Hans and Clare Van Loenen became neighborhood residents by accident.
He came over from Germany and planned to stay six months to help open a hotel.
“Luckily, immigration really screwed things up,” Hans says. The process of getting things straightened out took a long time, so Claire came to join him.
“You know how it goes,” Hans says. “You move from an apartment to a home, and the next thing you know, you have roots.”
So Hans and Clare decided to dig their roots in a little deeper and fulfill a dream of owning a bakery and cafe.
“We wanted to have something small in a close neighborhood,” Hans says. “That’s hard to find in Dallas.”
But they found it in Lake Highlands and the Compass Bank Plaza at Skillman and LBJ, where they opened Sweet Temptations.
Right down the street, Dick and Lana Wisenbaker decided to open Galveston Island because they love fresh seafood.
About a mile away, Anita and Samuel Alves say they opened La Francais at Kingsley and Audelia to fulfill the American dream.
And George and John Touris opened Chubby’s on Northwest Highway at Plano Road to carry on a family tradition.
When you run your own business, particularly a family-owned and operated restaurant, chances are pretty good you have an interesting story to tell.
And that’s what you’ll read about here this month.
ST Cafe: It’s Their Life
Hans and Clare Van Loenen bought most of their supplies for Sweet Temptations second-hand and restored many of the items themselves, even down to the tablecloths, which were made by Clare.
“We started out with two pennies, honestly,” Hans says. “We put everything into it that we had. No bank loans.”
“If it had gone wrong, we would have really been in trouble. You work twice as hard. You have more to lose. You start with your back against the wall and fight your way forward. That’s exactly what we did.”
“It paid off quick and good.”
They expected to serve 30 to 40 lunches a day, but they serve 150. Two years ago, they started serving dinner, because customers wanted it. And they recently doubled the size of their cafe and changed its name from Sweet Temptations to ST Cafe.
“The concept was to have a bakery with something to eat in it,” Hans says. “Now we have a restaurant with a bakery in it.”
They both work about 15 hours a day, seven days a week, at the restaurant. When the expansion is complete and things calm down, Hans says their goal is to get their personal lives back – take a vacation and spend time with their five-year-old son, Vincent, whom Chicken Vincent, one of the house specialties, is named after.
“This is our life,” Hans says. “This is our home. This is where our friends are now.”
Galveston Island
It’s About More Than Money
Dick Wisenbaker has gotten more out of owning Galveston Island Seafood Restaurant than he ever expected.
“I never dreamed I would make such good friends,” Wisenbaker says. “It’s been more than I thought it would be. Not as much of a financial success as I thought it would be, but that is yet to be seen.”
Wisenbaker and wife Lana opened the restaurant in Plaza Rios Shopping Center at Skillman and Royal 10 years ago.
“At the time, this area seemed like it would be a good area,” Wisenbaker says.
And it was at first. Then four years ago, construction on Skillman in front of the restaurant cut business way down.
“We just hung on by our nails,” Wisenbaker says. “The thing that kept us in business was the local neighborhood.”
“Our major growth has come from word-of-mouth. Essentially, we cater to the same people we did when we opened.”
And this camaraderie can be seen in the restaurant. One wall is filled with photos of regular customers’ grandchildren.
There also are shelves lined with books throughout the restaurant for customers to take. And if a customer brings in a new book, he or she receives a discount on a meal.
“We don’t keep track,” Wisenbaker says. “It gets kind of fun. I used to say I had read every book on the shelves.”
The Wisenbakers attend Lake Highlands Church of Christ. Dick manages the restaurant most of the time, and Lana helps when taking a break from Bible studies and community service.
Dick says he believes part of their success is due to Lana.
“She’s just an incredibly nice lady,” he says.
Lana bakes fresh bread every Friday morning for the Exchange Club of Lake Highlands, which meets at the restaurant. And several of the dishes on the menu are her recipes.
But the family involvement doesn’t stop with Lana and Dick. All three of their children – Scott, Britt and Marlys – have worked in the restaurant.
Scott has contributed to the menu with recipes. And Britt is an art teacher in California and recently decorated the special boards while visiting.
“We’re a family-owned, neighborhood restaurant,” Wisenbaker says. “We really care what our customers think.”
La Francais Bakery
The Land of Opportunity
Anita and Samuel Alves, owners of La Francais Bakery, came to the United States from Africa in 1973 in pursuit of the American dream.
“My father was already living here,” Anita says. “He said: Why don’t you come here? It’s a land of opportunity.”
“And he was right.”
In America, Anita says she missed the fresh bakeries she grew up with in Belgium. So she and Samuel combined their ambition and homesickness to open a French bakery – La Francais – in 1976. They chose a location at Kingsley and Audelia because the rent and the neighborhood was good.
“I can’t say we had success right away,” Anita says. But with time, their bakery was so popular, customers lined up on the sidewalk outside their store.
Many times, they had to close for a few hours in the afternoon, bake some more, and then reopen.
“They were crazy about croissants,” Anita says. “We couldn’t bake enough.”
Things have calmed down with the onslaught of bakeries in recent years. But Anita says business is still good.
Neither Anita nor Samuel knew anything about baking when they opened. The couple purchased their equipment from a French company, which also lent them a baker for a year to teach them to bake bread.
They contracted with Anita’s brother-in-law, who was a pastry chef, to learn about baking French pastries. They also serve a small lunch menu, including sandwiches and soups.
About a year ago, the second La Francais opened at Abrams and Mockingbird. Son Chris, who is 22, helps run the newest location. Anita says they all put in 10 to 12 hours a day, six days a week.
“Being much smaller, it’s more quaint,” Anita says. “You have a chance to meet the owner.”
Eduardo’s
A Family Tradition
Eduardo Epshtein moved his family to Dallas 17 years ago from Italy.
Even though he had a degree in economics, he couldn’t get a job because he spoke no English. But he had to support his family, so he followed the lead of relatives in Italy.
“It’s an old tradition – open a restaurant,” Epshtein says. “Restaurant is hard work and closest way to money.”
And Eduardo’s, located at Skillman and LBJ in Skillman Plaza, is a true family-run business. Epshtein manages the front, greeting customers at the door and answering the phone. His wife, daughter, son, niece and nephew also work in the restaurant. And when times get tough, he says he calls upon other relatives for backup.
“We make everything our own, except Coca-Cola,” Epshtein says.
Eduardo’s was located in Garland for 10 years before he moved the restaurant three years ago to Lake Highlands in hopes of attracting more business.
In addition to authentic Italian dishes, Eduardo’s also has a European deli for takeout. Epshtein orders fresh cheese, sausages, meats and candies from New York twice a week. He says the items haven’t caught on in Lake Highlands, though.
“I sell, but only to Europeans,” Epshtein says. “I’d be more than happy to serve to Americans. It’s very natural. No chemicals. No MSG. Europeans have never heard of that.”
Chubby’s
Where Everyone Knows You
George and John Touris turned a family tradition into an international affair when they opened Chubby’s Restaurant.
Their mother brought them to America in 1978, when they were 15 and 16 years old. She wanted them to have more opportunities than they would have had in their small hometown in Greece.
“We grew up with our dad; he had a grocery store and snack bar (in Greece),” George says. “That’s all we knew to do – food business.”
So they put their knowledge to work and opened their first restaurant in 1982.
Both brothers work 15 to 16 hours a day, seven days a week, at the two Chubby’s restaurants – one is located in Lake Highlands at Northwest Highway and Plano and the second restaurant is in Plano. John’s wife, Patty, also works in the restaurants full-time.
“We had more opportunities here than in Greece,” George says. “But it takes a lot of work.”
The menu features some Texas favorites such as chicken fried steak. But it also has some recipes from their mother and grandmother, such as the rotisserie chicken.
And it’s these home-cooked specialties at low prices that have helped the restaurant succeed, with some customers eating as many as three meals a day there, Patty says.
“People feel right at home,” she says. “Everybody knows everyone by name.”
Basha
His Baby
Bachar Alaia came to Dallas on vacation five years ago.
He’s still here.
“We have a saying back home: Wherever you make a living, you stay,” Alaia says. “I think I had good opportunities here, so I stayed.”
Alaia grew up in Syria, but he moved to Dallas from Switzerland, where he studied hotel management.
“My dream was, when I was a kid, to be a sailor,” Alaia says. “I used to watch Love Boat and wanted to be like the captain.”
His father talked him out of a sailing career, and it’s a good thing for the Dallas restaurant scene. Alaia opened his first restaurant, Ali Baba, a Middle Eastern and Greek restaurant on Lower Greenville, when he was 23 years old.
He left that business and traveled for a year. When he returned, he and a partner opened Health Nut Cafe at Abrams and Skillman in Lake Highlands. He sold his half of the restaurant and decided to open Basha, a Middle Eastern restaurant on Greenville at Belmont, with finacee Liz Korkames.
“This is my baby now,” Alaia says. “We sweat in this place. Everything we did, we thought: Will they like this?”
“You’ll feel like we’re putting our heart in the dishes.”
Alaia says the restaurant has been described by customers as romantic. He and Korkames are there nightly and work the restaurant themselves, making it their family.
“We don’t know how many people we’ll invite to the wedding,” Alaia says.
Barbec’s
A Desperate Move
Barry Brown began working in restaurants when he was 14. After receiving his college degree in wildlife management, Brown thought he was through with waiting tables.
But soon after graduation, he realized his degree had trained him for nothing.
So in order to have some kind of livelihood, he and wife Becky took their savings and borrowed a little more money, and in 1978 they bought the White Rock Inn, a rundown cafe ready to go out of business on Garland Road.
“We were desperate,” Barry says of their decision.
“It was miserable. Absolute misery. We were working dawn to dusk.”
They closed down the Inn and reopened it as Barbec’s. Barry cooked, Becky waited tables, and their staff of five filled in the gaps. It was so tough in the first year, they tried to sell the struggling business twice.
Times have changed at Barbec’s. Whether you go in for breakfast, lunch or dinner, the restaurant usually is full.
Today, Barry says he works 10 hours a day, five days a week, and Becky works only on Tuesdays. They have 33 employees, some of whom have been with them 12 years – a feature many customers enjoy, along with the legendary Barbec’s beer biscuits.
“Most people say they walk in and like the down-home atmosphere,” Barry says.
There is a second Barbec’s on Buckner Boulevard, and Barry and Becky plan to open a third location within the next year.
“Then we’re looking at that magic 20 years and get out of it,” Barry says. “We’re just going to switch gears.”
