Castillo's blends fast-food, upscale styles

Nation's Restaurant News, April 17, 1989 by Rajan Chaudhry

Castillo's blends fast-food, upscale styles

NEW YORK -- A Houlihan's and El Torito sit across the street to the left of Castillo's Cantina; a Popeye's Famous Fried Chicken and Pizza Hut Express roost to the right.

Both figuratively and literally, Castillo's occupies the niche between casual tablecloth and fast-food restaurants.

Castillo's, founded a year and a half ago by owner Mary Lou Castillo, melds fast-food price and speed with upscale attitude to pull in both the neighborhood business person for lunch and the well-heeled theatergoer for quick pre-show dinners.

Castillo, who hails from San Jose, Calif., saw a void in the marketplace and moved to fill it.

"There were no fast-food restaurants that were upscale, clean, and reasonable with food that was fresh and not coming from a can," Castillo said.

Castillo's menu is limited, with only about eight entrees, ranging in price from $3.25 for a bean burrito grande or bean tostada to $5.99 for a combination platter that gives diners a choice of rice and beans with chopped, spiced chicken; a half chicken with rice and beans; or a combination of any two of tamales, tacos, and tostadas with rice and beans.

Burritos -- chicken, bean, and beef -- priced from $3.25 to $3.75 -- and tacos -- $3.75 to $3.85 -- are the restaurant's big sellers, said Castillo, who plans on keeping menu changes to a minimum.

"Burritos, tacos, rice, and beans -- these are the items people are familiar with," Castillo said. "They will not try new things. They are very, very narrow when it comes to experimenting with Mexican food."

Castillo's menu items are displayed under glass along a cafeteria-style tray line on the restaurant's lower floor.

The cafeteria concept allows her to offer quick service and keep labor costs down, she said. She employs six to eight full-time employees and said labor costs were about 20 percent of sales.

Despite the restaurant's cafeteria roots, Castillo's glistening interior immediately sets it apart from its low-end predecessors as well as the stereo-typical Mexican restaurant.

"I got tired of looking at restaurants with that typical South-of-the border look," Castillo said. "They all look like that, and I tried to get away from that stereotype."

A 16-foot-square wall scene of brightly colored peppers and other appetizing Southwest vegetables set against a desert backdrop begins at the glass entryway and ends midway behind the counter. The huge photograph, shot at Saguaro National Park in Arizona, reaches up past the second-floor balcony overlooking the serving area to the ceiling.

Counters at Castillo's are faux-marble Corian, and mirrored walls build illusory space in a town where real space costs a bundle.

A narrow stairway at the back of the restaurant leads to the 40-seat dining room on the second floor. Upstairs, a bright red and gold color scheme and more mirrors impart a light, cheery ambience.

Castillo, who comes to the restaurant business from real estate, said she used "a trial and error" strategy to determine her pricing. Food costs, she said, are 25 percent of sales. She measures the cost of the ingredients in each dish and multiplies cost by three to come up with her menu prices.

The restaurant's average check is in the $6-to-$8 range, she said.

Like many operators, Castillo cited labor as one of her biggest headaches.

She says she's found an untapped labor resource -- albeit with its own set of complications -- non-English-speaking immigrants.

Thus far, she's employed workers from Senegal, Egypt, Honduras, and Mexico.

She conquers the obvious problem of communication by color coding ingredients on the recipes posted on the kitchen walls. Uppercase T's stand for tablespoons while lowercase T's stand for teaspoons. Using the color-coding method, Castillo said she can bring a kitchen worker up to speed in two weeks.

And Castillo encourages employees to take on new responsibilities, making porters into cooks and assistant managers into managers, she said.

"I've learned that by working with people and helping them to work their way up, that is the way we can keep them and motivate them," she said.

PHOTO : Castillo's Cantina, New York, features its menu items displayed under glass along a cafeteria-style tray line.

PHOTO : Employees work behind the cafeteria line at Castillo's.

PHOTO : Mary Lou Castillo, owner of Castillo's, brought her idea from San Jose, Calif.