All dressed up: Milt & Edie's mixes personality and attitude with a laundry list of service and perks for customers to become one of the busiest dry cleaners in area. (Small Business).

MILT Chortkoff is making the rounds of his Burbank dry cleaners when all of a sudden he stops in his tracks. He has spotted two light-colored stains on a skirt and doesn't think Lida Khachatourians, who performs the final check on clothing, has noticed it.

"It's not a spot, it's a discoloration," says the 73-year-old owner of Milt & Edie's Drycleaners. "There is nothing we can do about it. There should be a note on the ticket for the customer."

Khachatourians, who has worked at the cleaners for three years, assures Ivlilt she was aware of it.

"Have you ever seen a boss like this?" she says, apparently unfazed by the questioning. "Every morning he comes in and shakes hands with everybody and kisses us. He really treats us like a family."

In the world of dry cleaning, everybody knows Milt Chortkoff. Over the last 14 years, he has built Milt & Edie's to be one of Southern California's largest cleaners. It doesn't hurt that he's located in the city's Media District, within shouting distance of the studios, or that the storefront features a shocking pink awning, or that the place is open 7 days a week and until 11 p.m. on weekdays.

Inside there are complimentary beverages, doughnuts and popcorn, and a crew of six full-time tailors and 51 other employees who are expected to operate the business like the "Nordstrom's of the dry cleaning business." (One thing missing is the ubiquitous wall of photos of celebrities; he banned them years ago after he found aspiring starlets at his West Hollywood cleaners tacked their photos over those of others.)

"I have to say that Milt is unique," says David Weimer, executive vice president of United Fabric Care Supply, which services 3,000 dry cleaners in Southern California. "He is the penultimate promoter of dry cleaning."

A busy place

On a recent Sunday afternoon, the parking lot is jammed as more than 60 customers troop in and out of the store within an hour of its 4 p.m. closing time.

Shift manager Nathan Guttman serves as a greeter who sends along customers to one of nine service bays. "People want to get in and get out," he says. "And if there is a problem you don't have to call the manager, because I'm already right here."

Adds Chortkoff: "I want the customer acknowledged within 30 seconds of when you walk in," he says. "It shows at least somebody cares. In this day of hustle and bustle the personal touch is important."

Patrick Hillan, who works nearby in Toluca Lake, uniformly praises the cleaner's high-quality service and speed -- and in his case, specifically, the button repair.

"I brought my pants to four different places, and then I brought them here and they fixed the buttons," says Hillan. "The other places probably would, but you'd have to ask them -- and then they'd charge you."

Anything less is nickel and diming the customers, said Chortkoff, who believes such services should be built into the price structure. As such, prices are higher than many of his competitors.

The son of a Russian immigrant who settled in Brooklyn, N.Y., as a boy Milt helped his father deliver hand-laundered clothes before there were mechanical washers and dryers. After moving to Los Angeles in 1946, Chortkoff worked his way through Los Angeles City College picking up and delivering clothes for the family's laundry business.

In 1956, the Chortkoffs opened their first dry cleaning plant near Echo Park and Dodger Stadium. Ten years later, they opened Hollyway cleaners in West Hollywood, which at one point was open 24 hours a day and grossing $2 million a year. But in 1985 when his father became sick and later died, Milt decided to sell out and retire.

He and his wife traveled around the world, but soon enough he wanted back in. "I needed the action," he remembers.

As Milt gladhands his employees, Edie manages a smile. "It's so hard to keep up with him. But he does love what he is doing," says Edie, who oversees the tailoring operation. "When he stepped away from the business he had lost his enthusiasm. Now, he thoroughly enjoys it."

In 1988, Milt bought his current business at the busy corner of Pass and Alameda avenues in Burbank, and also leased, with an option to buy, the entire property, which included a flower shop and coin-operated laundry.

Chortkoff was thinking big again. He closed down the laundry and the flower shop moved, allowing him to open a larger operation. The pink awning was born of necessity; the store operates in two separate 40-year-old buildings.

Within four years of opening the Burbank location, revenues hit $2.5 million and reached $3 million in 2001.

These days, though, Milt is a bit worried. This is the first year since he started the Burbank business that it won't show growth. Although he blames the economic downturn, he also admits that his business may have hit the wall.

So he has decided to start two routes next year, picking up and delivering dry cleaning within a five-mile area. He thinks it will be a hit given that Warner Bros. Studios, Walt Disney Co. and other media giants are nearby.

"You have to do something to reinvent the business," he says. "Business either gets better or gets worse."

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Milt & Edie's Drycleaners

Year Founded: 1988

Core Business: Full-service dry cleaners

Revenues in 2001: $3 million

Revenues in 2002 (projected): $3 million

Employees in 2001: 57

Employees in 2002: 57

Goal: To increase sales 10 percent next year by adding two pickup and delivery routes.

Driving Force: Providing the highest level customer service in an industry not always known for it.