Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
This is CEOs you Should Know with Division president of iHeartMedia,
Paul Corvino. Today I have the honor and privilege of
talking with Tim Morris, the CEO of Paradise Beach Cafe,
that fantastic old school Malibu restaurant, one of my favorite
places along the coast there.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
I love that place. Thank you for coming in.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
Thank you so much for having me. It really means
a lot.
Speaker 1 (00:24):
Now, we usually focus these CEOs you should Know conversations
on the entrepreneurial journey and how the person eventually got
to their position. But in light of the recent fires
and everything going on, let's turn this around a little bit.
Let's let's make this more about the restaurant itself, how
it affected you, and what you've done about it, you know,
(00:49):
and what's happening moving forward. Tell me a little bit
about yourself and how you got there, because you look
like you're not even old enough to drink in your.
Speaker 3 (00:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (00:58):
So it's a family business. I was born into it,
brought in at twelve years old, starting to scrape gum
off at tables, and you know, my dad has been there. Yeah,
I did in the first place. You know, had to
make it, had to make it up somehow. But uh,
you know, my dad has been a fixture in the
Los Angeles restaurant community for you know, since the the
late seventies. He's had you know, starting Gladstone's and RJ's
(01:20):
and the Jetty and so many other restaurants that you know,
he made himself a brand and he built a brand,
and it was really cool to see even people that
come to Paradise Cove now that are like, oh, I
followed your I followed your dad from restaurant to restaurant.
It's really a really cool thing to see kind of
the community that he's built inside the business from place
to place. So you know, definitely bit of nepotism being
(01:41):
the son of the owner getting brought up through.
Speaker 3 (01:44):
But I had to earn it, you know.
Speaker 4 (01:45):
I got started off in the dish room of the
restaurant and you know, cooked on the line and definitely,
uh learned.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
Both sides of it through that restaurant.
Speaker 2 (01:56):
You still have the other restaurants also.
Speaker 4 (01:58):
I wish I wish those are those are They're long
gone before I came around. So when I was born,
my dad wanted to go back to the beach where
it all started and So my grandfather owned the Paris
Paradise Cove property in the sixties and then sold it,
and as my dad likes to say, he had to
go to work and started going through all those restaurants
and finding his place in the world. And when I
(02:19):
was born, he had the opportunity to go back and
raised me in the same kind of way that he
was raised. And so I'm super thankful for that and
getting to, you know, grow up on the beach and
learn the business there. It's you know, a lot of people,
you know, go to work every day and you know,
like the view they look at can really differ. And
I go to work every day and look at the
(02:40):
Pacific Ocean and I try not take it for granted.
Speaker 1 (02:42):
You're in a cool spot. You're right there in Malibu,
absolutely right on the ocean, right below those beautiful trailers
that have been turned into magnificent homes where absolutely where
Paul McCartney and Christopher Nolan and celebrities and people like
that live. So it's it's very interesting and iconic location
that and and the restaurant is is an iconic restaurant.
(03:03):
So tell me how did the restaurant and you personally
get affected by these horrible fires.
Speaker 4 (03:08):
So we were closed for two months, you know, and
I think we're very fortunate in the fact that the fire,
like we didn't have any damage from the fire, like
beyond a gas line needn't get replaced because of over
pressure and all that stuff. Like, we we're very fortunate
for all of that. And the big thing that I
really want to focus on is that there's a lot
(03:28):
of places in Malibu that are really hurting right now.
Speaker 3 (03:30):
There's a lot and we're a real tight knit community.
Speaker 4 (03:34):
My wife and I have been going from restaurants restaurant
talking to the managers and the owners over the past
couple of weeks and just trying to get kind of
like the community mindset about where everyone's at. And you know,
everyone's really scared. And I have personally eighty employees that
you know, one of the best things about owning a
business is being able to allow all these wonderful people
to provide for their families and do their thing. And
(03:56):
that's something that you know, really means a lot to
me because you know, coming into this business and it
being a family business and multi generational. We have staff
that's multigenerational as well, like our president of day to
day operations, Pablo de Latore, has had all three of
his children there. His wife works there and helps us
with all of our HR stuff. And you know, it's
(04:17):
not just my family that's multigenerational there, it's his family
as well. And we've had servers that have been there
for forty years. You know, it's the only job they've
ever had, and you know they're approaching that retirement age
and it, you know, as a business owner and as
you know, a an operator, it makes you worried, not
just on a monetary side, but it makes you worried
on the side of like, hey, like you know, this
(04:38):
is all these people have ever known too, and we
want to make sure that they can continue to do
what they've been doing. And going through the fire and
us being closed for two months and so many restaurants
like Moonshadows, you know, completely destroyed.
Speaker 2 (04:50):
Duke's still there.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
Dukes is still there.
Speaker 4 (04:52):
They obviously they were the you know, they got a
real bad day in more than just the fire. They
were they made it through the fire. They had a
little bit of damage. Their parking lot was used as
the decon site for a lot of the search and
rescue teams that were going looking through everything. And then
as soon as everything started to get cleaned up, and
you know, pch was like, oh, are we going to
(05:13):
soft open it? What's going to happen? They got hit
by a mud slide and had four feet of mud
in the restaurant, you.
Speaker 1 (05:19):
Know, like it was more the southern part of Malibu
that got hit.
Speaker 3 (05:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (05:23):
Correct, so it really didn't make it too far past
like a carbon canyon right down there, but you know,
the devastation going up and down. pH is just reopen
the tenth of February. So we were closed from the
seventh of January to the tenth of February.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
For a little while. Now, yeah, are people coming back?
Is there a perception that you can't get there? The
big I personally think, well, I can't go to malib
it's closed off. But is it open now for business?
Speaker 4 (05:49):
And you know, I think there's a really interesting kind
of two sides that we've been getting.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
You know, I still I'm there every day.
Speaker 4 (05:57):
I answer the phones and I talk to people, and
I talked to our guests, and that's one of the
things I love so much about this business is getting
to talk to people every day and they're either are
you guys, did you guys burn down? Or why has
PCCh closed? Those fires were a month and a half ago.
Speaker 3 (06:12):
What's going on? You know?
Speaker 4 (06:13):
And it's kind of like the news cycle in Los
Angeles has already started to move on where the people
that are, Like, if you're not in that area that's affected,
you know, you're kind of going forth with your life.
And you know, I know that maybe I'm in a bubble,
but I can tell that there's you know, a countless
list of people that either lost their home or are affected,
or their business is affected.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
I'd walked you through this room. Our SVP of sales,
Adam Wilson lost his home.
Speaker 4 (06:36):
Yeah, So you know, it's it's almost frustrating because again
there's so many people that are you know, we're just
trying to get back on our feet.
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Is it is it open? Can you get there?
Speaker 4 (06:46):
PCH is not open right now. So we're coming through
Malibu Canyon. We're coming through Canaan Road to get down
to get down to Malibu. And you know, you can
come if you're coming from the the north side of
or you know, Venture County, you can come down PCCh
and have a beautiful drive that way. But pch being closed,
even though even you know it's it's open for obviously
(07:07):
first responders and you know, contractors and people who have
passes and for essential business and things like that, but
it being closed really sets that that mindset of Los
Angeles that Malibu's not open for business, when the fact
is is that Malibu is open for business. And you know,
we want to respect all the things that happened and
all the people that were affected, but we also need
to make sure that you know, everybody who is still
(07:30):
there is still going to be there.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
That's good to hear. And I mean, I always love
the restaurant. It's good old fashioned seafood on the beach
restaurant when you've got so many trendy, sheet good restaurants. Yeah,
I love going to Tonobu and the Soho House right now. Absolutely,
But at the same time, sometimes I like just to
go out and get my some some fried shrimp and
(07:54):
and fish and sit on the beach. And there aren't
many restaurants that sort of like maintain the history and
tradition of Malibu being there you used to. You sort
of can go back and get a sense of what
Malibu it was and still is.
Speaker 4 (08:09):
You got to lean into what you know. And so
for us, we like to say we're the quid essential
California beach restaurant. We're all about, you know, over abundance
and big portions and showing that California is the bread
basket of the world and so well you see right
there right there on the beach, and so you know,
it's it's if you look out at the ocean. You
got to make sure that the seafood's fresh and the
food is good, and you got to serve what comes
(08:31):
out of the ocean.
Speaker 3 (08:31):
You know, that's the most important thing.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
I've never gotten a bad meal at your restaurant. That's
that's good here dozens of times.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
Over the years.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
It's very good to hear that.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
Yeah, And when people come to town, they want to
see Malibu, and that's where I take them.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
We're old school Malibu.
Speaker 4 (08:45):
You know.
Speaker 3 (08:45):
Again, you got to lean into it.
Speaker 4 (08:47):
And so there's so many, you know, Beach Blanket, Bingo
and Gidget and all those you know California nineteen fifties,
early sixties movies that show what California is all about.
Speaker 1 (08:56):
Yeah, I remember Frankie Avalon and net Food it's on
that beach.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
Yeah, my dad was there there when they filmed that.
He goes, he goes.
Speaker 4 (09:04):
Yeah, my dad said, if you sell, you sell him,
let him come in, and he's like, yeah, My brother
and I went and we gave him a discount if
we could be extras in the background. So, you know,
there's a lot of family history there and the place
really means a lot to all of us.
Speaker 2 (09:17):
Tell us a little bit about the menu.
Speaker 4 (09:18):
So the menu we really try to kind of cultivate
and change. You know, my parents really like to go.
They still they travel, they go everything, they send stuff back.
We all are always looking for the you know, if
like the cool thing about the restaurant business is that
if someone's doing it better than you, that's great because
it gives you a reason to do better in itself.
So we're always looking. We're always trying to make ourselves better.
(09:40):
Even though you know, I feel like our food's very good,
we can always do better every day. I can always
have a server with a bigger smile, I can always
have a happier a happier guest, and the food can
always be better.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
So food is always good, the service is always good.
Tell me about the people that work for you, because
that seems to be very important to you. It is
very important, yeah, and it's probably the most important thing
you do help support them in this tough time. Where
did they come from? They right in the area. Have
they lost their homes?
Speaker 4 (10:05):
So we had a few of our staff did lose
homes that were living in the Palisades, apartments and stuff
like that.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
In the Palisades.
Speaker 4 (10:11):
Most of our staff is either coming from like San
Fernando Valley or like South Los Angeles, and then we
have a smattering of people all over. A lot of
people come from Victurry County as well.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
South Los Angeles is going to be difficult.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
It's very difficult right now.
Speaker 4 (10:25):
And luckily the Sheriff's Apartment has been very helpful getting
passes to people to get back and forth for essential work.
And you know, they've been able to articulate that their
work is essential because they need to make sure that
they can continue to feed their families and do all
that stuff.
Speaker 3 (10:37):
But you know, it's.
Speaker 4 (10:41):
It just like it's hard for our staff to get there,
it's hard for the guests to get there too, and
you know, those go hand in hand. And I'm very
proud to say that over the month, a month and
two days we were closed, only one server found a
different job. I had a five kitchen guys that went
found different jobs, and you know, I wish them nothing
but the best. But it makes you feel good when
people really try desperately to get back to work and
(11:01):
they want to come back to work, you know. And
I want to create an environment that people want to
be at and not just come to eat at, but
work at too. And again that goes back to make
sure that you know, if the stats happy, the guests
are happy, and if the guests are happy, they come back.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
Okay, hopeful.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
All my listeners are hearing that if you want to
support an iconic Los Angeles restaurant, Malibu restaurant where you
know you're going to get good food, good service, get
up to Malibu, find find your way to get there,
because you're not just going to get a great meal,
You're going to help the community get back on its feet.
Speaker 4 (11:36):
Yeah exactly, we're sitting waiting for you or doors are
open and we can't wait to see.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
You once again.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
I'm talking with Tim Morris, the CEO of Paradise Beach Cafe,
that fantastic old School, seafood restaurant in Malibu and write
in Paradise Cove. Try to get out there, support our
people in this time of need, and get yourself a
real good meal while sitting on the ocean.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
Thank you, Tim, thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
It is Paul Corvino, the vision President of iHeartMedia, saying
thank you for listening to another episode of CEOs you
Should Know.
Speaker 3 (12:13):
Listen to CEOs you Should Know on the iHeartRadio app.