Inspiring Conversations with Leonard Chan of The Alchemists is my restaurant umbrella, but this is for the three concepts at Midnight Oil

Today we’d like to introduce you to Leonard Chan.

Hi Leonard, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Here is the canned Bio: Leonard Chan, embarrassingly and humbly named one of “OC’s 100 Most Influential” in 2014 by the Orange County Register, has considerable experience in the restaurant industry beginning with seeing his first restaurant in 2009, after thirteen (13) years in the Information Technology world, from light bulb to swinging open it’s doors. Born in Anaheim and raised in Irvine, Leonard has eaten and drank his way through Southern California’s restaurant and bar scene. In his role as “CEO-ish” of The Alchemists, Leonard oversees the group’s restaurant concept creation and integration which has made him a key part of some of the most successful development projects in Orange County including The Anaheim Packing House, the OC Mix, SOCO, Historic Main Street in Garden Grove, Downtown Long Beach, Cravings in Eastvale. Leonard’s first foray into the industry was Cal Shabu Costa Mesa (originally conceived by Wayne Atchley), then caught the bug and now has The Iron Press, Shuck Oyster Bar, The Blind Rabbit, Rolling Boil, Barcode, Stowaway Tiki, Belly of the Beast, The Lost Inferno, Momoku No Usagi, Monkey King Brewing, The Apothecary, The Lagoon, and Hao Peng You Hand Laundry. Along with the current concepts, The Alchemists are opening Mura Shabu Shabu and Yakiniku in San Clemente. In addition to The Alchemists’ own projects, Leonard Chan has consulted on food halls such as Union Market (Tustin and Mission Viejo), McFadden Public Market (Downtown Santa Ana), Collage at South Coast Plaza, and the upcoming Myriad 3 Story Food Hall with an additional Rooftop in Rosemead. Planning his travels around where to dine, Leonard draws inspiration from every aspect of his experiences. With an obsession on design, Leonard creates fun, delicious, and welcoming spaces with a hugs over handshakes culture. Cum Laude, B.A. Economics University of California at Irvine 1997.

The quick story of how this all came to be was that around 2007 I had become aloof with working in technology. Traveling around the world and being exposed to so many different flavors and experiences really charged me up to open up a fun and inviting spot in Orange County. I drafted up a business plan to open up a savory waffle and craft beer concept called the Mad Batter. Craft beer isn’t what it is today and my friends were worried since I didn’t have much experience running my own restaurant – only helping out at my parents quick serve Chinese Restaurant while in High School. So, after sharing the business plan around for 6 months without a bite, I figured maybe it wasn’t in the cards for me or the timing wasn’t right. I knew that I needed a change, so I had a potential job offer in Singapore and a full offer in Seattle, I was ready to take off. As fate would have it, that weekend my good friend and original owner of California Shabu Shabu, Wayne Atchley, and I were at Proof Bar in Downtown Santa Ana celebrating a friend’s birthday when Wayne leaned over and asked me if I wanted to open up a second location of Cal Shabu. To be honest, we were both about 15 shots of Jagermeister in by the time that conversation happened. I gave him a lot of grief because I had been asking him for over 2 years to open a second location. He had some hesitations due to disagreements between his previous friend and partner, but worked out a way for me to license the business and operations. He asked to meet with him the next morning, tucked his car key into his shoe, called Triple A to pick him up and tow the car home because he “lost his key” and wobbled to the car.

Fast forward to the next morning, I’m with my girlfriend at the time at Target and my mobile rings…it’s Wayne very alertly saying, “You’re late! I know we drank a lot last night, so if you weren’t serious, no worries.” To which I replied “Man, I thought you were blacked out and wouldn’t even remember our conversation, I’ll be there in 30!” I rushed around Target throwing everything back on the shelves, dropped off my GF, and zipped over to Cal Shabu in FV. We spoke for a good two hours and then I took a few days to break down all of his costs and run some projections. Everything looked promising, so I called Seattle and Singapore to let them know that I was going to stick around to see if I could get this funded. I pulled up my business plan, changed Mad Batter to Cal Shabu and was fortunate to fund the other half of the project in less than 2 weeks! A proven concept with a proven operator as support most definitely played a huge part in that. After that, I really did catch the bug and went on to the other projects listed above.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Anyone who tells you that opening and running a restaurant or bar is smooth is a rat faced liar haha. Within the first 2 weeks of construction at Cal Shabu, we were on the rooftop surveying the equipment. By the time we came down, we were greeted by 4 police officers with their guns drawn. We had to lay on the hot summer blacktop in our parking lot, cuffed, and questioned. We found out that the old pharmacy next door to us had people break in from the roof to steal opioids, so they installed a silent alarm. The officers and us all had a good laugh about it after they confirmed who we were.

I’m definitely not battling 1000 either. We had a huge project at Chinatown at DTLA that we were close to opening, it was a collaborative of 8 of us tenants, but ultimately I was on the hook for the entire lease. Ultimately, we ended up backing out of the project about 80% of the way into construction. Needless to say, it was a really scary moment and I basically had my bank account almost go to zero after it was all said and done. A bunch of us lost a considerable amount, it was a bloodbath.

The pandemic was the most challenging time to navigate the businesses through. There was an 18 month period where I wasn’t paid anything while trying to survive. At one point, we were running three restaurants on altering days out of one of our locations just to try and keep our a chunk of our team on payroll while trying to keep up with rent and all of the other bills and costs associated with running your own business. Though it was a big mess and a lot of paperwork, all of the government help ultimately saved all of our businesses. Fortunately, we were were able to hire back almost all of our team members and start running full speed again after there was more clarity with how the world was spinning.

In general, there are so many agencies that you have to jump through hoops for to open and on an ongoing basis, it’s a lot to juggle. Health, The City, vendors, employee management, customer service, bills, margins, yadda yadda. The most talented clowns in the world would have trouble keeping up with all of the bowling pins in the air at one time. It’s almost as if you’re hosting multiple weddings day in and day out for 360+ plus days a year. To get into this industry, you truly have to love it, otherwise you’re punishing yourself for nothing haha.

As you know, we’re big fans of The Alchemists is my restaurant umbrella, but this is for the three concepts at Midnight Oil. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
The Alchemists owns and operates all of the concepts listed below. We also consult for food halls, restaurants, and bars. We’ve had many pitfalls, so we’re hoping we can help others avoid them!

Is there anyone you’d like to thank or give credit to?
At Midnight Oil, our entire team is so amazing. We got the keys on January 5th, We were trying to save all of the jobs for the previous team that was running Rosemallows. We were able to get the main bar and restaurant – The Apothecary – open in 4 weeks and retained pretty much all of them! Without their collective beating hearts, it would have been tough to turn things around so quickly.

The City of Long Beach and it’s community has been overwhelmingly supportive. From The Downtown Long Beach Alliance, to the Chamber of Commerce, everyone that has come through our doors has welcomed us with open arms (and mouths). Our partners, especially Tia Nguyen, has been a big help through some rough hurdles we went through. Her and the rest of our partners have been super supportive and patient while we figured everything out.

Huge shout outs go to Brian Addison (@longbeachize) and James Tir (@lbfoodcoma), both of whom have their fingers on the pulse of all things Long Beach, have been constantly helping get the word out for us and the other amazing businesses in Long Beach. Without them, we most definitely would not be where we are after just a few shorts months of being open. THANK YOU!

Sherwood Souzankari has been in this space since it’s first iteration, Beer Belly, with the previous owner. He came back to help when they transformed to Rosemallows, stuck around when we took over, and now runs our bar program and is one of the partners here. His knowledge of the space and cocktails has been an immense blessing. Plus, it’s a huge bonus that we just have a really good time when we are together!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.TheAlchemistsHQ.com (I need to update this) www.MNOLBC.com for Midnight Oil
• Instagram: MNOLBC, HPYLBC, TheLagoonLBC
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61572641735371 (the other two haven’t linked yet, it’s been frustrating)
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/the-apothecary-at-midnight-oil-long-beach https://www.yelp.com/biz/hao-peng-you-long-beach https://www.yelp.com/biz/the-lagoon-long-beach-2

Image Credits
Chloe Chen @bychloesee