May 5, 2016 Page 5 VALENTINO♥ S Pizza, Pasta & More Catering Available ANY SMALL “A Taste of Brooklyn” 1 LARGE 16” PIZZA with one topping $1399 Plus Tax. Extra toppings additional cost. No substitutions and coupon must be presented. Please mention coupon when ordering. One per customer. Expires 5/19/16. EL SEGUNDO 150 S Sepulveda Blvd. 310-426-9494 COLD 6” SUB made on our daily fresh homemade bread with bag of chips and small drink $695 Plus Tax. One per customer, must present coupon, not valid with any other offer, no substitutions please. Expires 5/19/16. MANHATTAN BEACH 976 Aviation Blvd. 310-318-5959 Now Open Sundays Ample Seating DELIVERY IN LIMITED AREA AT BOTH LOCATIONS bakery – imported groceries italy – argentina – mexico – peru & other latin countries TRY OUR ARGENTINIAN EMPANADAS! select from: BEEF (ONION, OLIVES, EGG, BELL PEPPERS) SPICY BEEF (ONION, BELL PEPPERS, CHILE HABANERO) CHICKEN (ONION, BELL PEPPERS) SPINACH (ONION, MOZZARELLA CHEESE, BECHAMEL SAUCE) POMO (TOMATO, BASIL, MOZZARELLA CHEESE) PEPPERONI (PEPPERONI, MARINARA SAUCE, MOZZARELLA CHEESE) % OFF! 10 IN STORE PURCHASE ONLY. MINIMUM OF $20 OR MORE. Please Present Coupon to Cashier at either Lomita or Hawthorne Market Locations. TWO LOCATIONS! lomita 25600 Narbonne Ave. (near PCH) 310.530.3213 hawthorne 12921 S. Prairie Ave. (near W. 129th St.) 310.676-5444 CONTINENTALGOURMETMARKET.COM Rock & Brews from front page Yelp complain about the parking, which is valet. It’s not that there’s too little in Dallas. Self-parking isn’t practical at the newest location, they say. Still, “The Colony really needed a place like this,” one Yelp reviewer wrote. South Bayans could step into the Dallas restaurant and not skip a beat, Zislis said. The designer kept the open-air seating and the red-barn look and high ceilings, but the picnic benches are pushed apart. It seems, Texans like their personal space. “In Dallas, you’d feel right at home because the weather there is more like El Segundo,” Zislis said. “Communal seating is sort of way of life in Southern Cal, with the beach. I don’t see communal seating being as popular around the rest of the country. People outside of Southern Cal don’t like it as much,” said Zislis, who is a rock star in the South Bay craft brewery movement. Gene Simmons is the star attraction in the enterprise, and co-KISS member Paul Stanley is a close second. Their other two partners, Dell and Dave Furano, are rock promoters with a glitzy client list that includes Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Grateful Dead and George Harrison. The musicians and the roadies know how to drink beer. Michael Zislis knows how to make it. Zislis attained master brewer status while a student at the University of Southern California, and brought to the Rock & Brew concept his expertise and background in craft beer and food service. Zislis opened his Manhattan Beach Brewing Company in the 1980s, before beer was trendy. “He was from Manhattan Beach and he knows the area, and has an incredible sense for restaurants,” said Bill Ruane, the El Segundo Realtor who co-owned the patio next door to the pizza business. “He got the demographics there, literally just outside the Chevron gate.” Rock & Brews carries locally crafted brews at each of its locations, making a visit to any of the restaurants outside Southern California a chance to sample new beers. The decor screams rock ‘n’ roll, but beer is celebrated as much as KISS and the legendary bands plastered on the walls. “What’s the first thing someone asks when they’re out of town. What do you have that’s local?” said Zislis. Strange brew is the ready answer. Before a new restaurant opens, the owners meet with local breweries to sample and decide which up-and-comers the bar staff will promote when they’re asked about the hometown selections. He’s introduced the El Segundo Brewery and its Mayberry IPA to Southwest and Delta travelers who’ve grabbed a bar stool waiting for a flight at Los Angeles International Airport. “We celebrate the local breweries in every market,” he said. The beer menu includes the half-dozen domestics Bud, Coors, Miller and Stella Artois - sometimes referred to “the “Budweiser of Europe.” Zislis and his management staff backfill the rest of the list with Mama’s Little Yella Pills, Rio Grande Outlaw Lager, and Isotopes Slammin Amber, to name a few New Mexico favorites. In Maui, it might be Green Flash West Coast or a Kona Fire Rock Pale Ale. The Rock & Brews concept features a menu built on American appetites for burgers, wings and beers. People living in New Mexico and Texas don’t eat the same way that Southern Californians do, so a regional specialities section was added to the menu once expansion got under way. “The menus have changed a little bit because of the appetites around the country,” Zislis said, explaining that local favorites now appear on the menu. “It’s not something I was ready for.” A New Mexico diner wants green chiles on his burger, and in Florida they like their barbecue sauce made with mustard, according to Zislis. A kale salad, which is a top seller at the South Bay and Buena Park restaurants, isn’t listed on the menus outside of Southern California. One Albuquerque diner left a Yelp review complimentary about the regionally influenced menu. She wrote, “The menu is really long, but showcases pub type food but with a New Mexico influence. Lots of green chilies of course, tacos, and dishes with a Tex-Mex feel.” Then, there’s the Yelp reviewer - a former Redondo Beach resident and surfer - who was stoked to have fish tacos again. “Growing up in OKC with Mexican food as a weekly family tradition I was deep into adulthood before I enjoyed my first fish taco. I lived in Redondo Beach and two super surfer yoga friends insisted I eat fish tacos before our safari south to San Onofre State Beach (beside the nuclear cooling towers). … That was a life-changing experience - warm water surfing and the fish tacos, which I have loved since. “Fast forward, last year I visited Redondo Beach, curious I cruised into the Rock & Brews off Pacific Coast Highway for the first time and parked myself at the bar. After perusing the menu I asked, “How are the fish tacos?” The bartender thrust two thumbs up. “Excellent, best in the South Bay.” He was right. … “So, a short story long, I was ecstatic when I heard Rock & Brews was opening in OKC.” Zislis said as many as eight more restaurants could open this year and a dozen more in 2017. The company doesn’t own or operate all of the locations, though the partners want to open more of their own around Southern California. When you think about brands like Hard Rock, they’re only going to be in the Super Bowl cities, where the Super Bowl is. The stadium with tourists, Zislis added. “We see Rock & Brews can work in any community. It works in Calabasas, it works in Corona, in Buena Park,” he explained. “We can be anywhere.” • Co-founder Michael Zislis
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