sam nazarian

Is The Bazaar by Jose Andres The Perfect Storm of Restaurants?

Filed under: Dining

Is The Bazaar by José Andrés in the SLS Hotel in Beverly Hills the future of restaurants? An article in the Wall Street Journal takes a long analytical look at the restaurant's appeal. The article breaks down the allure of the restaurant which was also Esquire's restaurant of the year. The trendy bar and restaurant serves a tapas-style menu and caters to a lively bar scene. This along with its trendy hotel location are components that the Wall Street Journal sees as a major key to the spot's success in a time of restaurant failures and slow business. Bazaar has grossed $13 million making it a bright light in SBE Entertainment Group chief executive Sam Nazarian's portfolio of hotels and nightclubs.

Why so popular? Part of it is the Beverly HIlls location, part of it is the celebrity watching factor but it is also the fact that the food is more experience than sustenance. José Andrés serves food with a molecular gastronomy angle making use of liquid nitrogen, spun sugar and other theatrical food displays. As the WSJ article points out, the restaurant combines a bunch of things that are currently trendy and makes them work but whether or not any of these trends will stick around is anyone's guess. The Bazaar is a unique place combining lots of flash with a bit of substance and while the individual components that make it popular can be replicated the magic of this one particular spot likely cannot be.

Tags: jose andres, JoseAndres, sam nazarian, SamNazarian, sls hotel, SlsHotel, the bazaar, TheBazaar

LA Night Club Mogul Revamps Popular Malibu Restaurant

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Dining

Gladstone's oceanfront restaurant in Malibu, California is a popular place to take guests from out of town but it's not exactly the hippest place in town. That might be about to change now that owner Richard Riordan, the former mayor of Los Angeles, has hired nightclub mogul Sam Nazarian to do the honors of reinventing the traditional seaside restaurant. The LA Times reports that Riordan plans to sell Nazarian part interest in the restaurant.

Seating nearly 800 diners, the restaurant is Southern California's highest-grossing independent restaurant with annual revenue topping $14 million, according to Restaurants & Institutions, an industry trade journal. Gladstone's is known for its view and its long history but recent reviews found people complaining over the service and the high prices. Nazarian's company, SBE Entertainment Group, began running the restaurant over the summer on a short-term management contract. So far Nazarian has laid off some of the staff, brought in a new chef, added a new drinks menu, expanded the wine list and upgraded the fish selections. He also added umbrellas on the deck. According to Riordan revenue is already starting to tick up.

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Tags: gladstones, richard riordan, RichardRiordan, sam nazarian, SamNazarian

Brent Bolthouse Bolts SBE

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Events

The Los Angeles nightclub scene got a major shakeup this weeks with the news that nightlife impresario Brent Bolthouse has split from Sam Nazarian's SBE Entertainment Group. SBE is behind the Katsuya restaurants, the SLS Hotel, the Abbey and more. SBE bought half of Bolthouse's production business in 2005. Known on the LA club scene for years, Bolthouse came to national prominence as Heidi Montag's former employer on the MTV show "The Hills." StyleSection LA reports that Bolthouse and business partner Jenifer Rosero will continue to operate Bolthouse Productions as an independent entity continuing to produce events for their many prestigious clients.

And in a related real estate update, Sam Nazarian's gorgeous Los Angeles lair which was listed at $18.5 million appears to have been pulled off the market.

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Tags: brent bolthouse, BrentBolthouse, sam nazarian, SamNazarian, sbe

Sam Nazarian In Los Angeles, Estate of the Day

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Estates, Celebrity Shopping

High up in the hills of Los Angeles in the pricey "Bird Streets" area, nightlife impresario Sam Nazarian has a home he'd like to sell you. The young entrepreneur who is behind SBE Entertainment, celeb-friendly clubs like Hyde and the new SLS Hotel in Los Angeles has a glittering three-bedroom white box perched on a hill for perfect views all the way to the ocean. The home has ample party space with the media room and bar lounge opening out to an exterior resort-style area with an outdoor kitchen, infinity pool and spa and a cozy nook with a fire pit that could be the modern version of the Playboy mansion's infamous grotto, a perfect setting for a sudden intimacy. The home's entry has a glass floor and the clerestory windows offer lots of light. You may have noticed this home in a few episodes of "Entourage." It seems a perfect setting for that particular Hollywood fable. The Real Estalker Mama refers to the $18.95 million list price as eye-popping and I have to agree, it seems to be priced too high by a few million dollars.

Gallery: Sam Nazarian in the Hills

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Tags: celebrity real estate, CelebrityRealEstate, estate of the day, EstateOfTheDay, sam nazarian, SamNazarian, sls hotel, SlsHotel

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Chef Michael Mina Opens XIV in Los Angeles

by Tracy Chait (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Dining

In the latest of Sam Nazarian's ventures, acclaimed chef Michael Mina -- whose San Francisco restaurant was awarded two Michelin stars -- will helm a new L.A. chateau-style restaurant called XIV. The name is an attempt to capture the opulence of Louis's bygone days, though the monarchical reference isn't lost on me, nor the exceptionally long reign of influence.

As of today, you can make reservations at the Phillipe Starck-designed home of Modern American cuisine on Sunset Blvd.

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Tags: louis xiv, LouisXiv, michael mina, MichaelMina, sam nazarian, SamNazarian, sbe, xiv

Riding in Nazarian's Bugatti Veyron

by Rigel Celeste (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Cars & Autos

Sam Nazarian is big business. CEO of SBE Entertainment, Sam is quickly making a name for himself with a number of the highest-end restaurants, most exclusive clubs (L.A.'s famous Hyde is one), and most sought-after real estate to name just a few of his many projects. So what does a man like Sam do in his spare time? Drive around in his new Bugatti Veyron, impressing women, of course.

And Sue Callaway, of Fortune magazine, definitely seemed impressed when she got to ride in, and test drive, the $1.4 million sports car. Smooth, exclusive, and "jet-like" (Sue's words) in speed and power, I might never be interested in spending that much on a car, but I sure would have loved having her job that day.

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Tags: auto, automobile, Bugatti, bugatti veyron, BugattiVeyron, car, Fortune, nazarian, sam nazarian, SamNazarian, speed, sports car, SportsCar, Veyron, VW, wheels

Starck Joins New Hotel Brand

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Travel & Hotels

New hotel chains are popping up as fast as condo projects lately. Philippe Starck, the ubiquitous designer who is no stranger to hotel design, has been selected by SBE Hotel Group to create the look for a new unnamed hotel brand. SBE is owned by Los Angeles club god Sam Nazarian and the first property will be on the site of the Le Meridien in Beverly Hills which is set to open in 2008.

SBE managed to tied Starck down to a 15-year exclusive deal (so much for his claim in an interview last year that he'd be retiring in three years). The new boutique brand will be hitting all the hot spots including New York, Miami and the Caribbean but instead of creating new hotels, these will all be conversions. Starck will also remodel the Ritz Plaza in Miami but it will not be part of the new brand. He will also design restaurants and lounges including a new Brentwood restaurant set to launch in May.

SBE seems to have learned from the drama involving the Roosevelt hotel and Amanda Scheer Demme, who blocked hotel guests from her exclusive clubs. In an article in Travel Weekly, Michael Doneff, SBE Entertainment Group’s vice president of marketing promises that "if you stay at our hotels, you will have preferred access to our nightclubs.” It's a smart move to make the guests feel like they pare part of an exclusive group rather than feeling alienated in their own hotel.

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Tags: boutique hotels, hotels, le meridien, philippe starck, PhilippeStarck, Ritz plaza, RitzPlaza, sam nazarian, sbe, starck, travel