2 Piret’s Outlets Repurchased by Original Owners

SAN DIEGO —  Less than three years after they had to sell out to a large corporation, George and Piret Munger on Friday repurchased two of the five remaining Piret’s eateries.

The Mungers will take over operation of the Piret’s outlets in La Jolla and Encinitas, effective Feb. 1.

Vicorp Specialty Restaurants (VSR), which acquired Piret’s in May, 1984, will continue to operate Piret’s in Costa Mesa, Beverly Hills and the flagship site in Mission Hills.

On Friday, Piret’s in the downtown Imperial Bank building ceased operations. It will reopen in about two weeks as a Boathouse Grill, an upscale version of VSR’s Boathouse chain.

Terms of the Munger’s purchase were not disclosed, but sources familiar with the transaction said that the couple will take over the two locations in exchange for canceling their 10-year consulting contracts with VSR.

VSR offered to sell the Mission Hills location to the Mungers, but the offer was “too expensive for us,” Piret Munger said Friday.

The fate of the remaining Piret’s is uncertain; the company is “considering several possible courses of action” with the three locations, VSR President Thomas W. Doan said Friday.

“I’m glad to be back in the saddle,” George Munger said in a prepared statement. “Consulting is basically passive and I’m an activist. I like shaking things up and hands-on management.”

The Mungers--he was a gourmet chef, she was in public relations--founded The Perfect Pan cookware shop in 1975 in Mission Hills and the first Piret’s just a block away in 1979.

The operation grew rapidly, as Piret’s opened outlets in The Lumberyard in Encinitas, Grossmont Center, South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa and the Imperial Bank building between 1982 and early 1984.

But expansion took its financial toll and the Mungers ran into a lack of capital, subsequent cash-flow problems and red ink.

Dozens of prominent San Diegans were investors in Perfect Pan, including San Diego Mayor Maureen O’Connor and her husband, Robert O. Peterson; Union-Tribune Publishing Chairwoman Helen Copley and her son, David; Ace Parking owner Evan Jones; developer Ted Odmark; UCSD administrator William Otterson, and developer Patrick Kruer.

In the past year, Piret’s has canceled its cooking classes, closed its commissary, shut down its Grossmont Center site and threatened to close the La Jolla Village Square location.

The cutbacks were part of VSR’s leveraged buy-out by management from its parent, Vicorp Restaurants in Denver.

That buy-out was completed late last year.