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What about lunch? People always say to me "I never have time for lunch" or "I don’t know anyone who goes to lunch these days." What is everybody talking about? I hear restaurant owners say "Oh my God, lunch is going to put me out of business." It’s true— lunch has been a losing battle for many Downtown restaurants over the past years. Both Laurel Restaurant and Fio's stopped offering lunch this year. Yet places like La Fresqueria, The Cheese Shop and Daily's seem to be kicking some serious booty during the noon hour. Try to get into Sushi Deli at noon — forget it.
The first conclusion that I jump to is price point. Maybe people are only drawn to a certain price point at lunch. Well, that whole idea goes out the window when I remember that Dobson's, Rainwater's, P.F. Chang and Athens Market (all a bit more formal, full-service) also crank at lunchtime.
I realize that I don’t really know that much about what other people do during lunch; I pretty much work every day during the lunch hour. So how can I learn? Just where do people go during lunch? Do people still go to lunch at all?
I decided to get on the phone and start calling people. Business people. People I didn’t even know. I asked them all sorts of questions, mostly about lunch, but about other things too. Here's how it went.
Robert Kibble
Kibble is one of the two managing partners of Mission Ventures, a $40 million venture capital fund that invests primarily in telecommunications, software and other technology companies. (The important thing to remember is that this man is working with $40 million. He took my call even though I left quite a silly voice-mail message requesting this interview.)
Metropolitan: Would you like to invest in restaurants?
Kibble: No. (He laughs.)
Metro: Do you go out to lunch everyday?
Kibble: No, I order in about three times a week from a little kiosk place downstairs.
Metro: What is the name of the little kiosk?
Kibble: I don’t even know. But he's a very innovative and entrepreneurial young chap.
Metro: Do you have a favorite thing?
Kibble: That's sort of a personal question, isn’t it?
Metro: Okay, I see how you’re gonna be.
Kibble: I get all different types of sandwiches.
Metro: Thank you. So two or so days a week you go to a sit-down lunch?
Kibble: I usually go to Tutto Mare.
Metro: Everybody is saying that they go to Tutto Mare.
Kibble: You should copy it; they have a great formula.
Metro: If I copied it, would you invest?
Kibble: No. (He laughs again.)
Metro: When you were little and went to school, did you buy or bring your lunch?
Kibble: I went to school in England.
Metro: Oh, so that’s not a fake accent?
Kibble: I went to school in England (more laughter), and we were served very atrocious food. I developed this bad habit very early. I learned that unless you ate very quickly that you would not get seconds. To this day I still wolf down my food.
Metro: Do you dine out with the same person usually or do you eat out with different people?
Kibble: Different people; always business-related.
Metro: If you were going to get a two-hour lunch and knew so in advance, what would you do with your time or where would you go for lunch? (There is a long pause.)
Kibble: I would probably pick up my girlfriend and... (laughs again).
Metro: What is your favorite condiment?
Kibble: Mango chutney.
Metro: Last question, true or false: Love makes the world go round.
Kibble: False.
Metro: What does, then?
Kibble: Money.
Brad Gordon
Gordon is chief financial officer with Signal Pharmaceuticals, a venture capital-backed research and drug discovery company in Sorrento Mesa.
Brad Gordon frequently takes fruit
for his lunch.
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Metro: Hey Brad, are you guys going to come up with a pill or what?
Gordon: Why, yes we are (he laughs). What kind of interview is this going to be? I thought this was going to be about food or something?
Metro: Yes, it is. How often do you go out to lunch?
Gordon: Very infrequently.
Metro: Do you bring your lunch?
Gordon: Yes, mostly I bring fruit.
Metro: If you do go out to a business lunch, where do you go?
Gordon: Tutto Mare.
Metro: That Tutto Mare cleans up. Everyone I talk to goes to Tutto Mare.
Gordon: Well, it is very convenient.
Metro: When you were young and went to school did you bring your lunch or buy it?
Gordon: Mostly I would buy it. But I always had to count my change twice; those lunch ladies would try to cheat you.
Metro: Hmmm, curious you would wind up being a CFO, don’t you think?
Gordon: But it’s true.
Metro: If you had a good two-hour break for lunch, how would you spend that time or where would you go for lunch?
Gordon: I would do 1,000 sit-ups and then sleep on the floor of my office.
Metro: Okay. What is your favorite condiment?
Gordon: Chutney and pickled ginger.
Metro: If you could come back in your next life as a fruit, what fruit would you want to be and why?
Gordon: A mango; I would be a very passionate fruit.
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Rob Wellington Quigley
Quigley is owner and principal of Rob Wellington Quigley FAIA, an architectural firm located Downtown in Little Italy.
Rob Quigley's too busy to be photographed;
here's where he works and lives.
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Metro: Do you eat lunch every day?
Quigley: I like lunch. Yes, I eat lunch every day.
Metro: Do you bring your lunch from home or do you go out to lunch?
Quigley: I go out to lunch every once in a while, mostly with people in the office. We just go somewhere right down here in Little Italy — Zucchero or Café Fantastico. Most of the time I just go home and eat. That's the thing about living above the store — you just go home and raid the refrigerator.
Metro: How long do you usually take for lunch?
Quigley: Oh, an hour at the most.
Metro: What if you knew that you were going to have a couple hours for lunch? Where would you go or what would you do? Would you shop or work out or something?
Quigley: That would be none of your business. (He laughs.)
Metro: What is your favorite condiment?
Quigley: Guinness.
Metro: True or false: Love makes the world go round.
Quigley: That's definitely true.
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Dene Oliver
Oliver is chief executive of DDR OliverMcMillan, a publicly held real estate development company located in the Golden Triangle.
Dene Oliver
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Metro: Do you go out to lunch every day?
Oliver: No, I have it ordered in about three times a week from Tutto Mare or Daily's, or sometimes I run over to Jamba Juice.
Metro: What if you go to a more formal lunch?
Oliver: Then again I go to Tutto Mare because it is right across the street and they do a good job. I also go to George's or Top o' the Cove if I have more time.
Metro: Do you ever bring your lunch?
Oliver: No.
Metro: When you go out to lunch do you usually go with the same person or do you go with different people?
Oliver: I used to try to go once a week with my wife Elizabeth, but now because of Miss Isabelle Oliver, we haven't been doing that as regularly. (The couple's first child, Isabelle, was born Feb. 22.)
Metro: What is your favorite condiment?
Oliver: I can’t have a hamburger without ketchup.
Metro: True or false: Love makes the world go round.
Oliver: Oh, very true.
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Gary Sutton
Sutton is chief executive officer at @Backup, a high-tech headquartered in Torrey Pines. He was in Silicon Valley during this interview. We conducted it over the course of a day via voice mail.
Gary Sutton says every lunch is a business lunch.
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Metro: Do you go out to lunch everyday?
Sutton: Lunch, ha! Is that that quaint old ritual back in the olden days of business? The leisurely lifestyles when people used to actually stop work in the middle of the day and go out to a restaurant and eat? How interesting that would be.
Metro: Do you eat lunch in?
Sutton: We are located on the General Atomics campus and sometimes I run down to the cafeteria and grab a sandwich or a bowl of chili. Or sometimes I wolf it down at the cafeteria.
Metro: I’m getting a good visual on that...you and the chili, wolfing it. Is it good chili?
Sutton: It’s nice.
Metro: When you go to a sit-down lunch, a business lunch...
Sutton: They're all business lunches.
Metro: Yes, when you go to a business lunch, where do you go?
Sutton: St. James maybe once every two weeks. I go to Torreyanna Grille every couple weeks.
Metro: When you were young and went to school did you mostly bring your lunch or did you buy it?
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Sutton: I did not bring my lunch. I either ate in the school cafeteria or went to Made Rite where the food was served up by these little old blue-haired ladies wearing clear plastic gloves.
Metro: What is your favorite condiment?
Sutton: You did say condiment didn’t you...d-i-m-e-n-t? Because if you said something else, why I’ll have to decline to answer that. If you said condiment then it’s mustard.
Metro: True or false: Love makes the world go round.
Sutton: I’m sorry to have to say false, with an extenuating explanation. I hate to be the one to tell you, Terryl is it?, but the world doesn’t go round. The world is stationary. It’s the rest of the universe that happens to flow around us and love doesn’t make that go round either. That would be inertia.
Richard and Joyce Flannery
Richard is CEO and Joyce is president of the Flannery Group, a public relations and government relations firm headquartered in Downtown San Diego. They are a brother and sister team. Both have lived Downtown for more than 13 years.
Joyce and Richard Flannery go out to
lunch together almost every day.
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Metro: How often do you go out to lunch together?
Joyce: Every day.
Metro: So neither of you ever brings a lunch from home?
Richard: Never.
Metro: Do you do formal, sit-down lunches or order in?
Joyce: We always do a formal sit-down relationship-building lunch. One reason is because Richard and I believe that we should support our Downtown businesses. We think that all the Downtown businesses should support our Downtown restaurants — if we want them to stay open, that is. A lot of places are closing for lunch.
Metro: Like Fio's and Laurel?
Joyce: Yes.
Metro: What are some of your favorite places?
Joyce: Well, I like to go to Rainwater's a lot. I also go to Athens Market quite a bit.
Richard: We go everywhere really. I go to Rainwater's a lot and I go to Dobson's.
Metro: Do you get the mussel bisque at Dobson's?
Richard: Oh, yes. That stuff is wonderful; very addicting.
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Metro: I could drink it instead of water, I love it so much. Okay, if you could come back in your next life as a fruit, what kind of fruit would you be?
Joyce: I would be a papaya.
Richard: I think that I would be a pear.
(About three hours later, Joyce calls from her car phone and says, "Terryl, Richard wants to be a lime instead of a pear." "Why would he rather be a lime?" I ask. After consulting with her brother in the background, Joyce returns and says "because they get to go in such fun things... you know, like margaritas." A lime he is.)
Metro: Last question. True or false: Love makes the world go round.
Joyce: True.
Richard: Very true.
What did I learn from all of this? While most claim they don’t eat lunch or go to lunch, they really do. So a word of advice to all you junior partners and junior executives out there — the old belief that "working through your lunch will get you to the top quicker" died with the recession. The movers and shakers all go out to lunch; get out there and network.
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