BUT FOR a trip to our bank in the Palisades, Kayndaves likely would not have ever been there. After making my deposit, I saw a “For Sale” sign in the window of a shuttered restaurant across the street. I had no business calling because the old rundown cantina I took over 8 months earlier was a losing money pit, I was out of money, and my credit cards were maxed out.
Yet I called. Austin answered. And a couple of hours he and I were having lunch at my PCH cantina.
I leveled with him about having no money to offer. But asked if he’d think about handing me the keys on a promise: “Give me 6 months. If I make it work, I’ll pay off your debts to the landlord, to the bank and to the IRS.” He said “ok but …. it’s up to Virginia.”
Virginia owned the building. The next day I drove up to her house. It was high above Marquez Elementary with a beautiful view of the ocean. She was in her 80s. Sharp as a tack. Well dressed. Looking like she just came back from the hairdresser.
I laid out all my numbers and projections. Talked about how much money the place would make. And how Mexican food was what the Palisades needed. She saw right through me because when I took a long enough pause, she said “Are you done? …. Then let me see if I understand you young man. You want to rent my space. You presumably have no money. You have only been in this business for 8 months. And … you have absolutely no way to guarantee my lease. That sound about right?” I grinned.
She went on…. “When I was about your age, Ed (her deceased husband) and I were just starting out. We lived on a hilly street. Good thing we did because we could coast down it and pop our old car’s clutch which didn’t often work. We really wanted to do a real estate project but had no money. Like you we were trying to do something that was way over our heads. Nevertheless the seller said to us ‘OK, I’m going to take a chance on you two.’ We made the deal. And it set us on our way. So now it’s my turn to take a chance on you.”
Virginia gave me the keys to her space on July 2, 1992. On July 4th I was in the space early that morning. I can still remember the smell of it. I watched the parade. Met a bunch of locals. And somehow opened the doors 3 weeks later.
Fast forward to 2006. I get a call from Virginia’s son Ed. He told me that he and his sister were selling the building. That they were going to give me a right of first refusal. And that they were doing so because that is what their mom – who had passed – would have wanted. Two weeks later he called, said he was flooded with offers, and gave me the terms of his deal of choice: All cash; close in 20 days. Problem was I didn’t have anywhere near the 7 figures needed to buy it. And my credit rating was trashed by the recently failed West Hollywood restaurant I closed 90 days after it opened (ooops!).
Shortly after I hung up, a regular named Dennis was having lunch in our Brentwood spot. We’d often chatted so I knew he owned some commercial property. I mentioned the deal and asked if he was interested in buying it with me. He said he’d think about it. Twenty minutes later he called and said “let’s do it.” Twenty days later we owned it. And now twenty years later, he and his wife Kathy are not only our partners, but more importantly Jintana’s and my very close friends.
Up for another story? Are you being a schmuck?
kayndaves.com 
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