HEADQUARTERS: La Jolla, Calif. 
MARKET SEGMENT: casual dining
MENU: pizza, pasta, salad
NO. OF UNITS: 17
AVERAGE CHECK: $15.50
LEADERSHIP: Sami Ladeki, owner; Tony Kulick, chief financial officer; Mark Augarten, vice president operations
YEAR FOUNDED: 1989
METHOD OF GROWTH: internal funding
COMPETITORS: neighborhood restaurants, California Pizza Kitchen 
TARGET MARKETS: Los Angeles County, Orange County, San Diego County and Las Vegas area
WEBSITE: www.sammyspizza.com

The California economy was not kind to casual-dining concepts during the recession, forcing many chains, including Sammy’s Woodfired Pizza, to put growth on hold. This year, however, the 17-unit San Diego-based Sammy’s is ready to start multiplying again. 


On July 14 Sammy’s is scheduled to open its 18th location in El Segundo, Calif., the chain’s first location in the Los Angeles area, a new market that parent company Ladeki Restaurant Group sees as having much potential. 


Company officials said they hope to open as many as three locations in the Los Angeles area before the end of the year, with four to six locations planned over the next two years in existing core markets of San Diego County, Las Vegas and Southern California’s Orange County.


The company also will open a Sammy’s in Los Angeles International Airport in late 2011 or early 2012 and is in negotiations with other airports to bring the brand there. 


“We see 10 to 15, potentially, in the Los Angeles area,” said Mark Augarten, Sammy’s vice president of operations.


Sammy’s, which debuted in 1989 in La Jolla, Calif., was created by Sami Ladeki, a native of Lebanon who trained in Europe before coming to the United States, where he founded the restaurant group and began growing Sammy’s.


Ladeki Restaurant Group also owns and operates the one-off Roppongi, an upscale-casual Asian concept in La Jolla. 
Sammy’s, however, has long been the growth vehicle for Ladeki. Though pizza was the initial focus, the brand has evolved to include a broader casual-dining menu of pastas and salads along with wood-oven-cooked pizzas.


“It’s really a neighborhood restaurant,” said Augarten. “It has a contemporary atmosphere, but it’s comfortable. There’s nothing on the menu for more than $15.”


That price point served the brand well through the recession, said Augarten, and the brand has avoided discounting and two-for-one value meals.


Instead, Sammy’s, which uses the tagline “Eat well, feel good,” in recent years has highlighted the more healthful aspects of its menu. Sammy’s offers four styles of pizza crust, including whole-wheat and gluten-free options.


For the Southern California pizza aficionado, Sammy’s features the LaDou’s Barbecue Chicken pizza, named for the late, famed pizza maker and consultant Ed LaDou, the first pizza chef at Wolfgang Puck’s Spago who also developed the signature barbecue chicken pizza at California Pizza Kitchen. LaDou passed away in 2007. 


Though the menu is similar in structure to California Pizza Kitchen’s, Augarten was hesitant to call that chain a competitor. 


“CPK sounds similar, but our menu is more gourmet,” he said. “We sell more pastas and salads, and their mix is more heavily pizza.”


Like most units, the El Segundo location will offer beer and wine, although two restaurants also have a full bar.


The company also has updated its decor package for new units, with new lighting fixtures, chairs, tables, fabrics and wall textures. Units average about 3,500 square feet and have 120 seats indoors and 50 outside. Start-up costs are about $1.5 million.


Despite the California headwinds of high unemployment and home-foreclosure rates, same-store sales have been positive at Sammy’s over the past eight months, which Augarten said played into the decision to ramp up growth.


While Augarten declined to give systemwide sales, he said the company is debt free and has strong credit. Growth will be funded internally, he noted, adding that Ladeki has been building the company’s infrastructure in preparation for growth.


“We have been waiting for this moment for a while,” Augarten said. 


Contact Lisa Jennings at lisa.jennings@penton.com.