My mother’s death in the fall of 1984 clarified something I’d been avoiding: I was done practicing law. I just needed to find what came next.
My brother introduced me to a pasta cafeteria concept in Chicago called Mama Mia — fresh design, a gleaming display case of handmade pastas, customers moving down a line and collecting their dish at the end. It was simple, modern, and strangely exciting. I filed it away.
Back in Los Angeles, I told my law partner Larry Flax about it. He was intrigued, but we had a monthslong criminal fraud trial in San Francisco to finish first. The idea waited.
When the trial ended, we called our friend Bob Mandler, a former attorney who had recently left law to open Chin Chin, a sleek Chinese restaurant on the Sunset Strip. His restaurant was a sensation, thanks in part to its Chinese Chicken Salad. He mentioned a similar pasta concept at the Glendale Galleria. We drove out to see it.
The Glendale spot underwhelmed us — pizza by the slice sitting under heat lamps. But we noticed how many customers grabbed a slice alongside their pasta. Something clicked.
