Real Mex Restaurants Inc. has named Del Frisco’s, Morton’s and California Pizza Kitchen vet Edie Ames to be its next chief operating officer, the company said last week.
The Mexican casual-dining brand, which has headquarters in Cypress, Cali., owns the Real Mex, Chevys, El Torito, Acapulco and Fresh Mex restaurants.
Ames, who has more than 30 years of experience in the restaurant industry, has overseen operations, culinary, marketing, social media and human resources across her roles as president of Morton’s Restaurant Group Inc. and regional vice president of operations and training at California Pizza Kitchen Inc.
“We are pleased to be welcoming Edie to Real Mex Restaurants and are highly confident that she will play an instrumental role in shaping our company’s future,” David Goronkin, chairman, president and chief executive of Real Mex Restaurants, said in a statement. “Edie has a tremendous passion for people and a unique ability to engage them in driving organizational success.”
Goronkin assumed chief executive duties in June.
The addition of Ames to the executive team elicited optimism from Goronkin.
“Throughout her career, she has established a proven track record of aligning functional departments with operations to improve efficiencies and execution, and we intend to leverage Edie’s well-defined skill set to achieve similar objectives at Real Mex,” he said. “We are delighted that an individual of her caliber is joining our executive team.”
Real Mex Restaurants operates more than 200 units across its brands.
Contact Marcella Veneziale at [email protected].