BC One Sheet - French District

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Founded by Raphael Berry and his wife, Hortensia Magana
Since 1996
Berri’s Cafe brings you flavors of the
Mediterranean and fresh ingredients with homestyle recipes and a 20” hand-tossed pizza.
Berri’s Cafe is one of those hidden treasures
you always want to be a part of, with a large
clientele that extends beyond avid
neighborhood patrons and includes
celebrities, film industry executives, up &
coming artists, and business entrepreneurs.
A mixture of Mediterranean food served in a
European style venue with a relaxed, friendly
atmosphere, tailored service and a delicious
menu well into 4AM.
A place where everyone can feel comfortable
whether in casual attire or evening gown,
after 18 years of consistent service, there is
something to be said about the creative
genius behind an adaptive concept that has
become an idea of its own with power for
success.
Berri’s Cafe was created in 1996 by Raphael
Berry and his wife, Hortensia Magana, and, for
the past 2 decades, they have focused their
efforts by leveraging their experience to
protect the very essence of Berri’s Cafe.
expanded. Today, Raphael Berry’s company is
branching out into two separate franchise
entities, one that expands a very unique takeout and delivery concept throughout the Los
Angeles Basin and another that is growing
Berri’s Café into an international brand.
An architect and designer by trade, Raphael’s
multi-cultural background and flair for a
convivial design have been key in the success
of Berri’s Cafe, bridging the gap between the
neighborhood restaurant and the late night
culinary desert that once were the affluent
and trendy neighborhoods of Beverly Hills,
West Hollywood and Hollywood.
As Berri’s Café on Third has grown into an
iconic LA destination, with its signature,
Raphael Berry’s vision for the future has also
Thé Cool @ Berri’s Cafe is an extension of the original Thé Cool in Paris, founded in1985 by Michèle La Porta,
with the additional flair and flavors of Berri’s Cafe.
This “permanent” restaurant pop-up idea came to Raphael Berry and Michèle La Porta at a dinner party, and, this
brilliant concept took form in just a few months.
The grand opening of Thé Cool @ Berri’s Cafe drew over 300 people to the restaurant on March 22nd, 2014.
Since, Thé Cool @ Berri’s Cafe operates daily from 10 AM to 5 PM and its healthy and diet friendly menu runs
concurrently with the Berri’s Menu to provide customers with a full range of choices.
BERRY
RAPHAEL
The engine behind Berri’s Cafe and RHB Group, LLC
“Optimism is the key element
of success and an essential
part of retaining it.”
Raphael Berry has been an interior architect
and designer for 20 years. He is a graduate of
the prestigious school, L’Ecole des Beaus Arts.
He began his career designing homes and
restoring historic houses, including a castle
immediately upon receiving his degree, and, at
21 years of age he formed his first company,
Déco Services, securing contracts throughout
metropolitan France.
On November 21, 1986, Raphael relocated to
Los Angeles. He was soon involved in opening
many of Los Angeles’ most visible night-spots.
His businesses included “Paris Boum Boum” in
Hollywood, “La Cage aux Folles” on La
Cienega, and “Castelle” in Westwood. He also
opened his own design gallery in Silverlake,
Les Jardins d’Heliotropes, and formed Azure
Design Inc. in 1990 to flip houses while
continuing to design homes, condominiums
and restaurants throughout the affluent
neighborhoods Los Angeles.
In 1996, Raphael had a vision for opening a
new restaurant concept. A Mediterranean/
Italian eatery serving and delivering a full
menu -- featuring a signature 20” hand tossed
pizza, until four o’clock in the morning.
On November 21st, 1996, within three
months, Berri’s Café opened to the public.
With its unique European feel, it combined
Raphael’s background in design and his years
of restaurant and nigh-club experience. With
no publicity or advertising, the restaurant was
very well received from its inception. The food
and atmosphere of the restaurant caught the
attention of the neighborhood immediately,
and ultimately the music and the hip late night
“A good concept is about fresh and comfortable food served in a great environment,
reasonably priced but not cheap, and readily available. Berri’s is the expression of this
concept and it is designed to be a place to meet friends, enjoy a meal. (...) Enjoy oneself
however late at night. Until four o’clock in the morning. Growing up in Paris, I was always
going to great places where people could socialize, relax and eat exactly what they wanted
to into the early hours of the moening. I wanted to create the next generation of that kind
of thing for Angelenos. This, this isn’t work for me, it’s love! It’s what I love to do. ”
ambiance made Berri’s Café into the iconic LA
feature it has become.
Today, Raphael Berry’s company is expanding
into two separate franchise entities, one that
builds on a very unique take-out and delivery
concept throughout the Los Angeles Basin and
another that is growing Berri’s Café into an
international brand.
MAGANA
HORTENSIA
Type to enter text
The strong anchor behind it all
“My father believes that people can
achieve whatever they put their minds
to and with that belief, by offering a
quality selection of fine food products,
the Magana family business continues to
enhance the community it serves, and is
likely to endure for generations to
come.
My husband and I share in this belief
and, for the last 18 years, we have
watched in turn as our own business,
the Berry family business, has grown
and become an integral part of a
community of its own.”
- Hortensia Magana
Hortensia Magana has been involved with all
aspects of food production, distribution and
service since the young age of sixteen.
Hortensia’s parents are the founders of Diana's
Mexican Food Products, a family owned and
operated enterprise that started from humble
beginnings in the 60s and continues to enjoy
success that has carried it into the twenty-first
century.
As a young Mexican immigrant, her father,
Samuel F. Magana, came to America and was the
first employee hired by another large Mexican
food company in Los Angeles, where he was
eventually promoted to general plant manager.
In addition to learning a trade that would
eventually be the foundation upon which the
family business was built, Sam also met his wife
Hortencia.
Sharing in a passion for American enterprise, by
1969, armed with entrepreneurial drive and
business know-how, the young couple
purchased the first of what would soon become
a chain of grocery, wholesale and restaurant
business.
From the mid-1970s through the early 1990s,
the Magana family business prospered. All three
Magana children, Hortensia, her sister and
brother, grew up immersed in the family
business and from a young age learned valuable
lessons in entrepreneurship, hard work,
integrity and family from their parents.
As Hortensia graduated from LMU in
International Business Administration, she met
her future husband, Raphael Berry, with whom
she shared a very similar connection as her
parents did. Together, they envisioned, planned
and implemented a restaurant concept of their
own, and built Berri’s Cafe into the iconic
Angeleno destination that it has become since
1996.
Today, as an active mother of three, Hortensia
is still very much involved in the expansion of
Diana’s operations, Diana’s client base reaches
across the Pacific into Japan, where the
popularity of authentic Mexican cuisine has
skyrocketed. Diana's also supplies tasty
homemade tortilla chips to large casino clients
in nearby Las Vegas, and produces private label
tortillas and other fine products to domestic
clients across the US.
Hortensia is also currently Chief Financial
Officer of Berri’s Cafe and actively involved in
the franchise operations of RHB Group, LLC.
Parisian TV host (France 2) Michèle La
Porta and owner of Thé Cool in Paris,
since 1985, invented a way to eat
without guilt and frustration. She
created the Starlette Cake™, a
delicious cake with no sugar, no butter,
no flour, no eggs and no fat at all!
The Starlette Cake™ made quite a
buzz in LA & Beverly Hills following its
red-carpet launch at the LUXE Hotel on Rodeo Drive. But, that was nothing
compared to the buzz that she
generated when she partnered with
Raphael Berry of Berri’s Cafe to create
Thé Cool @ Berri’s Cafe, the only
pop-up of its kind!
Thé Cool @ Berri’s Cafe named “TOP 25 BEST
RESTAURANTS IN LOS ANGELES” by
Gayot.com for Spring 2014
BOULEVARD Magazine favorite since 1996
Berri’s Cafe in West Hollywood
is a great spot to check out. They have tons of
affordable pies to
choose from,
including the
Chicken Pesto
Pizza with
chicken, cheese,
sun dried
tomatoes,
caramelized
onions and
flavorful pesto
sauce. They’re
famous for their signature Lobster Pizza people come from all over the Southland to
enjoy it! It’s simply decadent darling, decadent.
BOULEVARD Magazine – Online Edition
The Berri’s Menu is built from
from a mix of artfully re-invented favorites
(including New York style pizza, calamari,
spinach and artichoke dip) and family recipes
inspired by the three continents (Europe, Asia
and Africa) skirting the Mediterranean Sea.
Berri’s also brands itself as an establishment
that has "served the community" since 1996.
(...) "The concept is about creating fresh
and comfortable food and serving it in a great
environment, and making it readily available,"
says Raphael Berry. (...) The interior is
inviting, and the music we play is a diplomatic
force that attracts more inquiries than our
much-loved family pizza recipe.
Educated at the Beaux Arts in Paris, and
an olympian kick boxer Raphael Berry
relocated to Los Angeles pursuant to the
1984 Los Angeles Olympics.
(...) Though he originally picked up where
he left off as an architect and designer, the
notion of a restaurant was always there,
however and when Raphael met Hortensia,
his future wife, whose family had significant
experience in the restaurant industry, the
ambitious couple traveled to Europe to
cultivate ideas (...). By 1996, they returned,
inspired and they found their current location
on Third Street, and developed a menu with
five pastas, five salads, two deserts and thincrust pizzas made with a family’s dough
recipe.
BOULEVARD Magazine – 2001
Consistency. For 18 years,
Raphael Berry has provided sophisticated
Mediterranean cuisine at Berri’s Café on West
3rd. While other restaurants have gone belly
up, Berri’s continues to offer delicious food
from 10:00am to 4:00am.
(...) Raphael is handsome and charming
with a flair for intelligent and cohesive deign,
distinctive flavor combinations and
unmatched customer service.
. His legendary energy and spirit infuse
all his creations with lively panache. From the
front of the house to the back of the house,
most of the Berri’s staff has been with Raphael
for eons, and they know how to treat each patron
as a celebrity just as they do with the actual
celebrities who frequent Berri’s with regularity.
Berri’s on 3rd presents a chic
Mediterranean palette of warm color touched
with old world accents. There is an intriguing
selection of pizza but make no mistake - this
is not a pizza joint. The pasta, seafood and
meat choices are equally captivating - but this
is not a pasta place either!
At Raphael’s suggestion we sampled the
famous Lobster Pizza. I’d return for this dish
alone! Succulent chunks of lobster and shrimp
on a slim crust covered with Berri’s own pink
sauce literally melted in my mouth (...)This is
the perfect 4am dish with hearty comfort
food pizzazz and flavors that pamper your
palate.
Raphael’s newest project re-bottles the
flair and recipes of Berri’s Cafe into a smaller
format to bridge the gap between table
service and quick serve. His flagship location
in West Los Angeles will open this summer.
BOULEVARD Magazine – 2013
Gayot.com 2014
“Best of Los Angeles”
Berri’s Cafe
This popular late-night
spot
serves
Mediterranean fare to
students, celebrities
and hungry club kids.
Although the
gourmet New Yorkstyle pizza is the main attraction, the
diverse menu features everything from
cioppino to merguez to steak frites.
The brasserie style décor is surprisingly
pleasant, as is the outside patio. If you’re
overcome by a craving for lobster
pizza in the wee hours but can’t be
bothered to leave the couch, take
advantage of the home delivery service
(they are open until 4 am).
Thé Cool @ Berri’s Cafe
Thé Cool is
your healthy
destination
for lunch.
Ever ything
on the menu
is organic, low-fat and -sugar, and
locally farmed which ensures freshness.
Vegetarians will be very happy with the
salads. (...) Let us not forget the
organic juice bar, where you can create
your own drink with three or five
ingredients of your choosing, or
indulge in creations such as “Basil
Instinct” (green apple, strawberry, kale,
spinach and basil) or “California
Dream” (apple, pear, grapefruit, coconut
water and fresh turmeric).