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Many Happy Returns
"The son of Garcia joined the Burger King Corp. managing franchises from Daytona Beach to Lakeland, and we can thus view Clarita's cookbook as a final family funeral oration over the remains of a once great and dedicated institution whose heirs have opted for the gobble, gobble, gulp and go route. Such apostasy!"
That was 1973. Now for the rest of the story:
The son was Manuel "Manny" Garcia III, a graduate of the Cornell Hotel School who was persuaded by his father, Manuel Jr., one of the seminal forces in the Florida restaurant whirl, to get involved with Burger King, then newly organized in Miami. Manny, who had just married his high school sweetheart, Gerry Ferlita, signed up for Whopper College, and with partners Charlie and Sam Davis of the Tampa Ship and Dry Dock Co., the Garcias formed Davgar Restaurants in 1969 and bought a pair of Orlando Burger Kings that were losing money and market. With what would soon be recognized in the company and then the industry as Manny's nonstop energy, hands-on management, drive and determination to be the best, to be No. 1, the two shops, which were hemorrhaging $40,000 a year, were converted to winners.
The Garcias bought other franchises and then bought out the Davis brothers. By the early 1990s, the empire was one of the top three Burger King franchisees in the country, with 65 operations.
But there's more to the story -- much more. With the profits from all those burgers, an annual gross of $80 million, Manny invested in another newcomer, Miami Subs out of Fort Lauderdale, becoming a master franchiser with 13 owned units and another 28 that he supervised as overseer, from Orlando to North Carolina.
One hundred and six separate operations were still not enough, not the 3,500 employees, not the gross sales of more than $100 million. The restaurant entrepreneur who had started in his pre-teens washing dishes at Las Novedades wanted more and thought he saw potential with the California-based El Pollo Loco chicken fast-feeder in 1986. In four years, he had five of them, but they proved unprofitable, and he sold them.
Far more successful was the Pebbles departure that he also started in 1986, opening the first in Longwood. As the menu proudly declared, it was "a special place to relax and enjoy," "A Casual Neighborhood Drop-In Restaurant" where you could "mix and match, pass the plates, share the Smoked Tuna Carpaccio, split a Nutty Cheesy Salad, or just stop in for Spicy Duck Wings and imported ale. You're free to have whatever you want whenever you want it."
That was defined as everything from seared ahi tuna on Mediterranean salad; caviar pita pizza; thumbits of beef tenderloin; and Cajun chicken; to roast duck and wild mushrooms; penne pasta mingled with sauteed medallions of lobster or roast duck and wild mushrooms; sauteed shrimp and polenta; and basil-crusted rack of lamb. All complemented by a solid selection of wines by the glass or bottle.
Other Pebbles were opened in Winter Park, Lake Buena Vista and Orlando and as far afield as Plantation, with ambitious plans to open in Tampa. Something similar to the Pebbles concept was tried on Orlando's International Drive in 1991, the Florida Bay Grill, but after three years of valiant struggle, it failed to meet expectations, and Manny looked elsewhere for expansion space and inspiration.
He did not have to look far, and he had the funds for financing. In 1996 Burger King bought back 57 Davgar franchises, three in southern Georgia, the rest in Orlando, Tampa and Tallahassee, for $55.6 million.
On the ground floor of Orlando's Barnett Bank building, Manny opened Harvey's Bistro in 1993 and the following year, on the penthouse level, Manuel's on the 28th. The first was an instant hit with the downtown business community looking for a reliable spot to do lunch and light dinners, and Manuel's, the name honoring Manny's father, was an oasis for those looking for a sophisticated setting and formal service.
Service is at the heart of any Manny Garcia operation, and with the kind of training received by the staff from the headquarters teams -- including Manny and Gerry's daughter Gina -- the staffers genuinely reflect respect for what they're doing, for the product, confident that the folks in charge, starting with Manny, push for perfection. Both operations make my "Best" lists, with Manuel's richly earning a Golden Spoon ever since it opened.
But there's still more: In 1998 Manny, with partners Hal Valdes and Tony Pace, established Culinary Concepts/Chef Creations to make soups and sauces for Harvey's and Manuel's, but the potential was soon seen for other customers, and now Sysco, the nation's largest distributor to restaurants, markets their products to upscale volume operations such as the Brio Tuscan Grills. When I tasted the superior tomato bisque, cream of mushroom and Italian wedding soups at Winter Park's Brio, I had no idea it was not made from scratch out back.
Another major customer is the Mexican restaurant San Angel and its Cantina in Epcot. Their refried beans, salsa and salad dressings plus a mountain of quesadillas -- made from secret recipes supplied by San Angel -- are all supplied by Culinary Concepts.
The company quickly struck what looks to be a mother lode in such outsourcing by upper midmarket restaurants, soaring in four years from annual sales of $600,000 to $8 million and expanding its production space from 3,000 square feet to more than 30,000.
Manny and his masterful team soon found another lode, this one to take over management not only in terms of food control and creation, but in concept, decor and regular restaurant operations. Recruiting and training chefs and management personnel, creating and standardizing recipes and executing favorable vendor contracts with their $25 million in buying power.
The company is Garcia Stuart Hospitality, with Manny as chairman and Larry Stuart, president and CEO, a graduate of the Cornell Hotel School with a distinguished career in New York, Cincinnati, Walt Disney World's Dolphin Resort and Loews Hotels at Universal Orlando.
The new company took over the running of Manuel's and Harvey's Bistro, already in Manny's portfolio, but also Park Plaza Gardens in Winter Park and the excitingly different Hue in Orlando, candidate for a top newcomer award this year. And Pebbles.
Manny sold the Pebbles collection in 1998 but bought it back.
It's always a greater challenge to repair and rebuild than it is to start fresh with something new. But the quiet and unassuming Manny thrives on meeting challenges -- and on skiing and running marathons and winning all kinds of awards and serving his community, generously giving his time, talent and treasure. What a worthy and wonderful successor he is to the traditions of the Manuels who have gone before him at Las Novedades.
