Come here often? You bet: It’s good to be the king

When Frank Catullo’s restaurant Pastina opened in Westwood in 1992, a legend grew up around two of his customers, Mona Brandler and her husband, Henry. It was said they ate there every night.

Perfectly true, says Brandler. “I had fallen and broken my wrist and I couldn’t cook. We ate at Pastina every night for six weeks.”

Brandler continued to dine there with her late husband once or twice a week and is a regular customer there to this day. “I have a standing date with a girlfriend. Every Thursday night we go for dinner. All the waiters know me by my first name. It’s the only restaurant in town I can eat alone and I feel like I’m eating with my family.”

Brandler, 83, is an emeritus member of the vast urban tribe of restaurant regulars -- people who eat at the same restaurant twice a month, once a week, even every day. She’s in the same league as devoted diners Guy and Susan Wolff, who have eaten almost daily at Brent’s Delicatessen in Northridge for 17 years, “sometimes three times a day,” according to Guy.

Regulars say they return to the same places again and again for three reasons -- food they like, highly personal service and convenience of location. And although they gravitate toward certain categories of restaurants -- breakfast spots, steakhouses, delicatessens and sushi bars among them -- regulars can be found in all sorts of places, paying all sorts of prices.

“People put themselves on automatic to try and reduce the stress of the day,” says Ellen Langer, professor of psychology at Harvard University. “Returning to the same place feels comfortable. There are relationships involved.”

The relationship between restaurants and regulars is a symbiotic one. Restaurants provide their regulars with the comfort and consistency they crave as well as something more, a feeling that they’re special, an emotional lift that keeps the recipient coming back for more. For their part, regulars are the people who keep long-lived restaurants not just in business, but jampacked.

In the South Bay, where Martha’s 22nd Street Grill has been a fixture on the Strand in Hermosa Beach for 18 years, Manager Laima Zilinskas figures half the customers are regulars.

At Pastina, Catullo estimates that 70% of his customers are.

“For lunch,” he says with a laugh, “I don’t even have anyone at the door. People just come right in and they sit at their regular tables.”

At Joe’s in Venice, about 10% of the diners come at least twice a month.

“Regulars are critical,” says Charles Frank, private equity investor and restaurant consultant. “Without question, restaurants over a long period of time make it or don’t make it on the strength of their regulars.”

That’s why at Joe’s, chef-owner Joe Miller says he and his front-of-the-house staffers review the reservation list weekly for repeaters. Miller always sends out a little treat for regulars, “What we call a ‘chico,’ ” he says, “which is essentially an amuse.” Catullo, who believes that “everybody’s not a customer, but a friend,” empowers his Pastina waiters to offer complimentary desserts, after-dinner drinks and other gestures of appreciation to “steadies.” He has personally delivered dinner to a homebound flu-stricken regular and gives a thank-you Christmas party each year.

From the point of view of the restaurateur, regulars not only are good customers but also provide essential word-of-mouth marketing in an industry with what Peter Romeo, editorial director of Restaurant Business magazine, calls an “astronomical failure” rate. As a result, strategies to attract and hold regulars are behind everything from names (first names like “Mel’s” or “Annie’s” imply that it’s a homey neighborhood spot you’ll want to return to) to menus (daily specials keep frequent diners intrigued and entertained) to design.

‘A residential feel’

“A few years ago you had these big, noisy dazzling places,” says Romeo. “Now the trend in restaurant design is much more a residential feel. Softer surfaces, more comfort. It’s an effort to stress comfort rather than what I call ‘sport dining,’ eating out for the bragging rights.”

In Southern California, you’ll find restaurant regulars everywhere on the dining spectrum. There are showbiz workers who eat daily at hangouts as divergent as the Grill in Beverly Hills, Sam and Woody’s near Sony and John O’Groats down the street from Fox. There are multi-generation family groups that frequent Taylor’s Prime Steaks in La Canada Flintridge and Fin’s in Calabasas. There are vegetarians who eat only at Real Food Daily in L.A. or at Au Lac Vegetarian Restaurant in Fountain Valley.

At the Hump, a sushi restaurant in Santa Monica, even regulars are amazed at how many regulars there are. “We’re dumbfounded,” says Vincent Dente, 35, who goes maybe twice a month. “We say, ‘Wow, that person’s here again.’ I think there are people who go in more frequently than we do.” Still, Dente is among the select group of regulars to whom head chef Shunji Nakao has given his cellphone number. That way Dente can call directly and consult about the best possibilities for an omakase, or chef’s choice menu.

And there are other perks. After 20 years, it’s still not easy to get a reservation at the ever-busy Chinois on Main. But regulars say that Bella Lantsman, general manager and partner, will always try to squeeze them in.

Lantsman’s frequent diners range in age from a few months to more than 90 years old. At a place with entrees in the $30 to $40 price range, the scene at 6 p.m. on a Sunday might surprise first-timers. The small, casual restaurant is stuffed with people -- mostly big family groups. Individuals hustle in from the valet parking carrying gift-wrapped packages and join groups of six or eight. There’s a table with mama, papa and five kids, another with a teenage birthday party.

Debbie Brincko and her family have eaten at Chinois weekly for 13 years. “My husband, John, is a serious wine collector and a foodie,” says Brincko, “so he always has to have great food. For my husband to get the service and the food he wants and still have my 10-year-old son, Matthew, happy is a great thing.” John, the adventurous one, usually orders the special, while Matthew orders one of three dishes: the barbecued baby pork ribs, the grilled Mongolian lamb chops or the Chinois chicken salad.

But it’s not just about the food. “We go out to be together,” says Srila Singh, who eats at Chinois several times a month with her husband, Man Jit, and her daughter, Sabrina, 17. “Sometimes at home one gets distracted. It’s nice to go out as a family. We always enjoy the food at Chinois so much. It is world-class. Another thing that stands out is Bella and her warmth. I get a bear hug when I come in.”

Among regulars, the familiarity theme also plays out at the table; many order the same dishes over and over again. The Singhs order the sweet curried oysters with cucumber sauce, the tempura tuna sashimi, the Shanghai lobster and the grilled Szechwan beef on every visit. Zilinskas of Martha’s can recite a whole list of regulars’ standing orders, including very specific, individualistic ones. “One regular has his waffle plain, well done. It has to have a side of egg whites, scrambled. He has to have a side of guacamole. It all has to be on separate plates.”

“The most important thing in the restaurant business is repeat customers,” says Lantsman. “A lot of places when they’re new and hot don’t pay attention when they see repeat customers. But there are only enough people exploring new places to keep a restaurant busy for maybe two years. My goal since I took over 16 years ago has been to make sure every customer becomes a regular.”

Lantsman and other savvy restaurateurs have strategies for turning the visiting diner into a regular. To begin with, they notice right away when someone shows up a second or third time. Lantsman is famous for remembering people she’s met months before. She pays attention to preferences, offers crayons to kids and schedules special events with themed menus and decorations for holidays.

Charles Frank says restaurants survey customers and do studies to determine what brings repeaters back. Many restaurants track regulars’ preferences by computer, using such programs as OpenTable.com. (According to chef-owner Joachim Splichal, the Patina Group is using this technology to develop a concierge program that will launch in several months and offer special privileges to frequent diners at its several restaurants.) Others rely on longtime hosts and servers to remember names, dietary restrictions and favorite servers.

Yuko Saito, hostess at the Hump, keeps a book with notes on her regulars. “I want to remember what they like to drink or eat or what they cannot eat. If they order, say, Tamade or Matsunomidori [sakes] and I think they’re going to come back, I will try to give them the same the next time. I keep track and communicate with the chefs and servers.”

A form of self-expression

Americans eat out so often these days, spending more than 46% of their food budget away from home, according to the National Restaurant Assn., that restaurant dining in a region with as many choices as ours has become a form of self-expression. A regular restaurant can be as much a part of a person’s self-image as a favorite sweater. Selecting a regular restaurant can be as defining a decision in a marriage as selecting living room furniture.

At the Kitchen in Silver Lake, a lively cafe with murals on the wall and a community bulletin board touting a rugby league and local rock bands, first-timers are easy to spot: They haven’t brought their own wine. The bring-your-own feature is appreciated by regulars Dawn and Gary Prebula.

“We have an extensive wine cellar, and we are very partial to Central Coast wine,” says Gary. “So it’s a treat to be able to bring something you know is truly great.” But great wine doesn’t mean pretentious dining, and Gary is a creature of habit -- he invariably pairs his Chardonnays with the same entree: a stellar turkey burger.

On Sunday mornings at Martha’s, it’s oatmeal for Alan Kaplan and a mimosa with the corn scramble or the omelet with Gouda and spinach for his wife, Janet. They order a side of sausage for their standard schnauzer Pascha, who always accompanies them to their patio table and hangs out while they read the Sunday paper. Around them, senior bikers, proudly fit in European-style cycling duds, flirt with ponytailed waitresses. Toddler-toting moms in Hawaiian shirts and sun visors abound.

The Kaplans’ unvarying weekly routine of Sunday breakfast at Martha’s, along with Monday and Friday dinners at regular restaurants, allows them the chance to relax and unwind, Alan explains. “We’re both in sales positions where there are so many things going on in a day that are out of your control. We travel a lot, so we get to experience a lot of restaurants that way. Sometimes the range of choice becomes counterproductive. It’s like when I stop at the supermarket at the end of a long day and they say do you want paper or plastic. I say I’ve made enough decisions today.”

Breakfast is a favorite meal for regulars. The early morning hours bring out obsessive-compulsive impulses in otherwise spontaneous and adventurous people.

Brenda Brewis was a waitress for 14 years at John O’Groats, a Rancho Park institution. Although she had to stop working for health reasons, she is still a part of the “family” at the homey coffee shop with its slip-covered counter stools, maps of Scotland and children’s artwork on the walls -- and legions of breakfast and lunch regulars.

When she worked the breakfast shift, Brewis says, she used to set places for her regulars before the cafe even opened.

“Some of my regulars wanted the same thing every morning, Monday through Friday. I’d have their place ready when they walked in at 7 a.m. or whatever. Their coffee waiting, their brown sugar for oatmeal. We knew what they wanted.”

Warm personal relationships are often a part of the dynamic for both staff members and diners, and staff longevity is the norm at restaurants with large groups of loyal regulars.

At Brent’s Delicatessen in Northridge, owner Ron Peskin (“Ronnie” to regular Riva Scher) has several family members working alongside him, and Scher says waitresses and deli countermen “stay forever.” The family’s bonds with the surrounding community are strong.

“We went through the earthquake of 1994 with them,” remembers Scher. “Ronnie was so helpful to everyone, feeding firefighters and all. We lost our home for nine months. Brent’s was a safe haven where we felt secure.”

In other cases, it’s the chef that draws regulars time and time again to a restaurant.

“We eat a hundred percent raw food,” says Naomi Lorenzini, 25, of Huntington Beach, who frequently eats at Au Lac with her husband Jeff, 33. “We just love the place so much. If you find a raw foods chef who makes good food, he’s worth his weight in gold. We’ve tried all kinds of raw foods chefs. Chef Ito has the best tasting food. Our favorite right now is the green pyramid. It’s a soaked wild rice with a kind of pesto sauce and zucchini and coconut.

“Ito is amazing. We talk to him every time we go in. Well, he took a vow of silence so he doesn’t say anything. But he signs, and he’s super friendly.”

A particular chef’s style, along with the social atmosphere that often reigns in sushi bars -- chit-chat among diners, drinks bought to honor the chefs and lively greetings and goodbyes -- is a big part of what makes these restaurants so attractive to diners who fit the profile of potential regulars.

Royal treatment

That certainly plays a major role in why Vincent and Zornista Dente are regulars at the Hump. “Shunji is incredibly creative,” he says. “I’ve been eating there for three years now, and other than me asking for something I’ve eaten before, I don’t think I’ve had the same thing twice. That’s creativity. I don’t eat out often. I love to cook. I cook almost every day. But when my wife and I do decide to go out, we choose the Hump.”

Dente says when the restaurant knows he’s bringing a client to dinner or it’s a special occasion, the treatment is especially royal.

“We went there for my wife’s birthday last year. They had a scorpion fish delivered just for her and for her meal. It’s one of the most difficult things to prepare other than blowfish. It’s an unbelievable length to go to for a client. And that’s not an uncommon thing for them to do.”

This kind of service inspires loyalty and sometimes something more, a kind of possessiveness. Regulars have been known to help out behind the counter, offer cooking tips and raise a ruckus when a menu item is dropped.

One especially colorful regular is remembered fondly at Campanile. The late Harvard Gordon, a curmudgeonly gourmand (eulogized in these pages by novelist Carolyn See) had previously been a regular at Musso & Frank. From the time Campanile opened, he dined there five nights a week: “By himself, at the bar,” remembers Nancy Silverton, “often with a headset on.”

Gordon, who used to love to walk into the kitchen and order directly from chef Mark Peel, is honored with a small plaque at the spot he so often occupied.