Down a long alley lined with tables for two, spurts of sun filter through an overhead trellis woven with vines.
The narrow corridor opens into a small courtyard ” an atmosphere Café Lautrec owner Franc Alonso affectionately calls “a quaint, small country getaway.” About five years ago, Alonso stumbled upon the Girard Street restaurant as a fluke, and last week, as he prepared to close its doors for good, he looked forward to creating a new chapter in the La Jolla landmark’s 36-year story.
“This is an institution,” the 38-year-old entrepreneur said from the restaurant last Thursday. “Café Lautrec is La Jolla.”
Because the two are so closely tied and the coastal village is associated with many success stories, Alonso is almost positive his new business venture will be a home run, although the idea behind that was also a fluke, he said.
About four years ago, the San Diego native got together with one of the café’s many loyal customers, who happened to have a background in retail. The result: a new partnership, Café Lautrec Gourmet.
After meeting with representatives from Costco, who were impressed with the their idea to bottle the restaurant’s longtime original recipe for salad dressing, the business partners began tracking down manufacturers in Los Angeles, Houston and Napa, Calif., Alonso said.
They have since received letters of intent from 10,000 supermarkets across the country that are considering carrying their products, according to Alonso, who added that besides dressings, they also plan to package Café Lautrec’s dilly onion and spicy carrot stick pâté recipes.
The dressing bottles are already designed, complete with labels denoting La Jolla as the brand’s place of origin and a short story about its flagship restaurant. The shelf-life testing and UPC codes have been established, Alonso said.
The only steps left are to turn out initial batches of the dressing at a Los Angeles facility and secure agreements with supermarkets, he said.
With the menu copyrighted and on disc, the partners have also been working to set up a Café Lautrec restaurant group, allowing people to independently operate their own version of the eatery under a license agreement with Alonso.
As everything begins to line up and fall into place, Alonso is preparing to take it easy for a month or two after dedicating the last half-decade to busing tables, tending bar and providing an atmosphere that attracted customers from as far as the East Coast.
“Emotionally, this is my life. I’ve lived here for the past five years,” he said, motioning across the courtyard and into the cozy interior dining room. “I’ve met the most amazing people ” all the locals, basically, and the loyal travelers ” and that’s going to be the hard part of letting this go.”
As customers lined up last week for their final meals at the restaurant, which will be partially renovated and reopened under a new name and owner in late May, Alonso said he felt sad to leave but was also excited to enjoy some well-earned time off.
But even as he heads down to Windansea Beach, surfboard in tow, the businessman is constantly keeping his eyes and ears open for new marketable ideas, he said.
His enthusiasm for life shines bright and clear as he talks of many interests, including a love of travel and playing his own music. One day he hopes to start his own production company and eventually retire in Italy.
But for now, Alonso is content working his business opportunities through e-mails from his San Diego home and is keeping his fingers crossed that a venue for Café Lautrec’s local fan base will pop up in the area soon.
Until then, the restaurant’s Web site, www.cafelautrec.com, will provide updates on the company’s status and will soon be revamped, becoming a hub for filling private orders, he said.
In five to 10 years, his goal is to be bought out by a larger company, much like the La Jolla couple who created Kashi products and merged in 2001 with Kellogg, according to Alonso.
With any hope, he joked, at that point he will be telling his story on the Food Network. But the unknowing consumer who chooses Café Lautrec dressing over Wishbone or Hidden Valley will be who ultimately determines the company’s fate. And his La Jolla ties might just be the deciding factor, the ex-restaurant owner said.
“It started in La Jolla and that’s saying something,” he said. “I think the association with La Jolla is a great branding tool. It’s not even a hope anymore “” if you put this much of you into something, then it’s going to work. I believe that 100 percent.”
For more information, visit www.cafelautrec.com or send e-mail to [email protected].