We
are, Brian and Jeannie Whitlock, the co-owners of Brian's Restaurant since July of 2006. We have been in the restaurant
business for over 32 years! People always want to know how we got into the restaurant business, so here goes...
In 1974, Brian was employed as a computer operator; in the days when computers filled the whole room
and the floor was raised to house the air conditioning ducts that kept the room cool enough for these huge machines.
Jeannie was employed with Pan American Airlines as a flight attendant based in Honolulu, Hawaii. Wow, this is going waaaay
back! We met each other during a return flight from London, Brian was a passenger coming home from a vacation and Jeannie
was the flight attendant in his section of the plane. Love at first sight!
Later in that year,
Jeannie was laid-off from Pan American due to the gasoline crisis which gave her time to help her mother, Kazuko, start a
coffee shop called Rich Maid Donuts. It was a small lunch counter with a few tables within a wholesale doughnut business.
The owner of the doughnut business wanted to make and sell doughnuts exclusively and the lunch counter was a headache for
him, so he decided to lease it to Jeannie's mother. It was Kazuko's first attempt at her own business. She had been
a tempura chef at a Japanese restaurant for many years. It was strictly a family affair, Kazuko and her two daughters, Alice
and Jeannie. After one year there, she was so successful that she was able to buy her own coffee shop, she named it Kazu's,
in Menlo Park.
That year, 1976, Brian had decided that he had had enough of the computer business
and seeing Kazuko's success, asked Jeannie to continue running the doughnut shop for another year. She was not crazy about
this idea, her mother could cook, but Brian had no experience cooking, he could not even boil water, how would this work?
He really wanted to do this and cook too. With the help of a couple of friends, he started his new career as a short order
cook. The first day was a disaster. Jeannie put up the orders and they started cooking, everything
at the same time. When she looked in the kitchen, there was a huge cloud of black smoke rising up from the grill. Amazingly
enough we survived one very long year of learning experiences. At the end of that year, one of our suppliers told us about
a coffee shop in Los Altos that may be for sale. It was a place called Los Altos Coffee Shop.
Back in our past lazy weekends, we used to go out and try to find a comfortable breakfast restaurant that served a good, freshly
made breakfast, like the comfy, delicious, and special places we found when we lived in Berkeley. A place that served traditional
eggs, omelets, pancakes and waffles. We didn’t want to relax in a 24-hour chain restaurant, but there were very few
choices at that time. To fill this void, we decided to concentrate on breakfast and lunch, with breakfast our mainstay business.
We had found a niche, which still exists today (weekends are our busiest days). So in 1977, we purchased Los Altos Coffee
Shop and got married at the same time. Los Altos Coffee Shop had been a long time soda fountain and lunch counter when we
bought it, a typical coffee shop of the times. It featured a long soda fountain like you would find in an old time drug store.
It had built in soda dispensers, an ice cream freezer, and syrup squirters. Most of the dining room was taken up by two huge
counters were shaped in a U so that the regulars could see one another when they socialized over their morning cup of coffee.
Los Altos Coffee Shop was just a great place to mingle, relax, and enjoy a great breakfast.
Over the years, we received quite a few wonderful write-ups from restaurant critics at the San Jose Mercury, The Palo Alto
Times, and The Town Crier. The San Francisco Chronicle published a guide to great breakfast places on the peninsula and we
were included in their list of "old standbys that are long time Bay Area favorites". Our staff deserves much of
the credit for our success. Most of the kitchen staff has been with us for many years, some of them reaching double digits!
The same goes for our serving staff. We’re all one big family.
In May of 2008, sadly,
after more than 31 years, we had to close the doors of Los Altos Coffee Shop. It was the end of era. Nowadays, most people
think of Starbucks or Peets when you say coffee shop.
On a happy note, we are building
a new tradition at Brian’s. If we are fortunate, we will be here for another 31 years!
So that’s the whole sordid story of how we ended up in the restaurant business. It’s been a wonderful experience
and we obviously love what we do!
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