Dining Odyssey: college pals Jeff McNeal and Steven Brower reunited after learning the ropes of the restaurant business to open Damon & Pythias, which they plan to expand.

In a scene straight out of NBC's reality series "The Restaurant," the lights and refrigeration at Damon & Pythias went on the fritz minutes before it was to open for the lunch crowd.

A stew of electricians, refrigerator repairmen and restaurant employees--trying to catch up with five last-minute catering orders--spun about the place. In the eye of the storm was Jeff McNeal, one of the restaurant's owners, smiling almost defiantly.

"It's just another day in the restaurant business," he said, shaking his head while watching the commotion. "Something is always going wrong."

Certainly not much has gone as planned for McNeal and his partner, Steven Brower, since they debuted their restaurant on Broxton Avenue in Westwood more than two years ago.

Construction delays affected the opening. Office vacancies soared after the dot-com meltdown, robbing them of hundreds of customers just as they opened. Then, a number of neighboring retailers closed, drying up much of the remaining foot traffic on the quiet tree-shrouded lane.

McNeal and Brower responded by hitting the streets and handing out samples and menus. They catered neighborhood meetings and UCLA fraternity and sorority events at no charge to get their name out. And slowly their efforts began to pay off. "It was rough going there for a while, but despite it all we broke even our first year and made a profit in our second year," McNeal said. "I'd say that's pretty good."

By the end of 2002, the restaurant had revenues of $1.5 million and 35 employees. Halfway through 2003, the Westwood restaurant is on track to have revenues of $2.3 million.

Divergent paths

Brower and McNeal met in 1995 while studying hotel and restaurant management at Cornell University. After graduating in 1997, they went their separate ways until Brower convinced McNeal to join him the next year working for Pluto's, a small San Francisco-based restaurant chain.

After less than a year, Brower left to work at California Pizza Kitchen Inc. in Los Angeles, and shortly thereafter McNeal took a job in Southern California working for Brinker International Inc.'s Romano's Macaroni Grill.

The two kept in touch, and after seeing each other at a New Year's Eve party in 2000, decided to open their own restaurant. They named it after characters from Greek mythology whose friendship saved them from a death sentence from Dionysius the Elder.

Opening the restaurant cost them about $350,000, of which $200,000 was funded through a Small Business Administration loan from Wells Fargo. The balance was backed by savings and credit card debt.

"We were here 24/7 in the beginning," McNeal said. "Our approach was we're going to make this work no matter what. It's the same now."

One way they made it work was to employ the lessons they learned at Pluto's. "We've been copied in four different cities," said Gerry Bugas, a pan owner of the five-restaurant Bay Area chain. "But this is the first time two people who worked for us literally stole the recipe book and business plan.

"There's no hard feelings," he added. "It's more a matter of fact."

McNeal and Brower admit similarities, but noted that there are also influences from CPK, Brinker and the smaller restaurants they've worked for.

"The restaurant industry is convoluted that way," McNeal said. "People take ideas or recipes and move on from there. Everybody tries to mimic what everybody else is doing." Whatever its origins, the second location of Damon & Pythias is set to open at The Commons at Calabasas, an expansion funded by the Westwood restaurant's cash flow. Within a year the partners are looking to have locations in Santa Monica and Glendale.

"Our goal is to have 20 units in five years," Brower said.

McNeal and Brower said they picked the Calabasa location to prove to future investors their concept could work in both urban and suburban markets.

Moving ahead with rapid expansion plans so soon after opening a first location can be dangerous, said Jack Srebnick, owner of 17th Street Cafe on Montana Avenue in Santa Monica and former president of the Westside-Beverly Hills chapter of the California Restaurant Association.

"The biggest downfall of expansion is that you have something doing well and the new location doesn't do well, so you pull from the original to pay off the difference," he said.

But Brower said expansion would only happen as quickly as the infrastructure permits. If the new store isn't operating as needed, growth will be put on hold.

"There's no question in some form we'll need a capital infusion," he said. "Whether we go to a bank and get a loan or line of credit, or take on private investors or hook up with a venture capitalist remains to be seen. But we decided long ago we would rather have a small piece of a big pie than a big piece of a small pie."

PROFILE

Damon & Pythias

Year Founded: 2001

Core Business: California-American fast casual dining

Revenues in 2002: $1.5 million

Revenues In 2003 (projected): $2.3 million

Employees in 2002:35

Employees In 2003 (projected): 70

Goal: To open 20 locations in five years

Driving Force: To serve high quality food at a value-oriented price and to continue growing the concept