There used to be a McCormick and Schmick's in Pasadena and downtown L.A.
Used to be.
#16 | Posted by LegallyYourDead at 2026-07-22 01:38 AM
Yes, I know. Our son started at the store in Irvine, and then, after he came back from his four years in the infantry, they asked him to move to the Beverly Hills store that they were just opening on Rodeo Drive. He worked there awhile after being promoted to a sous chef. Then they moved him to the downtown store in the position of senior sous chef. Then they moved him back to the Rodeo Drive store as the Executive Chef, one of the youngest in the company. We loved it when he was working there as friends or relatives would come and visit and we'd ask them if they'd ever been to Beverly Hills and we'd tell them that we knew a great place to eat and that we could probably get the Executive Chef to stop by our table. It was great, driving into there underground parking and having the valet take the car, it was like living the lifestyle of the rich and famous.
Shortly after his first daughter was born, they asked him to transfer to Houston to open a new store there. Then a few years later they moved him to Dallas to open a new store there. Then they moved him back to Houston and he's been there ever since. He was promoted to a regional chef with responsibly for about six stores in the middle of the country.
Shorty after that Landy's bought the McCormick & Schmicks company. Our son was so afraid that he was going to get squeezed out because he was just a middle-manager. When I asked him where Landy's corporate headquarters was, he said it was two blocks from his store. I told him that he had nothing to worry about since he was highest ranking McCormick's employee close to the Landry's people, and sure enough when his boss, who was located in Kansas City, didn't quite fit in with the new owners, he quit and they offered our son his job, and he's just kept moving up since then, to his current position.
Granted, when he jointed M&S they had about 40 stores nationwide and at their peak it was close to 65 when Landry's acquired them. However, over the years, as the leases started to run out many of the under performing stores were closed and then when COVID hit, more were closed. They're down to about 23 stores now. The Anaheim store is the only one that's still here in SoCal. They've still got one in San Francisco, as well as a few in the Pacific Northwest, which is where McCormick & Schmicks was headquartered when it was still being run by Bill McCormick and Doug Schmick. The rest are back east and in the midwest.
So yea, it's not like it used to be, but the food is still good and we try and eat at the Anaheim store maybe once a month or so, and our sons manages to get out to visit the store a few times a year (he's right now in Seattle and will be stopping in Portland before heading back to Houston in a week or so).
OCU
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