Restaurant Realty Begins Its Third Decade In Business

From a small one room office in Kentfield in 1996 to a multi-unit multi staff office today Restaurant Realty Company has become the largest Restaurant Brokerage in California selling more restaurants, bars and clubs in the past two decades than any other brokerage.

Some of the highlights of Restaurant Realty’s past 20 years include the items indicated below.

• Our brokers and agents with over 125 years of experience collectively have sold over 1,000 restaurants, bars and clubs throughout the state. Most of our brokers and agents have had extensive experience as restaurant owners and/or managers and can relate well to its clients having been in their shoes
• We utilize state of the art technology in marketing our clients businesses for sale through our website – restaurantrealty.com as well as placement of our listings on over 12 of the most popular businesses for sale, restaurants for sale and commercial real estate websites; our enewsletter is sent out every other week to over 40,000 buyers in our data base discussing our new, price reduced, featured and coming soon listings; our quarterly publication Restaurant Rap has produced 75 articles regarding various restaurant topics ranging from management, marketing and operations as well as featuring a Restaurateur of the Quarter; we use targeted email blasts for specific projects on an ongoing basis; the company utilizes the most sophisticated Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Management (SEM) programs to assure Restaurant Realty has maximum exposure on the internet to sellers and buyers throughout California, the United States and the World through the following search engines: Google, Bing, Yahoo, Ask AOL, Blekko, Baidu, Business.com, Lycos and more as well as using Social Media through Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin and FohBoh.
• Restaurant Realty utilizes a unique model to run its operations. In addition to our real estate agents and broker associate team that work with us throughout the state our home office staff includes the following key positions. Our Buyer Coordinator screens each buyer after we receive a signed confidentiality agreement from the buyer to assure they are operationally and financially qualified so that they will have a strong chance of being approved by the seller and landlord. Our Transaction Manager oversees each transaction to make sure all the paperwork is completed properly, handles many of the ABC license transfers and monitors the transactions and due diligence process to assure that all aspects of the transaction are being completed properly and timely. Our Project Manager handles many projects ranging from developing specially designed buyer data bases to identify buyers for specific listings and then implements email broadcasts to these data bases, coordinates seller files, prepares sales comps and lease comps for real estate transactions and is involved in various other projects. Our Internet Coordinator updates our website as well as each of the over 12 websites we utilize to market our listings on a daily basis to assure that all changes and information is accurate and timely. He also executes the enewsletter that goes out every other week to over 40,000 buyers in our database. Our Marketing Director oversees day to day marketing operations coordinating the production of public relations, creative promotions and advertising. Jacob Zimmerman, our former Chief Strategy Officer implemented the company’s information technology strategy leading product design and implementation of all internal and external facing systems. He was also responsible for general management of web development, intranet systems, customer relationship management, internal processes, online marking an social media.
• Steve Zimmerman, RRC’s Founder, CEO and Principle Broker, has personally sold over 900 restaurants, bars and clubs, including over 30 related commercial buildings and has completed over 3,000 restaurant valuations; he has taught restaurant management courses to hundreds of culinary and management students at the California Culinary Academy (CAA), San Francisco City College Hotel and Restaurant School and the former School of Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Management at Golden Gate University; he currently teaches real estate brokers the Principles of Business Brokerage through the California Association of Business Brokers (CABB) and teaches Restaurant Sales, Lease Analysis and Valuation through the International Association of Business Brokers (IBBA); and he has been an Expert Witness on numerous occasions and works regularly with many attorneys and the courts regarding valuations, leases and acquisition and disposition matters. Steve has also authored Restaurant Dealmaker – An Insider’s Trade Secrets For Buying a Restaurant, Bar or Club which is available on Amazon.
• Some of the company’s most notable transactions include the sale of the following businesses – In San Francisco -Tommy’s Joynt (including the building), Fisherman’s Grotto (the largest physical sized restaurant in SF), Al’s Place which was voted the #1 best new restaurant in the United States in 2015 by Bon Appetite Magazine and Smuggler’s Cove which was voted one of the top 50 bars in the world in 2015. We have sold numerous restaurants that were in the top 100 restaurants in the SF Bay Area as well as many Michelin rated restaurants Some of the most notable clients we have completed transactions with as either Buyers and/or Sellers include: Noah Alper, the founder of Noah’s Bagels whose kosher vegetarian restaurant we sold in Berkeley; Guy Fieri, one of the leading stars of the Food Network as we sold his and his partner Steve Gruber’s restaurant Johnnny Garlic’s in Petaluma; Dwight Clark, formerly of the SF 49er’s Football Team in selling Clark’s by the Bay in Redwood City; Justine Miner, the daughter of Robert N. Miner, the co-founder of Oracle Corporation who we sold RNM restaurant in San Francisco for; Kevin Youklis, the former All Star for the Boston Red Sox who we recently sold Los Gatos Brewing Company in Los Gatos to; Michael Schwab, the son of Charles Schwab, the founder of Charles Schwab Financial Services Corporation who we sold Charlies in San Francisco for;  Bill Foss, the co-founder of Netscape who we sold the Kenwood Restaurant and Building in Kenwood; and we recently sold a restaurant in Oakland to a group including Sam Bronfman, a family member of the Seagrams Corporation, the largest distillery of alcoholic beverages in the world. We have also completed a number of transactions with privately owned chain restaurants some of which include Lee’s Deli’s in San Francisco and Davis, Lark Creek Restaurants in Larkspur and San Mateo, Strizzi’s Restaurants in San Leandro and Danville, North Beach Pizza with 3 San Francisco locations, Il Fratelli and Tre Fratelli restaurants in San Anselmo and 3 restaurants in San Francisco, Happi House Restaurants in Alameda, Cupertino, San Jose and Redwood City, Keith Jones Restaurants including Savannah Grill in Corte Madera, The Big Horn Grill in San Ramon and Clark’s By the Bay in Redwood City, Café Gratitude with locations in San Francisco, San Rafael and Berkeley, Abundant Air Cafes in San Jose, Brisbane and Palo Alto, Good Earth Restaurants in Los Gatos and San Mateo, High Tech Burrito stores in Orinda and Berkeley, Rosti in San Francisco and Burlingame, Cecilia’s restaurants in Lafayette and San Mateo, Amici’s Restaurants in San Rafael, San Francisco and La Jolla, Dario’s Pizza in San Rafael and Sausalito and Crepevine restaurants in Walnut Creek, San Jose, Oakland and San Bruno.
• Articles about RRC have been included in the following publications and can be viewed in the publication section of our website: Wall Street Journal, New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Examiner, San Jose Mercury, San Francisco Business Times, QSR Magazine, North Bay Business Journal, Restaurant Business, Restaurant Hospitality, Cornell University School of Hotel Administration Quarterly and Nation’s Restaurant News.

Our underlying goal as we begin our third decade of business it to continue be the top experienced Restaurant Broker in California providing Restaurant, Bar and Club Sellers, Buyers and Landlords the best service and results in getting the job done in a professional and timely manner.