Sonio’s resurgence continues

It's a rebirth few businesses could muster.

When Sonio's Café and Rotisserie burned down in September 2003, the restaurant faced a bleak future. Yet owner Yiorgo Aretos managed to reopen the chicken restaurant to brisk business in November 2004.

And this story of revival has a new chapter: Aretos and his cousin, Theo Aretos, opened a second eatery, Sonio's Rotisserie & Grill, on Nov. 21 at 6191 Centennial Center Parkway.

The grill offers all the Sonio's Café originals, such as a rotisserie chicken with three side dishes for $7.85, plus other favorites including the spicy Mexican chicken Caesar salad, chicken fajitas, enchilada plates and burritos. But it also has a full bar and an expanded menu, with gourmet pizzas such as a signature pie with homemade marinara sauce, cheddar and Jack cheeses, rotisserie chicken and a spicy "Bombay" sauce. The grill also makes stuffed hamburgers, including a four-cheese version with blue, feta, cheddar and Jack cheeses folded into the meat.

Capping the Sonio's comeback is a new initiative to franchise the business.

More than 100 potential franchisees nationwide have contacted Aretos about licensing the Sonio's name. Some restaurant groups want to convert existing operations to the Sonio's grill concept, and a group of investors is negotiating to open as many as 40 Sonio's locations on the East Coast. It could take up to eight months for new cafés to open, and about a year for additional grills to launch. Starting a café will cost $300,000 to $400,000, while a grill needs an initial investment of $1.5 million to $2.3 million.

Surviving hasn't been easy. Aretos fought over reconstruction details with the owner of the strip mall where the original Sonio's sits, and he's in a lawsuit with the insurance company over unpaid claims following the fire. He couldn't discuss the lawsuit in detail, but he said his losses in the disaster exceeded $1 million. A Review-Journal report in 2006 noted that Aretos' insurer paid less than half his claim's value.

Business consultants and restaurateurs say Aretos' renewal of Sonio's is extraordinary.

Even under the best circumstances, restaurants have a high mortality rate, said Ross Lagattuta, a former human-resources executive and consultant who is now chairman of the Las Vegas chapter of the Service Corps of Retired Executives, a volunteer group supplying business advice.

"Restaurants probably go out of business faster than any other kind of company, because generally speaking, they're low-margin businesses that run pretty close to the vest in terms of profitability," Lagattuta said. "To have a restaurant not only come back from disaster, but build another location and begin franchising, is a real story."

Robert Ansara, owner of Ricardo's Mexican Restaurant at 4930 W. Flamingo Road, said restaurants that can't recoup replacement costs have an especially hard time reopening.

"If the insurance doesn't get you 100 percent of the cash you need to rebuild, coming back is rare," Ansara said. "It takes extraordinary circumstances for people in those cases to make a big comeback. Enduring a burnout and then a difficult insurance situation takes a lot of perseverance and fortitude."

Sonio's offers broader lessons in persevering amid professional catastrophe.

First, business owners should assume that the worst will happen and think about how they'd cope, Lagattuta advised. Consider restructuring the operation, perhaps through diversified services, to ride out a downturn or emergency involving the core product. It's also important to build cash reserves to cover expenses if a company must go off line, he said.

Ansara recommended reviewing insurance policies annually and increasing coverage as a business changes or grows.

Beyond those basics, Ansara emphasized two disaster-readiness components: Hiring good employees and socking away rainy-day funds. He urged business owners to tap into the resources of trade groups and chambers of commerce, which provide members with crisis-preparedness blueprints for all types of operations.

It's also essential to show leases and insurance policies to an attorney, Aretos said. Have a consultant account for everything in the business, and compare that property to what insurance covers. An expert can determine whether a business is paying for insurance it doesn't need, or is missing coverage on important assets.

For Aretos, a good attitude was also key.

The fire was "life-changing," he said. "If one thing has kept us afloat, it's that we try to make the best of every situation, and we try to draw positives from the negative things that happen."

Nor can business owners underestimate the importance of hanging on to customers.

Aretos believes Sonio's Café's emphasis on customer service, quality food and reasonable prices may have kept regular patrons loyal to the restaurant, and brought them out in droves when it reopened.

Now, Sonio's is ready to add to that customer base.

It's difficult for Aretos to predict how many Sonio's outposts will come from the company's nationwide push. He hasn't set specific expansion goals, because he's focusing on ironing out operational kinks at the new grill. But he can foresee at least half a dozen grills in the Las Vegas area, with "a bunch" of cafés sprinkled around town as well.

Contact reporter Jennifer Robison at jrobison@reviewjournal.com or (702) 380-4512.