Restauratour: Beachy Keen

Colorful murals and rustic finishes lend a tropical touch to Rockin’ Baja Lobster.

By Lisa Bertagnoli, Contributing Editor -- Chain Leader, 12/1/2007

1. The festive, tropical atmosphere at Rockin’ Baja Lobster includes faux parrots swinging on perches and a palapa-topped bar, visible from all points in the room.

2. Future bars will be topped with galvanized metal; it’s easier to maintain than thatched palm.

3. The murals in Vegas depict, among other characters, the franchisee’s wife, daughter, dog and accountant. Alcohol accounts for 30 percent of sales at the Vegas Rockin’ Baja Lobster.

4. Franchisee Dave Borchers says families like his restaurant “because it doesn’t look like a bar.”

5. An artist friend of Borchers painted the Rockin’ Baja Lobster logo onto the floor in the foyer.

6. The Vegas location has more televisions than the average Rockin’ Baja Lobster.

7. A windowless building means more room for murals, hand-painted by artist Clayton Palmer.

8. The all-you-can-eat Caesar salad bar is a fixture in each Rockin’ Baja Lobster.

From the outside, the Rockin’ Baja Lobster restaurant in Las Vegas looks foreboding. It’s a solid brick building with massive, medieval-looking doors, complete with heavy iron hardware.

The doors open, however, to reveal a festive, tropical atmosphere.

The first thing guests see is a cartoon-like lobster painted into the stained-concrete floor. If they look up, they’ll see faux parrots swinging on perches, and a surfboard and large model airplane suspended from the ceiling. Where the ceiling isn’t blacked out, it’s festooned with clever sayings. A palapa-topped bar, with video-gaming screens set into the bar top, is visible from all points of the room.

Inverted galvanized metal buckets double as light fixtures, hovering over booths. Booths and tabletops are rustic knotty pine. On each wall is a bright, hand-painted mural showing beachcombers, curling waves, surfers and palm trees.

Theme with Variations

The Vegas Rockin’ Baja Lobster looks like its six siblings, but only to a point. "I never envisioned this to be a cookie cutter," says Rick DiRienzo, founder of the San Diego-based company. "They’re supposed to be individual, funky, fun."

DiRienzo opened the first Rockin’ Baja Lobster in Oceanside, Calif., in 1986, with a basic design meant to evoke a casual beachside resort; hence the palapa, the galvanized metal light fixtures and murals, all painted by the same artist, Clayton Parker. Restaurants are also supposed to have large, awning-covered patios.

With those basics covered, franchisees are free to riff on the theme. Dave Borchers, who operates the Vegas location, which is located in the Spring Valley area, a mix of residential and business, added his personal touch several ways. Most Rockin’ Baja Lobster floors are covered with pavers; the ochre-colored stained-concrete floor was Borchers’ idea. "I like the way it looks," he says.

Borchers also personalized his murals. They feature depictions of his wife, Sandra; their daughter, Cady; the family dog, Murphy; his accountant, Allen Kim, as well as the singer Kenny Chesney (though with his face turned away). Products from local vendors, who paid for the privilege, are also depicted. And, being in Vegas, Borchers’ unit has video card-game gambling machines set into the tabletop.

Cost Effective

Borchers says his location cost almost $1.6 million to build, partly because it’s in a space that was meant to be a medieval-theme restaurant. That restaurant was not completed, so Borchers took over the space. He also "inherited" architect Dan Ballard, president of Ethos 3 Architects in Las Vegas.

"The first time I saw the building, I thought, ‘Oh my god, what is this?’" DiRienzo recalls.

The stolid exterior, which was covered with yellow porcelain tile, presented the biggest design challenge, according to Ballard. "It was a Gothic building with no windows," he says. Because of the site, the Las Vegas location has neither patio nor awnings.

DiRienzo encourages franchisees to open in existing restaurant buildings, rather than build out. The average opening cost, he says, should hover around $400,000 to $600,000; the murals, which will remain hand-painted for the foreseeable future, can cost up to $40,000 per store.

Easy Does It

Design changes in the future will be minimal. DiRienzo wants to replace the thatched roof over the bar with galvanized metal, which is easier to clean and maintain. He also is experimenting with a smaller prototype, called Rockin’ Baja Rapido, which will offer a fast-casual version of the bar-and-grill menu.

Meanwhile, he plans to open five full-service Rockin’ Baja Lobsters next year and another five in 2009. Expansion "will be slow," DiRienzo says. He’d like restaurants to average $2.5 million in sales, but those in busy tourist areas can gross $6 million to $7 million a year.

That’s Borchers’ hope for his next Rockin’ Baja Lobster, which will open sometime next year in the Pioneer Hotel and Casino in Laughlin, Nev. The two-story restaurant will feature a balcony on the second floor and should gross more than the Vegas location, which is expected to generate $3.5 million in sales.

To do wildly well, Borchers says, "these have to be in tourist spots."

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