Salvador, wife Margarita, 71, and six children came to Los Angeles-on separate trips-from Mexico in the 1958. The family is a postcard of immigrant success.
“Like the dishwasher, you treat him with dignity and respect. “My father has always taught us to treat our employees well,” Maria Elena said. Though sometimes forgotten in business as crucial qualities, Salvador is revered for his charm, heart and loyalty, and employee turnover is rare in all of the eateries. Then there’s the family patriarch Salvador, a classic car buff and septuagenarian marathoner. Sergio, who once dreamed of being an architect, oversees construction and remodeling, permits and liquor licenses, and is the designee who faces planning commissioners and other City Hall gatekeepers. Self-taught, he specializes in banking, accountancy, insurance and real estate dealings. The mission in her Costa Mesa test kitchen is to balance traditional Mexican food with increasingly popular lighter fare. Maria Elena develops new dishes based on her mother’s recipes.
“Each one of us kids has a strength, and we work together,” Sergio said. Though the restaurants are separate, the siblings cooperate to buy in bulk, develop menus and arrange insurance. “But it was my brothers,” Maria Elena said, “who took it to a new level.” The siblings credit their father with teaching them about the restaurant business. “By keeping it that way, we can still have peace in the house and still talk to each other,” Victor said. Of those surveyed, 57% said they want their relatives to inherit their business, figures that reflect an 8% drop from the previous year.īut the Avila family’s use of autonomy seems to stave off sibling rivalry, which can hinder successful next-generation ownership. Owners’ commitment to keeping their business in the family has declined in recent years, according to a 1994 telephone survey by Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. “If the brothers are fighting, why not look at spinning different parts of the business off and give one division or product line to one sibling and one to another?”
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