Tearing Down Fences & Talking Restaurants with Ruben Flores

On Monday, at “Best of Laguna Beach’s” radio show at KXFM 104.7, Laguna Nursery and Visionscape Design Owner Ruben Flores joins me for ALL sorts of discussion, from new restaurants to sorry construction fencing at Main Beach … to our dining in 12 restaurants last week and positive moves we’re seeing from the new City Manager and Planning Commission.Here’s a quick summary of this week’s newsy show:✅ Last week’s launch of “Mastering Restaurant Revenue,” the podcast between me and restaurant industry GOAT Bruce Russo, was a happy and successful launch. Ruben says that he can’t go into any restaurant without now surveying “revenue pods.” We’ve done our job!✅ All about Chef Maro Molteni - his departure years ago from Maro Wood Grill and his subsequent, multi-restaurant chef’s journey in Laguna Beach UNTIL he decided to leave us to build his own restaurant in Laguna Niguel. 😩 On Sunday, Ruben, Nelson and I got to check out Chef Maro’s almost-open digs as he rounds the final turn to his opening day. (More on that later.)Big brother Martin Molteni (left) flew up from Argentina to help Maro (right) finalize the kitchen prep and menu before Chef Maro’s grand opening of his own restaurant in April - in Laguna Niguel.✅ Ruben asks me to put my restaurant consulting hat on to share my thoughts about Maro’s kitchen as well as the smart “revenue pods” Maro has in place as soon as the doors open.✅ The huge marketing benefit of putting signage in place for your restaurant even BEFORE renovation begins. Ruben uses a similar example in his own landscaping world - what he puts in first.✅ ALL the Laguna restaurants we dined in last week - TWELVE restaurants! I published that article review on Tuesday this week:Read: Last Week's Eats✅ Laguna Beach restaurants capitalizing on “take out” (yet another revenue pod that Bruce and I talk about).✅ The more expensive dishes in town. Who eats these? (Because people ARE eating them.)✅ Ruben mentions the “embarrassing” and “horrendous” construction fencing efforts at Main Beach. We offer several options for a better branding and luxurious feel for our town.Right now we have the shabbiest curtains on our Window to the Sea.”  - Ruben Flores✅ The new City Manager (Dave Kiff), who’s sending out “forward-thinking emails” about upcoming City Council agendas. This is an awesome move, particularly for residents who feel that the last few years have left them shut out of major city decisions. We bring up the positive changes we’ve also seen in the Planning Commission, and talk briefly about last week’s meeting where the commissioners and City Manager handled the rather woeful architectural design of the South Laguna new fire station.✅ Ruben begs the City to trim a decades-old Carob tree before it fails completely. He then moves into talking about our parks as “jewels” instead of “just plots of land that sit there,” and what can be done there, too.✅ We close with an invite to Ruben’s popular “Garden Walk,” occurring again this Saturday, March 29th.And that’s a wrap!“See” you next week at KXFM Radio 104.7, Laguna’s only radio station! Thanks for being my listeners!