Sizzler

I enjoyed the article about Sizzler, and its depiction of Sizzler cuisine--"Is it pre-Melrose, Melrose or post-Melrose?" I've been to many Sizzlers, and the hamburger seems to have disappeared off the menu. A better question might be is the hamburger post-Melrose, or am I merely post-Sizzler? JOHN M. HENDRY Van Nuys

books 'Go the ---- to Sleep' by Adam Mansbach Mansbach's hilarious, profane picture book for exhausted parents, from renegade independent publisher Akashic Books. By the numbers: 11 weeks on the L.A. Times bestseller list; four weeks at No. 1 on the L.A. Times bestseller list (including Aug. 21); 115 days in Amazon's Top 100; six printings, totaling 450,000 copies. Why it worked: This profane, irreverent book is just short enough for even the most sleep-deprived parent to get through before nodding off - and the bleary-eyed can opt for the audio version, read by actor Samuel L. Jackson.

Sizzler, the steak restaurant chain mainly located in the western U.S., was put up for sale by the Australian buyout firm that purchased it in 2005. Pacific Equity Partners, a Sydney-based private equity firm, hired investment bank Houlihan Lokey Howard & Zukin to find a buyer, Sizzler said. Pacific Equity Partners acquired Worldwide Restaurant Concepts Inc., Sizzler's owner, for $208 million.

The U.S. operations of the Sizzler restaurant chain, headquartered in Culver City, have been spun off by longtime owners as part of a revitalization effort. The company had been partly owned by the Australian private equity group Pacific Equity Partners. Now, the U.S. operations will be owned by a group that includes Chief Executive Kerry Kramp and longtime shareholders Jim Collins and Kevin Perkins. Kramp, who came to Sizzler from the HomeTown Buffet chain, has pushed to update the 1960s-era chain by adding new items to the menu, bring salad bar offerings up to date and pushing franchisees to remodel their stores.

Familiar restaurant names are starting to show up in the parade of brightly painted food trucks jostling for customers. In Los Angeles, the venerable Canter's Deli, a fixture on Fairfax Avenue since 1931, is now also serving potato pancakes and matzo-ball soup from a truck. The upscale Border Grill restaurants have two trucks, serving gourmet tamales in paper cups so they're convenient for pedestrians to eat. For dessert, there's the Sprinkles Cupcakes chain, which added a truck to its 11 brick-and-mortar locations last year.

RE "Revenge of the Hassled Waiters," by Gayle Pollard-Terry and Shawn Hubler, June 11: I don't know which is more absurd: a family of six "dining" at Sizzler for $30 and expecting special treatment or reporters interviewing personnel at Pacific Dining Car (where one person might get out for $30) for their opinions of the service at Sizzler. Mary Ann Scott Los Angeles

On Sept. 28, a request was made by the Sizzler restaurant (chain) for a zoning variance on the lot at the rear and across the alley from their restaurant on Washington Boulevard at Stanford Avenue. This would allow them to remove the house and add a parking lot for 14 additional cars. Items brought up at that meeting that I believe contributed to the basis for denying the request were: 1. Sizzler already has more parking spaces than is required. 2. Sizzler does nothing to control the present parking area as to who (may park there)

As a lover of Peruvian cuisine, I find it interesting--no, disturbing--that writer William Steigerwald chose to sample tacos and Tony Roma's while in Lima, Peru ("In a Gray Light, Lima's Softer Side Shines," Jan. 27). This makes about as much sense as dining on lasagna and Sizzler while in Germany. He would have done a much greater service to his readers--not to mention Peruvian chefs--had he wandered into some of the world-class restaurants that have thrived in Lima for the past 10 years.

The City Council has approved development of a 22-unit motel at 5318 Rosemead Blvd. but imposed three conditions. No more than four of the units can have kitchenettes, each unit cannot be occupied by the same person for more than 21 days in a 90-day period and units cannot be rented more than two times in a 24-hour period. The motel will be half a block away from a proposed redevelopment project at the southwest corner of Rosemead Boulevard and Broadway.

After nearly two decades of continued successes, Collins Foods International Inc. is suddenly facing a myriad of financial headaches and said Tuesday that it expects to post a fourth-quarter loss of $5 million to $7 million--among the worst quarterly results in its history. A year ago, the Los Angeles-based restaurant company posted fourth-quarter net income of $4.

Familiar restaurant names are starting to show up in the parade of brightly painted food trucks jostling for customers. In Los Angeles, the venerable Canter's Deli, a fixture on Fairfax Avenue since 1931, is now also serving potato pancakes and matzo-ball soup from a truck. The upscale Border Grill restaurants have two trucks, serving gourmet tamales in paper cups so they're convenient for pedestrians to eat. For dessert, there's the Sprinkles Cupcakes chain, which added a truck to its 11 brick-and-mortar locations last year.

In the heat of August, many plants look as if they are barely hanging in there. Not so cannas. Cannas thrive on scorching days. These tropical plants resemble tiki torches aflame with flowers in lipstick red, banana yellow and the orange of a ripe apricot. Some of the most vigorous and dramatic cannas can shoot up 5 to 7 feet. Ventura County horticulturist John Schoustra says the trick to spectacular cannas is pruning. "The minute you see seedpods, cut off that stem all the way to the ground, which makes room for a new vigorous one," he says.

From the rock layer beneath the Los Padres National Forest, several hot springs bubble to the surface. But the Sespe Hot Springs, in the heart of the Sespe Wilderness, have a reputation among hikers as the hottest in Southern California. No one, it seems, keeps an official ranking of hot springs, but having soaked in a few natural hot springs over the years, I wanted to answer the question: Is Sespe Hot Springs tepid, like dishwater, or "¡Ay, caramba!" hot?

Sizzler, the steak restaurant chain mainly located in the western U.S., was put up for sale by the Australian buyout firm that purchased it in 2005. Pacific Equity Partners, a Sydney-based private equity firm, hired investment bank Houlihan Lokey Howard & Zukin to find a buyer, Sizzler said. Pacific Equity Partners acquired Worldwide Restaurant Concepts Inc., Sizzler's owner, for $208 million.

What can you say about a 50-year-old restaurant chain that (almost) died? You can say that in Sizzler's latest incarnation, it's trying to recapture a reputation for quality and value it last possessed two decades ago. "Some people in the industry thought we went away," Ken Cole told me last week.

The Sherman Oaks-based owner of the Sizzler dining chain, Worldwide Restaurant Concepts Inc., said Friday that it agreed to be purchased by an Australian investment firm for about $210 million in cash. The $7-a-share offer from Sydney-based Pacific Equity Partners was 42% higher than Thursday's closing price for Worldwide's stock and double the shares' value Dec. 7, the day before the company said it might be looking for a buyer. In heavy trading Friday, Worldwide's stock jumped $1.

Collins Foods International Inc., which has been working for the last couple of years to add pizza and pasta to its corporate menu, has brought in a former Pizza Hut executive to head a newly formed division. William Gagg, 37, a former senior vice president of restaurant operations for Pepsico Inc.'s Pizza Hut division, will join Collins Foods as a vice president and will serve as president of the new division.

A management-led group of investors has acquired a majority interest in Trans/Pacific Restaurants Inc., an Irvine-based company with more than 70 restaurant outlets in California and Hawaii, the company said Wednesday. The buy-out, which closed Dec. 30 for an undisclosed sum, ends 40 years of ownership by the family of founder Art Salisbury. The seven-member investors' group, led by company President Ronald F. Higgins, will hold an 85% interest in Trans/Pacific.

Worldwide Restaurant Concepts Inc. reported on Tuesday that profit tripled in the fiscal second quarter as it regained its footing after an E. coli outbreak last year at its Pat & Oscar's chain. The Sherman Oaks-based company earned $900,000, or 3 cents a share, in the period ended Oct. 17, up from $300,000, or break-even, a year earlier. Revenue rose 4% to $79.4 million.

The U.S. Supreme Court will let Sherman Oaks-based Worldwide Restaurant Concepts Inc. sue one of the nation's largest meat suppliers over an E. coli bacteria poisoning that killed a girl and sickened more than 100 others at one of its Sizzler restaurants in 2000. The court refused to hear an appeal by Wichita, Kan.-based Excel Corp., a unit of privately held Cargill Inc., seeking to end a suit by the restaurant chain and others who became ill.