Mind That Moves

Howard Solomon- San Diego’s own Gordon Ramsey

With the struggling economy and the countless amounts of bars and restaurants in San Diego, it brings the competitiveness to try and lure patrons to your establishment instead of the others. Then once you are able to get the customers in your doors, you need to make sure the food, service and ambiance is on point. On many instances, it just takes one bad experience to turn a potential repeat customer away.

There are a lot of restaurant owners that feel like they can open their doors and the people will come. This is not the norm and are usually forced to hire a consultant to come and provide expertise in developing a successful bar or restaurant. Howard Solomon has been the go-to consultant for some of San Diego’s most well known establishments.

We sat down with Howard to pick his brain about what it takes to open and maintain a thriving destination.
Occupation: CEO, The Solomon Group (Hospitality/Restaurant Consulting Firm). Executive Chef, GM of the PB Ale House. Founder of Amen Clothing.
Favorite Happy Hour: Shore Club

Your resume is probably pretty lengthy. Can you give us your brief restaurant/bar history?
It all began when I was 16 as a dishwasher. I’ve had a fair share of Rodeos from being the General Manager for Hard Rock Cafe, Dir. of Management Development at the Cheesecake Factory, and Director of Culinary Administration for the Wolfgang Puck Food Company.

How did you get involved with the PB Ale House?
I am best friends with the Eric (Owner) and he contacted me to consult on some of his other businesses, in which lead me to the Ale House.

You came into PB Ale House and changed a lot of things. What major changes did you make?
Menu work and trying to get the things to come out of the kitchen quicker. I redesigned the menu, so everything is fresh and hand-crafted. We also incorporated our brew into majority of our menu items. We now use the spent grain in our dough, we use beer in our brownie mix, beer cheese and pork carnitas.

What is your favorite thing on the PB Ale House menu?
The Lobster Mac & Cheese or anything made with our beer cheese!

Tell us about the Beer Legion and why you came up with it?
A lot of people were coming in just for our beer and we wanted to start something similar to a ‘Mug Club’, bud didn’t want to name it that like all the other bars, so that’s why we decided to name it the ‘Beer Legion’.

What separates PB Ale House from all the other bars in Pacific Beach?
We brew our own beer and we cook with beer! The food is high quality in a casual environment, the prices are reasonable and we have a great ocean view.

Has the economy hurt your bars/restaurants?  What major changes have you had to adapt with in order to deal with the struggling economy?
The economy has hurt everyone in some shape or form. We offer many inexpensive daily specials, like our $5 burger deal on Mondays and $3 Fish Tacos on Fridays.

What other bar/restaurants do you consult for?
Stone World Bistro, Bondi, Café Sevilla, The Field, and Hooley’s Irish Pub to name a few.

What is your greatest business achievement to date?
The last project is always my greatest, so right now it would have to be the Ale House.

What makes a bar/restaurant successful?
Great people (staff)!!

What makes a bar/restaurant unsuccessful?
Not aligning yourself with other successful people and suppliers.

Do you have any tips for someone wanting to open their own bar?
Make sure your spouse is 100% on board! Check with a Bankruptcy Attorney to see the repercussions if you don’t make it and check with an Accountant to make sure you have enough money!

Tell us about Amen Clothing:
It’s a giving back philanthropic clothing company with the idea to sell t-shirts to groups then they resell them with the money going back to non-profit organizations. Our latest were Holocaust Remembrance t-shirts and they were sold to Jewish and non-Jewish groups and they donated the money to The Blue Card in New York and the International Rescue Committee. (The Blue Card aides Holocaust survivors who live at or near the poverty level while the IRC helps refugees around the world, protecting vulnerable populations.) We raised $5,000.

What’s next for you? Do you have immediate plans of opening another bar/restaurant?
We are searching for another location to open another Ale House.  We are expanding the rooftop deck patio at the PB Ale House. Also, the patio is now open until 2am.

What is something about you that many do not know?
I have Parkinson’s Disease.

What is something only a local would know about San Diego?
The alcohol checkpoint in PB is on Grand Ave. right after Ingraham St.

What do you like to do when you have spare time?
Golf and spending time with my family. I have a son who is 17 and works at the Ale House as a dishwasher and a 13 year old daughter.

Do you have anything else you would like to add?
I love Happy Hour Magazine!

PB Ale House
721 Grand Ave. in Pacific Beach
(858) 851-BEER

PBAleHouse.com