Vaso Azzurro’s Allan Sadri: A Success Story Forty Years in the Making

Restaurateur Allan Sadri has been in the restaurant business for almost 40 years. He moved to California from New York in 1972, and was a student at Pioneer High School in San Jose. While attending school, he worked at a restaurant. John Lesughi, a Bay Area restaurateur and family friend who was also from Iran, gave Sadri his start. “He was my guardian, my teacher, my mentor,” Sadri said. “I loved it,” he continued, “I instantly knew that I wanted to make a career out of it. Since I loved it so much, I became good at it and successful in my career.”

As the oldest boy of the family, he started taking care of his younger brother one year after arriving in the U.S. “Responsibility has been instilled in me since I was young, especially since I was the oldest child in my family,” he said, “At an early age, I was helping my parents raise my brothers and sisters. My father worked for the government; my mother was a teacher." By his early twenties, he was already married and had one child. At the same time his two younger sisters also arrived in the U.S.

Sadri loves the United States because of its people. He considers America to be the world’s melting pot. In his view, the American people are caring, giving, and forgiving, which, according to him, is what makes this country and its people unique. He feels one can always get a second chance in America. “I also love America because it is a land of opportunity,” he continued. “If you are a dedicated, devoted person, if you are willing to work hard, you can make it here.”

Using money borrowed from his parents, Sadri started his first business in 1975, about three years after arriving in America. The restaurant was called Sadri’s Mediterranean Restaurant and was located in San Jose. “We featured Mediterranean, French, and Continental food,” Sadri told us. “I had the restaurant for almost two years [but] I felt I needed more experiences, to learn more, and to expand my knowledge. I felt like the only way to do that was by going back to work in the industry,” he added.

Sadri subsequently went back to working for other restaurant owners and continued his career. “I managed some of the finest restaurants in this Valley and I made them very successful,” he said. “The restaurants I managed served French, Italian, and California Cuisine.”

In 1984, Sadri got his first opportunity to be involved in building a hotel—the Toll House Hotel in Los Gatos. He was a member of the executive team hired to build the hotel. For him, it was a tremendous experience. “It added to my knowledge and experiences. For a restaurant guy, [opening] a hotel is like [getting] your PhD,” he said.

After that project Sadri went on to manage and own at least a dozen great restaurants for the past 35 years. “The restaurant is a special business,” he told us. “It is a hard business to succeed in. It takes a lot of discipline, dedication, hard work, but I believe you can be successful at it if you follow a simple formula—good product, good service, good ambiance, and most of all, great hospitality. Good hospitality is the key.”

 

 

 

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