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L.A. restaurant has the links to success
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Joseph Pittruzzelli and his cousin Tyler Wilson behind the bar at their restaurant Wurstkuche.
Workers at Wurstkuche serve a long line of people their food.
Wurstkuche sausages
TEXT OF STORY
Kai Ryssdal: Maybe it's just me, 'cause I hear the show every day, but it seems like we're constantly bringing you news of businesses that are struggling to get by. So how 'bout something completely different today. A success story from an industry where it is notoriously tough to break even.
From the Marketplace Entrepreneurship desk, Caitlan Carroll reports that good ideas can sizzle even when the economy cools.
CAITLAN CARROLL: A line snakes around the block in a gritty part of Los Angeles. Hipsters, families and tourists are all waiting to get into a restaurant whose name they can't even pronounce.
The name isn't the only unusual thing about Wurstkuche, German for sausage kitchen.
Last fall, as many other restaurants were closing, Joseph Pitruzzelli and his cousin Tyler Wilson, were opening Wurstkuche for fries, beer and, oh yeah, sausage.
JOSEPH PITRUZZELLI: We've got 22 I think in the case today. They range from the traditional brautwurst and botwurst and into the exotics like rattlesnake and rabbit. Buffalo beef and pork.
Wurstkuche also offers an array of international beers and Belgian fries. But there's nothing exotic about the restaurant's business plan. The menu's simple and pretty cheap. And the cousins know how to contain labor costs.
Here's Tyler Wilson describing his cousin.
TYLER WILSON: Joseph can work harder than anybody you've ever met and longer and all the time.
Pitruzzelli: Like even if I'm out to dinner. I'll still go look through their kitchen.
It's hard to tell if Wurstkuche even has a kitchen when you walk in. It looks like just a takeout counter. But turn the corner and a hallway leads you to a football field-sized room filled with long, communal tables.
PITRUZZELLI: You walk in, and the place is so small, and the line will be out the door. And then they'll walk around and this and they'll go 'oh my God.'
The cousins had a few "oh my god" moments of their own last fall.
PITRUZZELLI: We couldn't believe the opening day. We couldn't believe making $700. The original model I built was for 25 sausages per day.
Now Wurstkuche often turns out 800 sausages a night. The business is growing fast, and everyone has an opinion about how to manage it.
CHRIS HARRER: Every time he sees me walk in I think he cringes a little bit.
Chris Harrer teaches entrepreneurship studies at the University of Southern California. Wilson was one of his students. When he told him he wanted to open a restaurant, Harrer reminded him of the risk. More than half of restaurants fail in the first three years.
HARRER: A lot of restaurants will start off with good momentum. The trick is to keep that going in years three, four, five, and 10.
The cousins, both in their twenties, are still focused on making through year one. They're busy spreading the word on food blogs and social networks. They also tell everyone they meet about their restaurant. Entrepreneurship expert Barry Moltz says it's all about building buzz.
BARRY MOLTZ: The most important things people need to do is go out and find customers right away. I find that many entrepreneurs spend far too much time thinking about it, writing their business plan.
Wurstkuche's on track to make $3 million this year. But Pitruzzelli still watches every dime, following the advice of a family friend who's built his own successful business.
PITRUZZELLI: He just goes 'Pitruzzelli be a lean cat in lean times,' and it makes sense to me. And I get it and that was my lesson. And I know where to go from there.
Wherever that is, Pitruzzelli and Wilson know the worst is behind them.
In Los Angeles, I'm Caitlan Carroll for Marketplace.
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A law suit has been filed in Los Angeles court against Joseph Pitruzzell and Tyler Wilson,
owners of Wurstkuche restaurant, for the illegal use of an artist in residence unit they are renting
in a building directly next to their restaurant in the LA Arts District. The law suit, file by their
neighbor, local artist David Goldner, alleges the restaurant is illegally using the artist loft directly
next to him as a 24 hour warehouse for all their restaurant supplies, with no regards for the
building’s residence what so ever.
“These are the most self centered, inconsiderate neighbors I have ever had to endure!†says
their artist neighbor, David Goldner. “This is my forth studio in the arts district in 25 years.
These guys come down here and have absolutely no regard for the fact that I as well as many
other artists actually live here in this district. We are the reason it is the Arts District!â€
“I’m in unit 808 1/2 , right next to Wurstkuche at 808. “ says LA artist David Goldner. “It’s
bad enough that they have turned the sidewalk right next to my window into a daily loading dock
for their pallets of beer kegs and restaurant supplies, but they just don’t stop there! They are
dragging their supplies in and out of unit 808 in this AIR building well past 3:00 am many nights
and then wake me up at 5 or 6 AM with their deliveries! There lack of consideration is just
appalling. And they are very aware they are disturbing me daily because I have come out and
confronted them and have for 18 months now! Joseph Pitruzzell and Tyler Wilson are totally
self centered and just don’t care!†David insists. “They have tortured me with there total lack
of consideration for 18 months now and that is why I finally filed the law suit against them both.â€
“And the management and building owners have been just as bad for doing nothing! “I was
forced to file this law suit…†David goes on. … “The building’s owner’s Paul Solomon and
Allen Schneider, and management, David Schneider, all know very well this is an improper use
of that space and a total breech of my quiet enjoyment of this unit as a live / work space. It is a
total misuse of that artist in residence unit directly next to me and they very well know it. But
despite 18 months of complaints they have been complacent and indifferent to stop it.â€
David suspects they are charging a lot more money for that space commercially and don’t
want to give up the income. David has also filed suit against his building’s management for the
“breech of quite enjoyment†of his artist in residence unit and says he hasn’t ruled out suing the
building’s actual owner who actually leased the space to Wurstkuche.
“We’re in court on 9-23-10 and I guess I got lucky with the timing. After hounding the city
for many months now about this situation, I just got notice that the Los Angeles Department of
Building and Safety has finally agreed with me about the illegal use of that AIR unit. Last week,
they issued an "Order to Comply" to both Wurstkuche restaurant as well as an “Order to
Comply†to Paul Solomon, the building owner. The order says they must stop the use of unit
808 as a warehouse and return the unit back into an actual artist in residence live / work space.
This order was issued on 8-24-10 by LADBS.
“To date,†David says… “Wurstkuche has made no effort to comply. They do have until the
24th of September. But I can see from their superficial actions and their continued arrogant
attitude that they most likely will make no effort to actually comply with the order. I guess I'll
know by my court date which is the day before the deadline that they are supposed to comply
by.â€
David says if they fail to comply, and just take the fine and plan to continue this illegal usage,
I do hope the city of Los Angeles and council women Perry's office will urge them to do the right
thing and stop the illegal usage of that AIR unit, so he doesn't have to waist more time and
energy on this. David says he would hate to have to turn his efforts toward suing the city of Los
Angeles itself in order to force compliance. But he insists he is fighting for all the artist rights in
the LA arts district and will do what is necessary to enforce the right as an artist to live and work
here in peace.
--J.A. Citizen http://la.indymedia.org/news/2010/09/241546.php
John, I understand many people prefer it simple, but what if simple is simply wrong and unrecognizable? My point: It is NOT verst-cook-huh, which, as you point out, the reporter said, more or less. It is so off, that no German speaker would understand the so pronounced word in isolation. Those oversimplified American attempts at pronunciation never work. I am sure the reporter could have pronounced the word much better with some real help. Just reading/saying the Americanized, nonsensical phonetic version " verst kooka" did not help.
As a sausage maker that aspires to a similar operation, I'm fully inspired by the success of those guys. As a target of never ending sausage/penis/wurst jokes, I refuse to make any inane comments. But I have to respond to Beth, "You shouldn't market disease and violence to animals to children. It's unethical and dumb." Are you saying the listeners of NPR are nothing but animals and children? I mean, my dog listens to NPR, but that's just because we are taking him to the beach in our car, sorry, our death-trap ozone- destroying quality-of-of-life-sucking bourgeois-mobile, for a walk. So we're the children?
Sabine, That has to be the wurst attempt at helping someone pronounce a word -- German or otherwise. You made sausage out of it. If you Google the name of the restaurant, you'll see that most people's attempt at spelling out the pronunciation -- they manage in just three syllables -- is pretty close to how Caitlan said it: Verst Kookeh,
Vurst-cook-huh, verst kooka. So stop being a self-righteous wiener.
Beth, I understand your concerns, but success (on a show titled "Marketplace," no less) will most likely be measured in profitability, not in it's "lack of animal killing". I thought this was a great piece on young people starting a business and becoming unexpectedly successful. Your post was neither brief nor relevant.
Sorry Caitlan, that was the worst German pronunciation I have ever heard! Almost painful, and you kept repeating the word! Contrary to American misconceptions, German is not that hard to pronounce, if you ask and try, rather than make jokes of it (see your report). Had you asked a German speaker, you would have at least come close (nobody expects perfection)to what it actually sounds like. So, the word "Wurstkueche" is "wu--" as in the noun "wound" (not as in "worst"), "--rst" as in "fi-rst" (we'll overlook the American rolled "r" for now, it's actually more like the French "r"). Now the second part (which was the big offender)! "Kue-che" is not "q-ka" (as in "cue card"), but similar to the first part in "cushion" (let's forget about the umlaut "ue" for now,but if you wanted to you could try pronouncing it by forming a "U" in your mouth, with your tongue in the middle of your mouth and slightly pulled back, not touching any interior part of your mouth, lips pursed, and then move the back of the tongue up, touching the roof of your mouth, and a little forward, as if you were pronouncing an English "e", but keeping the lips pursed. This is followed by "--che", where the "ch" is pronounced as the Spanish "J" in "Jose"and the last vowel is also pronounced like that in "Jose" (please excuse the missing accent on the "e" of Jose.
Even though pronunciation might seem daunting, all reporters should at least try to pronounce foreign words decently!
Sabine Oberhofer
SUCCESS! WOW. We sure have a weird and perverse way of measuring success in this country.
Saying a sausage factory, dependent on the most heinous treatment, torture of sentient beings to cut out their guts and grind them into fatty, cholesterol filled, artery clogging "food," is like saying the cigarette companies are successful!
In an age of skyrocketing rates of preventable disease, obesity, predatory use of children in marketing such as your NPR commercial on Marketplace, unprecedented environmental crisis from animal agribusiness that feeds 60 BILLION farmed animals while millions, billions of humans can't get proper nutrition..... This piece was irresponsible and probably paid for by the industries that are loosing ground as they are the root cause of every disease known to humanity.
We've always had a somewhat sick way of measuring success, power, wealth in this nation, and calling this extension of a concentration camp for dead animal parts a success is really stretching it on SO many levels.
My group is compiling data on how NPR and affiliates are way too pro-meat bias and do pathetically little to promote the food that does not cause a heart attack every 30 seconds, 70,000 people awaiting kidney transplants, cancers of the colon, breast and prostate, and the other animal food related diseases.
You shouldn't market disease and violence to animals to children. It's unethical and dumb.
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