Fred Bush walked through the defunct pizza parlor and went behind the counter, where a hulking oven sat unused in the pre-lunch gloom. He opened the door and looked inside.
“This is the pizza stone,” he explained. “You need to check to make sure the stone isn’t broken.”
As Busch inspects the Inland Empire restaurant’s equipment (mixers, meat slicers, etc.), the owner explains why he plans to close the pizzeria.
Like many other Southland restaurateurs who have struggled in recent years, his business has been hit hard by a host of problems: Delivery service commissions have cut into revenue, diners are spending less, and good employees have left for better pay. job, and the landlord of the outdoor mall he has operated since 2019 will not renegotiate the lease.
The man, who asked that he and his restaurant not be named due to privacy concerns, said he worked seven days a week handling everything from cooking to delivery but was not making a profit.
“That’s normal,” Bush told the store owner. “You … just realize, ‘No matter what I do, I’m not going to make money.'”
Fred Bush & Associates in Corona sells refurbished mixers.
(Gina Ferrazzi/Los Angeles Times)
The boss was grateful for Bush’s understanding.
“Business is tough, really tough,” he intoned on his way out.
Restaurant closings are almost universally viewed as bad news. But not necessarily from Bush’s perspective. That’s because he deals in used equipment and furniture, buying stoves, sinks, shelves and more from homeowners who have thrown in the towel. His Corona-based Fred Bush & Associates has lovingly restored the items and is selling them at a significant discount from their original retail price. Recent clients include Cobi’s in Santa Monica, Ca’ Del Sole in Toluca Lake and Italian Brentwood restaurants Toscana and Divino. He has also worked with chains such as Starbucks and Rubio’s Coastal Grill.
Fred Bush customer Rubio’s Costal Grill said in June it would close nearly 50 locations.
(Zoe Cranfill/Los Angeles Times)
Today’s drought in the restaurant landscape is, in a way, a good thing for Busch: His 26,000-square-foot showroom is packed with merchandise.
“We get calls every day from a restaurant that’s closing,” said Busch, 76, explaining that he no longer has enough warehouse space. “I never say no to anything good.”
Busch has been in the business for more than 40 years, and during his painful visits to struggling restaurateurs, he prefers to focus on the positive: The items he buys and later sells help people pursue their entrepreneurial dreams.
“It’s a tough business because you’re catching people at their lowest point, but you’re doing it to make money,” said Kevin Lanouette of KL Kitchen Supplies, a new restaurant equipment company based in Canyon Lake, Calif. supplier. “[Bush’s] Bedside manner must be good. This is not what I expected.
Fred Bush’s Corona showroom is filled with used restaurant equipment.
(Gina Ferrazzi/Los Angeles Times)
Busch said when he meets with owners, they tend to be in a good mood and are happy that their ordeal is coming to an end. He was delighted with this part of the job. But pizza chefs in the Inland Empire don’t seem to have it easy. Still, Bush is confident the man will find peace soon. Bush ultimately offered $4,500 for most of his equipment, about 30 pieces in total.
He estimated the items cost the store owner at least $75,000. Once they were restored, Busch listed them for a total of about $15,000.
As of mid-July, the man had not accepted, and no one at the pizza place was answering the phone, Busch said.
“Almost brand new”
Busch’s business is a big part of Southern California’s restaurant scene: People who work in the field say they don’t know of any other used equipment dealers on his level.
He grew up in West Los Angeles and entered the industry in 1976, working with a partner to buy used restaurant equipment at auctions and resell it. But the partnership was not solid, and he went it alone in 1982.
Two years later, Los Angeles Olympic organizers invited Busch to dismantle five temporary kitchens built in the area to feed competing athletes. He purchased the equipment and was able to resell it quickly, in part because of its pristine condition.
“This all happened two weeks ago,” Bush said.
Not everything that passes through his warehouse doors is so clean. In fact, a lot of the equipment is dirty. But Busch takes pride in refinishing items so they look “almost like new.”
Many items are available for less than half the retail price and come with a 30-day warranty. For example, Busch recently listed a Montague Co. convection oven for $9,500, well below its original price of about $21,000. He said he paid about $2,500 for it.
During a recent tour of the company’s facilities, Busch pointed out a booth of repainting equipment and a sheet metal shop where stainless steel parts are manufactured. All items are disassembled, cleaned and rebuilt as necessary. A Hobart mixer ready for delivery to a customer gleams next to a row of mixers of the same model that have yet to be repaired. They are covered in grease and dirt.
“We completely restored everything,” Bush said.
The range in the Fred Bush showroom has been restored.
(Gina Ferrazzi/Los Angeles Times)
Bush said Fred Bush & Associates Vice President Joaquin Caldera, who has been with the company since 1991, is a big reason why the company is able to bring almost any piece of crappy gear back to life. The walls of Caldera’s office are lined with dozens of clear bags filled with parts for equipment he regularly uses, a testament to Bush’s boast that Caldera “can fix anything.”
George Qualls, operations manager for a barbecue restaurant company, recently worked with Busch to equip several San Diego County chains.
But when Qualls first saw the poor condition of the equipment Busch had taken away — specifically a dirty rotisserie chicken — he was shocked.
“He showed it to me and gave me a price, and I said, ‘Fred, really?'” Qualls recalled. “He said, ‘No, no, that’s not going to be the case.'” I went back four days later and it looked like a brand new piece of equipment. This is really crazy.
Qualls bought the grill for $550, about a quarter of the price of a new grill.
Dedicated service to diners
Bush was involved with restaurants: he invested in them and became friends with their owners.
He said he even outfitted his two adult children’s homes with used dining room furniture. He said they benefited when Starbucks closed its stores about a decade ago and needed to remove armchairs, coffee tables and sofas.
“My kids want to see what we buy from Starbucks and put it in their house,” he said. “Most of the stuff… is [like] new.
Busch is often on the road, checking out places that are closing so he can evaluate their equipment. His mileage was long: Over two days in June, he traveled from Highland to Brentwood to Lake Forest. Some visits are purely pleasant: Busch also buys equipment when restaurants are remodeled or expanded.
Still, he regularly visits struggling institutions—sometimes even before they announce plans to close. As such, he likely knows more about the restaurant’s fate than its employees or the public.
In fact, Busch said that days before the Rubio chain announced in June that it would close 48 California restaurants, he visited a location at the company’s request to investigate what equipment he would buy.
He now sells some of the chain’s chairs. Priced at $20 each.
Dreaming in a down market
During a visit to Bush’s Corona showroom, some potential customers peered closely at neat aisles filled with stainless steel appliances that gleamed under fluorescent lights: refrigerators, convection ovens, steam kettles, deep fryers, frying pans, blast freezers , ice machines, stoves, roasters, blenders, coffee machines, tableware, utensils, tables, chairs, etc.
Fred Bush has been in the used restaurant equipment business for more than 40 years.
(Gina Ferrazzi/Los Angeles Times)
Busch pointed to a large piece of decorative wood that he purchased from a Japanese restaurant in South Coast Plaza. He had trouble selling it. “It probably weighed 500 pounds,” he said.
Then he met Sam Harris, a co-owner of Sherman’s Deli and Bakery in Palm Springs. He recently purchased an ice machine from Busch and returned to inspect the oven.
“I always come in here and leave with something,” Harris said.
In a tough economy, repeat customers — especially those from existing restaurants — are key. While the current restaurant climate has helped Busch increase inventory, it also means fewer new restaurants are opening. That means sales are down.
Lanuette, whose clients include Republique and Hotel Bel Air, said that when he needs used equipment for a project he works on, he buys it from Busch. In today’s economy, when expediency is key, refurbished goods often fit the bill.
“The times are what they are…it’s all about opening doors and putting money back into [a restaurateur’s] In the pocket,” Lanuette said. Busch’s merchandise “is very helpful to a lot of my customers who don’t have deep pockets but have dreams.”
There will always be people chasing the dream of opening a restaurant. Bush believed it was something some people were born with–they just wanted to feed other people.
“They have to keep working hard,” he said. “Eventually, we all have to eat.”
