Restaurant guide

A toast for the New Year: Wishing you all health, happiness and prosperity in the new year, and may the joy you've given me over the years return to you x10!

There's only one thing missing in these pictures. It's YOU! C'mon in and help us celebrate the Christmas!

Countdown to Thanksgiving 2018! We're looking forward to a wonderful day!

Forgive me for a moment of nostalgia, but I'm looking back at photos of some of our wonderful former team members who were working here for many Thanksgivings, and I want them to know how much joy they brought to me and the patrons they served. Thank you for all the wonderful memories!

Update Regarding our Lease at the Shopping Center: The following is a copy of a letter we handed out to our employees the other day with the latest news: Dear Team Members: We’re happy to report that we’ve signed a lease extension with the shopping center that should allow us to stay open for business until at least the end of 2019. The Landlord’s representatives assured us that they’d like to keep Andre’s at the shopping center, and we’re looking forward to working with them to formulate a mutually beneficial agreement. Nonetheless, do to the size and scope of the potential new development, it’s important for everyone to understand that eventually Andre’s will have to close for a lengthy period of time. One of our important goals before closing will be to assist in facilitating a smooth transition into new jobs for all those affected. We’ve been in contact with several organizations that assist in securing new jobs for employees who find themselves in similar situations. There will be no charge to any of our team members who decide to take advantage of this significant service. Another important goal of ours is to open our sister restaurant, Grandi Italiani, and to bring in as many of our existing team members as possible that wish to join us. Your special talents and loyalty are always appreciated, and we value your contributions that helped to make Andre’s a success. We’ll continue to notify you of any significant events. Please don’t hesitate to talk with us if you have any questions or wish to make any suggestions or comments. Thank you, Management As always, many thanks for your continued support. Your patronage and interest is very much appreciated!

Wowee! I don't know how good it is, but they sure spent a fortune to make this happen! What do you folks think? https://www.businessinsider.com/starbucks-in-milan-italy-opens-look-inside-2018-9

Nice article by Michael Aushenker of the San Fernando Valley Business Journal. http://sfvbj.com/news/2018/jul/23/beverly-groves-andres-italian-restaurant-move-cano/

We started work on our future sister restaurant, Grandi Italiani, in Canoga Park. Check it out! https://www.facebook.com/GrandiItliani/?modal=admin_todo_tour

The photos are starting to come in! Thank you Maribel and Daniel!

Dear friends: We recently gave a letter to our team members to update them on our current lease situation at the shopping center. To keep you informed, I'd like to share that letter with you as well. Dear Team Members: First, the bad news: At the present time, Andre’s lease at the shopping center is still set to expire on December 31, 2018. Our goal is to secure at least a month-to-month lease past that date. This way, we can continue to serve the community until the Landlord receives approval from the city to break ground with their redevelopment plans. While the city, local leaders, teachers and administrators at Hancock Park Elementary School, and we are all pushing back on the scope and scale of the project, eventually the Landlord or his successors will prevail in updating the shopping center in some way. At that time, Andre’s will have to be closed for an indefinite period during the demolition and construction phases of the new development. An Andre’s at the new shopping center might be possible, but the new lease terms would make for a costly proposition: higher rent, taxes, insurance, common area maintenance, etc. Worse than that, our team members would be out of a job for the duration. For Andre’s to stay in business, it’s become clear that we must look elsewhere for a place to open before this location closes. Now for the good news: We’ve secured a new location in Canoga Park! While this might not be totally convenient for our team members and customers, economics was a huge factor in choosing our new location. It’s much less costly to lease a space in Canoga Park than it is in the Beverly-Grove area. Additionally, we would be able to keep our prices more affordable for our customers. Since the Metro Orange Line has a stop just a brief six-minute walk from the new restaurant, many of our current team members and customers may decide that it’s worth the extra time it takes to get to and from our new location. Plans have already been submitted with the city for our new restaurant. Our goal is to open by Fall of this year. We’ve decided to name the new sister restaurant, Grandi Italiani. The name was carefully chosen to be easily remembered and to honor the many great Italians that helped to enrich our lives with their culture, scientific achievements, food and strong family values. We know that all our team members are special to the history and success of Andre’s, so we will continue to inform you of any important updates. Please address your questions to Aron for any further clarification or to express your concerns. Thank you, Management

I had to share this with everyone here. Enjoy! https://www.facebook.com/insiderkitchen/videos/1780414392037724/?t=291

Dear friends: I'd like to share with you a letter that we wrote for each of our team members at Andre's regarding the development plans at our shopping center. I wanted you all to know what we know so as to dispel any misinformation that has been circulating. Dear Team Members: As you may be aware, there has been a lot of talk regarding the redevelopment of our shopping center. So much of the talk was speculation, so we wanted to wait until we had definitive information before passing on to you what we know to be true. Just the other day, the shopping center owners filed plans with the city to build a new shopping center with up to 381 new apartment units. The plans would include putting up a 19 story building over the current location of Kmart, Andre’s, and the other businesses east of the patio. Stephanie and Aron attended a meeting with the community council, and we’re pleased to report that not even one council member expressed any support for the project. On the contrary, many of the members were outraged over the scope of the project and many expressed concerns that Andre’s would no be provided a new space to continue serving the community. We’d like to point out that a similar development was proposed to the city almost 8 years ago to develop the property where Ross Dress for Less is located. After 7 years of failure to get the project approved by the city, the developers gave up and sold the property. We strongly feel that the owners of our shopping center will not succeed either. Our current concern is that as of this time, our lease with the shopping center is set to expire on December 31, 2018. We have been requesting a new lease, but the shopping center is holding out that they can start construction in June of 2019 and they are reluctant to give any more time past that date. We want you to know that we will continue to seek an extension on our lease with the shopping center. We should know within the next two months what new plans the shopping center will come up with. We also want all our team members to know that we will continue to inform you of any important news that comes to our attention regarding our lease and the shopping center. All of you are important to us and the success of Andre’s, and your patience and understanding will be appreciated. Thank you, Management

Once again we'll be giving away in-house made carrot cake to all moms for Mother's Day. Wishing all you wonderful moms an extra special, happy Mother's Day! <3

Shula is one of the wonderful parent volunteers for our great neighborhood elementary school, Hancock Park. Here she is showing off flyers from our first Family Night of 2018. Andre's was packed inside and out tonight because of all the families she helped to bring in! Thank you Shula, and thank you to all the other parent volunteers and families that helped to make the event a huge success!

People have asked how we make our gelati look so nice in our display case. Here is a short video demonstrating how one of our ACE Gelato artisans makes the product look so good: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1T-pzHcLO53L_itFm5EQ0ioGkt_6dYclP/view?usp=sharing

Wishing you all a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year! ...and YES, we'll be open all day New Year's Day!

We had a fun time at our annual employee Christmas party! A special thank you to Chef/Partner Simon for coming in on his day off to prepare our special meal, and to his wife, Asunción, for the tamales. Also, thanks to Jose Luis and Deisy for the punch and cookies. Many blessings to you all, and let's look forward to a healthy and prosperous 2018!

Thank you to all of the beautiful kids from Hancock Park Elementary School (and their teachers) who came to celebrate the upcoming holiday break with us today. We love to see you all having such a good time! Happy Holidays to all of you!

Are you ready for Christmas? We are!

Thank you all for a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving! I wish I would've taken more pictures. If you've got some pictures of your own, please post them for all to see! Mille Grazie, Los Angeles!