Dear Editor,
I don’t know why some restaurants make it, and others do not. I once read that the overwhelming majority of restaurants ultimately fail. We live in an age where the knee-jerk reaction is to play the blame game regardless of the facts. Sometimes, just sometimes, “s—t” happens, and nobody is to blame.
In Malibu today, several local restaurants appear to be doing very well. Malibu Seafood, Paradise Cove, and Geoffrey’s are three restaurants that come to mind. Yet all of them rely on visitors who play a significant role in their success.
We have national restaurants like Nobu, which have done fabulously, and we have national restaurants, such as Mr. Chow’s, that did not do well. Sometimes, it is the location which determines a restaurant’s outcome. Several restaurants have failed at Point Dume Village.
The one thing we all know is that Wilfredo is an example of an immigrant who came here, worked his butt off, and succeeded, and now he is hurting. l went to the pre-opening of Ciel Orange, ate there a couple of times a month, and was there with two other people just weeks ago. I frequently commented to my wife how few people were patronizing the restaurant. If we wish these small local establishments to succeed, we need to give them our business. Blaming the landlords and the government won’t help them. It is up to us.
And what we can do to help Wilfredo now is to patronize Tramonto’s, Wilfredo’s excellent Italian restaurant. We already booked a reservation to eat there with another couple.
Burt Ross, Malibu