We had the good fortune of connecting with John Secretan and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi John, what role has risk played in your life or career?
I don’t see how progress is made without taking risks. From the moment you have your concept and regardless if you’re doing it for financial gain, hobby or pure enjoyment you are risking your economic well being, your personal happiness, time management, relationships, etc…

What should our readers know about your business?
Zinc Cafe & Market was established in 1988 and envisioned years prior while living as a landscape architecture student in Berkeley CA. The food movement of farm to table, organics, european influneces, hard work, origniality are all qulaiites that I observed during the food movement happening in the bay area in the 80’s.

Chez Panisse, Zuni Cafe, Stars, Acme Bread, Peets Coffee, Kermit Lynch Wines, Blue Bottle Coffee, Berkeley Bowl, etc… were all the leaders in creating products, settings, experiences and ambiance for eating and drinking experiences.

There is nothing easy about the restaurant business. It requires one to wear so many hats from spread sheets to human resources, to creativity. You either need to have the capabilities for all these disciplines yourself or have the smarts to hire for those postiions that you’re not good at.

What sets us apart from other cafes is the personal ambiance and creativity that has been put into the business. My answer when asked by a younger person of what has made Zinc successful is that you need to have an amazingly clear vision of what you want it to be when opening it and you have some method of proving that others want what you’re creating. It can adapt and change to things you learn, but that intial concept has to be solid.

We’re a vegetarian restaurant due to me being a third generation vegetarian on both sides of the family. In 1980 vegetarianism in the United States was still very much an anomoly. I would never serve meat but nor did I have any desire to allienate individuals by pushing this life style in their face. We made delicious, creative and accessible food without ever using the word vegetarian or healthy in our marketing. For the most part no one to this day thinks of us as a vegetraina restaurant and therefore we appeal to the mass rather than a small specialized group. This then inadvertenly makes carnivours realize that, hey, vegetraiansim is and option that I would have never tried.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
If a friend comes to LA my itinerary would be a combination of Orange County and Los Angeles.

I’ll assume it’s a beautiful summer day and we would start our day with an early morning walk on the beaches in Laguna Beach. Woods Cove, Moss Point, Thousand Steps are all amazing beaches. We’d have brunch at Ahba in South Laguna and then head to the Huntington Gardens in Pasadena to tour the gardens and have tea at the tea house. This is a big place so it takes some time. After that I’d give a drive to see some of the beautiful Frank Lloyd Wright homes in the neighborhood along with the beautiful architecture in San Marino and specifally homes designed by George Washington Smith. It’s time to head to LA for an early evenng cocktail before dinner. I’d have to go to the small intimate bar inside Chateau Marmont due to the fame and history of that hotel. then we’d end the day with dinner at Kismet and a final glass of wine at Bar Covell .

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My mom, Rosemarie Secretan, has been such an inspiration and teacher to what I’ve been able to accomplish in my life. Her physical, emotional and creative invovlement in my business has only increased my desire to assess and make things better.

The book “Restaurant Man” by Joe Bastianich told his story so beautifully and gave such loving credit to all those that operate the place and the customers that supports your business.

Website: www.zinccafe.com

Instagram: @zinccafeandmarket

Facebook: Zinc Cafe & Market

Yelp: Zinc Cafe & Market

Image Credits
no names

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