Owner Sami Ladeki named Restaurateur of the Year
04/09/2019
The long-running restaurant career
of Sami Ladeki — of Sammy’s
Woodfired Pizza fame — is still as hot as his 800-degree
wood-fired ovens.
Ladeki on Tuesday was
named “Restaurateur of the Year” by the California Restaurant Association and
this month marks the 25th anniversary of the opening of the first Sammy’s,
on Pearl Street in La Jolla, in 1989.
Today, the popular chain
of restaurants has 19 locations throughout California and Nevada, with its
latest branch set to open in Sacramento in July. His 14 San Diego County
restaurants include Roppongi
Restaurant & Sushi Bar, which serves upscale Asian fusion fare
on Prospect Street in La Jolla.
Sami Ladeki,
founder of Sammy’s Woodfired Pizza, shows off one of his signature pizzas at
the La Jolla location of his restaurant.— Howard Lipin / Union-Tribune
At Tuesday’s restaurant
association event, attended by more than 1,000 people at the Town & Country
Resort in Mission Valley, San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer surprised Ladeki with
a proclamation declaring it Sami Ladeki Day.
“I’m honored to be
recognized by the board members of the CRA; people who are not only
well-respected colleagues, but have also become good friends through the
years,” said Ladeki. “Plus, to have Mayor Faulconer here with a proclamation in
my name; I’m touched beyond words.”
Ladeki, a native of
Lebanon, moved to the U.S. in 1968 and arrived in San Diego with 30 years of
food and beverage experience under his belt, mostly from working at high-end
hotels.
He also came with an idea to
launch restaurants that featured wood-fired pizza, with their signature thin,
crispy crust achieved through a superhot — 800 degrees to be exact — oven. Now
ubiquitous in San Diego, that type of pizza was first popularized in the 80s by
Wolfgang Puck’s Spago in
Los Angeles and Ladeki saw a niche to be filled.
He spent $300,000 to
open the La Jolla Sammy’s. In 1992, he opened one in Del Mar; a Gaslamp outpost
followed in 1994 and a contemporary-casual restaurant chain was born.
Combined, Sammy’s
locations have an estimated 1,200 employees, said a spokesman for the Ladeki
Hospitality Group. Annual revenue wasn’t public, he said.