COMMUNITY PROFILES
MAIN STREET — Irish pub owner Gerri Gilliland has big plans this week, but it’s not just because St. Patrick’s Day is four days away.
While it certainly will be the biggest day of the year for her bar, Finn McCool’s, chances are that Gilliland will have her hands in more than just the pub’s kitchen. This week, she’ll probably dive into the affairs of her other restaurant, Lula Cocina Mexicana, located next door to Finn McCool’s. If she’s not at Lula, Gilliland will be at her 40-acre Malibu ranch, advancing her plans to grow a vineyard, building a swimming pool or hiking with her dogs who, through her rescue efforts, she adopted.
Gilliland’s life is a far cry from what she thought it would be when, at 24 years old, she was a home economics teacher at a Catholic convent in Belfast, Ireland. She received her degree two years prior — in 1973 — at Garnerville Culinary College in Ireland.
“There were three choices: nun, teacher or nurse,” Gilliland said. “There was no way the nun thing was going to happen. There was no way the nurse thing was going to happen, so I didn’t have a choice: teacher.”
But once she got to America, she realized she did have a choice. In 1975, Gilliland came to the United States on a three-month summer vacation, traveling from New York to Los Angeles. She never left.
It was not only the thought of escaping war-torn Belfast that appealed to Gilliland. The Southern California weather wasn’t too bad either.
Working minimum wage jobs flipping hamburgers and cocktail waitressing for a few years around LA, the Irish-trained chef in 1977 eventually slipped into the culinary world here and began teaching classes at major cooking schools, including at private companies, and at public high school and college campuses.
“My first two years were hell here... my first bed was a mattress that someone had thrown on Barrington Avenue,” she recalled. “I couldn’t sleep on the floor anymore, so I grabbed it off the street. I had no winter coat, so I got one at the Salvation Army, which I still donate to today. They were good to me.”
And while she may call Malibu home, Main Street has a been a huge piece of Gilliland’s American dream. It’s where she built her extraordinary food career and where she met her husband, Theodore Lonsway, who owned an antique shop on Main Street for decades. Gilliland met Lonsway after she crashed a Christmas party at the Enterprise Fish Co.
The two married in 1989 and worked as partners until Lonsway died suddenly in 2002. Over the years, the couple owned several businesses. At one point, they owned five Main Street businesses at the same time.
Gilliland opened her first restaurant, Gilliland’s Cafe on Main Street, in 1984 and almost simultaneously began a small catering company that served Bloomingdales, Dean & Deluca and Balducci’s in New York.
Then in 1991, Gilliland opened Lula Cocina Mexicana. The restaurant, which means “Mexican grandmother,” is named after her mentor. Lula Bertran took Gilliland under her wing and taught her everything there was to know about cooking Mexican food.
Gilliland’s endeavors reached a new height in 1993 when she opened her third restaurant, Jake and Annie’s. The name was changed to Finn McCool’s in 2001 to bolster business after the terrorist attacks severely affected sales. Gilliland and Lonsway figured that renaming the pub after ancient Irish legend Finn McCool would be an attraction of sorts. McCool was a mythical leader of the old-time warriors of Ireland. According to legend, he confounded his enemies with his magic skills and is part of the ancient art of story telling for which the Irish are well known.
Her latest restaurant opening in 1997, Gilliland bought the Black Whale in Marina del Rey and reopened it as the Washington Street Bar & Grill, which focuses on Santa Maria-style grilling. In 1998, she sold Gilliland’s Cafe, followed by the Marina del Rey establishment.
Gilliland attributes the success of her restaurants to many things. Early on in her career, a major factor was positive write-ups in the Herald Examiner and the Los Angeles Times.
“Business took off,” Gilliland said.
Gilliland, 54, is far removed from the life she knew as a child growing up in an Irish Catholic, middle-class family. She says the high point of her life there was when she saw the Beatles perform in Belfast when she was 14.
And although she might miss her home country, she hasn’t returned to Ireland in 10 years. “I don’t like to fly... The last trip over there, I nearly tortured my husband to death on the plane by holding his hand and screaming,” she said. “I hate flying.”
But Gilliland has plenty of pieces of home placed within Finn McCool’s.
When her father, Jim Flynn, retired in Ireland, Gilliland purchased her father’s Irish pub. She disassembled the pub board by board and had it shipped to the Main Street location in Santa Monica via the Panama Canal. The bar was totally recreated as it had been in Ireland to give it the feel of community and comfort of an Emerald Isle pub.
The bar at Finn McCool’s is made from Irish teak, complete with Celtic carvings. The “Book of Kells,” an ancient Irish manuscript, was used to create Celtic murals, as well as a scene of Finn McCool with his dogs.
Keeping a piece of Ireland at the bar keeps Gilliland connected to her heritage, but it’s her life in America that makes her happy and satisfied. Gilliland last February realized another American dream: becoming an U.S. citizen. She finally found herself with enough time to study for the test, which covers all aspects of American history.
“It feels great,” she said. “That was a really big thing to become an American citizen... I probably know more about the Constitution than you do.”
“There were bombs going off, the IRA was there,”
“With Gilliland’s, I paid all of the investors back in four years and then started making money myself. I basically worked for minimum wage for four years. I really worked hard, got involved, got in the kitchen, put an Irish slant on it.” — she said
“That was a big part of it. I was frightened, actually... that and the mold growing on the walls in my apartment.”
Amidst her active schedule, Gilliland this week will stay focused on the task at hand: prepping for the biggest Irish party day of the year, March 17, the anniversary of St. Patrick’s death. The Irish have observed the day as a religious holiday for thousands of years, but today it has become a day of celebrating and drinking for many bar patrons.
It certainly will be at Finn McCool’s, where doors open at 9 a.m. The party will be broadcast live on Indie 103.1 FM, a three-woman band, the Randies, will play, and an Irish dancer will dance to fiddle music.
The Daily Press recently caught up with Gilliland at Finn McCool’s to talk about her success on Main Street.
Where did you get your business sense? “I think from my mother. When my father died, I was 14 and I had to take over running our business. We used to own what was basically a grocery shop, you know, like one of those corner liquor stores, but we sold pork. I really think I got it from my mother. And I really think that Belfast people are good business people.”
Why? “I think it’s because we are very straight forward, very blunt, very direct. There’s no beatin’ around the bush. Very honest.”
What was it like to open up your first business?
“I had never operated a business before, so I was very naive. The first night we opened, I didn’t even have a safe to put the money in. Stupid things. I didn’t know what a P&L (profit and loss statement) was. I didn’t know what payroll taxes were. I caught on really fast.”
What was Main Street like then? “It wasn’t like this. When I opened Gilliland’s, it was a wasteland. There was-n’t even a building on either side of me. I was way out of it. It was pretty oppressive.”
Your restaurants turned a profit fairly quickly. What’s your secret to success?
“Lula was day one. There was a line outside the door on day one. Never lost a dime in that restaurant. I was in the kitchen in every restaurant that I have ever owned... I think you have to be in the right place, the right corner. The location is good. I think location is really important. I think you have to have the right product, and you don’t overcharge. I think you have to have good service and clean restaurants, and nice people working for you who are happy.”
I understand you “import” some of your employees. What’s that all about?
“I use a recruiting agency and get kids here from Ireland for 18 months on a work visa. A lot of them are Irish Americans, but the reason that I like the Irish straight off the boat is that, first of all, I know what it is like. I know that it’s a really great opportunity for a young man or woman in this country. I think that they have a different persona than the Irish person who has been here for 30 years, like myself. They are just more innocent. It is something you can’t train about somebody who’s fresh out of Ireland who has never traveled before.”
How many employees do you have total?
“I don’t know, like 50? The staff at Lula has been there since it opened.”
You must be a good employer. “My people say I am. I’m firm, I’m fair, I’m fun.”
What other plans do you have? “I’m trying to build a swimming pool, and that is turning out to be a huge issue. And I’m putting in a vineyard. There are 37 vineyards in Malibu, and it’s my next thing that I want to do. I know a lot now. I know that I can grow. I know the slopes. I know the pitfalls. I know the costs. I know that it’s going to be five years to get a yield. I’ll probably grow chardonnay, cabernet and sangiovese.”
What’s your favorite food? “Mexican. I never get sick of the food at Lula.”
When did you develop that taste? “At Gilliland’s. I used to eat all the employee meals with the kitchen staff who were Mexican. I loved it... I said, ‘I have to learn this.’ I called this lady named Lula in Mexico. I read about her in Bon Appetite... She agreed to teach me. I went down to Mexico many, many times. Then we named that restaurant after her... I studied with all the great Mexican chefs... all these incredible women in Mexico City.”
What do you like about Santa Monica? “I hate Santa Monica. The business climate here sucks. I don’t want get in trouble... but it’s very difficult.”
OK, let me ask it this way, what challenges do you face as a business and property owner in Santa Monica?
“It’s huge taxes, a bureaucratic mine field, that’s being generous... It’s generally not business friendly... They’ll rent out the whole parking lot for a movie, and we all buy parking passes and we can’t park.”
What about the city itself do you like? “It’s pretty, it’s near the beach. I’ve always been working here and I’ve been successful in Santa Monica, despite them.”
What do you like least about Santa Monica?
“The price of the parking meters.”
Where is your favorite place? “I love Malibu. I love the mountains. I love to hike everyday.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 13, 2006. Read the original PDF.