course dinner for $30 or $33. Our answer has been this is going to be a tough couple of years and we don’t want to reflect that in the guest experience. We’ve decided to keep our restaurants fully staffed and continually updated, which is something that people cut out during difficult times.

We’ve been tough with our vendors. We’ve said, “You’ve been our partners, you need to help us on this because we need to lower costs.” We have not made management staff cuts.

QUESTION: Most of your restaurants have been successful, but there have been failures and closings. What happened in those cases?

ANSWER: The T-Bird Diner in Escondido was a great lesson. With the Corvette Diner, we looked at where people were coming from, and a great number were coming from inland North County, so we thought, let’s do one in Escondido. We were busy on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, but it was too much of a suburban market, and during the week families weren’t going out to dinner. So we found that certain concepts have to be in the center of things. You can’t take everything to the suburbs.

I think companies like Planet Hollywood and Hard Rock Cafe found the same thing. When it was in every neighborhood, it was no longer interesting. There’s that tendency to say we can be everywhere, but you can’t be and you hurt your brand when you do that.

QUESTION: Have there been any surprises with any of your restaurants?

ANSWER: The biggest surprise is what’s happened in the Gaslamp. I recently had a meeting with (longtime Gaslamp restaurateur) Ingrid Croce, and we talked about how we didn’t think anyone would have predicted there would be as many restaurants opening there, and now the area is over-served. We always worked hard to get a mix of residential and retail and nightclubs in the Gaslamp, but unfortunately, retail proved even tougher than restaurants, and as a shop went out, a restaurant would go in. Z Gallerie is a great retailer and is perfect for the Gaslamp and located on a signature corner but they can’t make it. And who’s going in? Another restaurant.

QUESTION: What are your plans for the future?

ANSWER: At this point, we’re looking for unique opportunities. If there are unique spaces available and we have the right people, we’ll continue to look at things. Right now, we don’t have anything on the drawing board. We’re in the midst of a remodel (of the former Dakota Grill in Gaslamp). We’re doing a franchise — The Melting Pot — there. We love the Gaslamp and we love that location, so we’re bringing in something unique that isn’t in downtown.

We’re also trying to determine what the former Reuben E. Lee (on Harbor Island) will be, but the first phase will definitely be an open-air venue for special events, and phase two would be a restaurant and banquet facility on land adjacent to the Reuben E. Lee. I was hoping phase one would be done by the end of the year.

We could have stopped three, five years ago, yet we have a lot of people who’ve been with us a long time and they want to take on more responsibility and want to be with a growing company.

By Lori Weisberg, UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

Monday, January 18, 2010 at 12:02 a.m.

On Sunday, November 15, the Tommy Bahama Rum VIP Party kicked off the anticipated San Diego Bay Wine & Food Festival, which runs from November 18 to November 22. The competition was an informal event, where local San Diego chefs put their mixology skills to the test. Below is the award-winning “Mistletoe” martini recipe:

Mistletoe Martini Recipe

1 ounce Tommy Bahama Golden Sun Rum

½ ounce of Licor 43

½ ounce spiced honey rum syrup (please see separate recipe below)

1 handful of muddled fresh cranberries

Fresh squeezed juice from ½ an orange

Fresh squeezed juice from ½ a lemon

Spiced Honey Rum Syrup Recipe

Equal parts, 1 cup honey and 1 cup boiling water

Dash of pumpkin pie spice

Three judges took part in this competition, including Tommy Bahama Rum’s Pascal Courtin; Kevin Rhodes of the San Diego Wine and Culinary Center; and Anthony Paventi, business development manager for the U.S. Foodservice.

In addition to Scott and Boyle, other competition participants included: Urban Solace’s founding partners Executive Chef Matt Gordon and General Manager, Scott Watkins; Mixologist Jason Jones, who was assisted by Sarah Prudhomme of Sé San Diego; El Vitral Restaurant’s Chef Norma Martinez and Beverage Director and Sommelier, Juan Caldron. The winner received a Tommy Bahama Rum gift basket and a Nambé cocktail shaker.

Owned and operated by the Cohn Restaurant Group and Deborah Scott, the award-winning Island Prime/C Level restaurant combines two great concept restaurants in the same venue. Island Prime (dinner only) is a prime steak and seafood restaurant. C Level (lunch and dinner) offers a more casual menu of creative entrees, sandwiches, salads and fresh seafood dishes. Located right on the San Diego Bay, both restaurants offer some of the best views of downtown San Diego and finest cuisine in the city.

About The Cohn Restaurant Group

Behind each Cohn restaurant’s eclectic, unique atmosphere and award-winning cuisine are two entrepreneurs whose visions have brought San Diego dining to a new level. David and Lesley Cohn opened their first restaurant, The Corvette Diner, in 1986. With the success of this 50′s style diner, they set their sights on the fine dining market. Now, almost 25 years later, the Cohns have successfully established the Cohn Restaurant Group – a family of 12 award-winning restaurants; The Prado, Corvette Diner, Kemo Sabe, Blue Point, Mister Tiki, Indigo Grill, Thee Bungalow, 333 Pacific, Gaslamp Strip Club, Island Prime & C Level, and Pineapple Grill located in Kapalua, Maui. David and Lesley take pride in the fact that their company is family-owned and operated and will keep the Cohn Restaurant Group tradition alive with the help of their daughter, Jessica and son, Jeremy. For more information please visit www.dinecrg.com

“Being named Restaurateur of the Year is truly a landmark achievement,” said David Cohn, founder and president of the Cohn Restaurant Group. “It is an honor to be recognized by the GQA, as the Gaslamp Quarter is a San Diego neighborhood that is truly a unique destination for locals and visitors alike. For nearly 25 years, we have worked to create the finest hospitality atmosphere in each of our restaurants.”

Family-owned and operated, the Cohn Restaurant Group has always aimed to take dining to a new level. Beginning with one small diner, the Cohn Restaurant Group now owns and operates 11 restaurants within the San Diego area and a 12th restaurant in Kapalua, Maui. The Cohn Restaurant Group has three restaurants in the Gaslamp Quarter — Blue Point Coastal Cuisine, Gaslamp Strip Club and Mister Tiki.

The Lamplighter Awards recognize merchants and individuals that are leaders in their community and have made a positive impact for the Gaslamp Quarter through their exceptional service, high-quality products and enthusiastic concern for the historic district. The “Best Of” awards are determined from an open (public) nomination and are voted on by GQA business owners and operators.

About The Lamplighter Award

The Lamplighter Awards recognize merchants and individuals that are leaders in their community and have made a positive impact for the Gaslamp Quarter through their exceptional service, high-quality products and enthusiastic concern for the historic district. The Lamplighter Awards are nominated and voted on by the Gaslamp Quarter Association’s Board of Directors.

About The Cohn Restaurant Group

Behind each Cohn restaurant’s eclectic, unique atmosphere and award-winning cuisine are two entrepreneurs whose vision has brought San Diego dining to a new level. David and Lesley Cohn opened their first restaurant, The Corvette Diner, in 1986. With the success of this 50′s style diner, they set their sights on the fine dining market. Now, almost 25 years later, the Cohn’s have successfully established the Cohn Restaurant Group – a family of 12 award-winning restaurants; The Prado, Corvette Diner, Kemo Sabe, Blue Point, Mister Tiki, Indigo Grill, Thee Bungalow, 333 Pacific, Gaslamp Strip Club, Island Prime & C Level, and Pineapple Grill located in Kapalua, Maui. David and Lesley take pride that their company is family-owned and operated and will keep the Cohn Restaurant Group tradition alive with the help of their daughter, Jessica and son, Jeremy. For more information please visit www.dinecrg.com.