Page 6 March 11, 2021 EL SEGUNDO HERALD
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The Hoffman Group
GORGEOUS PENTHOUSE, EASY TO SHOW!
13078 Mindanao Way, No. 315, Marina Del Rey
2 BD + Loft | 2 BA | 2184 SF | High Vaulted Ceilings | Roof top Deck Guard
Gate Community | $1,395,000
IN ESCROW, MULTIPLE OFFERS IN ESCROW, MULTIPLE OFFERS
745 Main Street, No 305, El Segundo
2 BD | 2 BA | 1173 SF | $749,000
4335 W 190th Street, Torrance
4 BD | 3.5 BA | 2552 SF | $1,099,000
Quote for the Week: “Change Your Thoughts .....and
You Change Your World.” -Norman Vincent Peale
NEW LISTING!
Fantastic location only 2 miles from El Segundo, is this multiunit
property. Although zoned commercial, the property has a
well maintained 5 unit apartment complex. (1) 2/1 & (4) 1/1
All apartments are spacious, have garages and washer dryers!
Awesome opportunity! Seller wants SOLD now!
Asking $1,450,000
Jackson Kalb from front page
a Michelin two-star institution, thinking he
would speak with the owner for a bit and
maybe watch some practices. When the owner
greeted him, his first remark was, “Why are
you wearing shorts? You’re working today.”
After a quick panic call to his mom to bring
him more professional clothes, they threw
Jackson into the current, assigning his first
task to be deboning rabbit confit. “Rabbits
have very teeny tiny bones. It’s a very tedious
process,” he explains.
Kalb continued to work at Mélisse after
school for the rest of middle and high school.
“It wasn’t a paid gig,” he says, “It was an
apprenticeship. I was there of my own accord
because I wanted to be there.”
Toward the end of his high school years,
he went to work for three Michelin-star restaurant
Joël Robuchon in Las Vegas. Here
he found himself at a crossroads. Nearing
graduation, he found himself trying to decide
between going to culinary school or trying
to get into college to learn the business side
of restaurants.
Very luckily, he says, he got into Cornell
University’s hospitality program, which he
didn’t know at the time was ranked number
one for that field. While there, he worked for
three Michelin-star rated Chicago restaurant,
Alinea.
After graduating, Kalb went to what he
calls “restaurant boot camp”, or working for
Hillstone Restaurant Group. The rigorous
nature of this company enabled him to learn
how a well-run restaurant business looks.
After about two years of this experience, he
knew he wanted to open his own restaurant.
So he took what money he had and booked
himself a one-way ticket to Italy.
For his four months in Italy (until he ran
out of money, he jokes), he picked up jobs
here and there in multiple kitchens, learning
how they treat the dining experience and
process their food. “Their restaurants are
about nourishment, and part of nourishing
yourself is nourishing the soul,” he says. In
other words, consuming food is about more
than just getting enough calories to go about
the rest of your day. For him, this comfort and
nourishment looked like a fresh plate of pasta.
Upon his return, he got a job as the Chef
de cuisine at Factory Kitchen, all the while
planning out a future in which he operated
his own Italian restaurant. After a very intense
experience working for Factory Kitchen
and an opportunity to open a restaurant for
someone else fell through, Kalb resolved that
he was ready to be his own boss.
“So we tried the fundraising thing, and let
me tell you, it is brutal,” says Kalb. He and
his business partner (and now fiancée), Melissa
Saka, raised money for eleven months, and
at the end of month ten, had exactly zero
dollars. Finally, someone he’d cooked for a
few times who was blown away by the food
decided to get his group together and invest
$40,000 into Jackson’s idea. “Forty thousand
dollars may sound like a lot of money, and
I can tell you, restaurants are expensive,” he
says, adding that this amount might cover half
the kitchen equipment in a new restaurant.
Splitting their time between Santa Monica
and Long Beach, they settled on El Segundo
as the halfway point and lucked into their
current spot. “I believe this of anyone with
any sort of success in any magnitude… teeny
tiny, huge, massive… there has to be a stroke
of luck,” Jackson says. The landlord was not
ready to lease to someone who was young
and had little money or experience. But
the property manager believed in him and
asked them to give him a chance. So, with
less than $100k, at twenty-seven years old,
Jackson Kalb opened his Italian restaurant
All of the pasta at Jame Enoteca is handmade, including a 36-hour tomato sauce.
Jackson Kalb and Melissa Saka at their restaurant, Jame Enoteca.
Photo by: Max Milla.
here in El Segundo, called Jame Enoteca.
Jame comes from a combination of Jackson
and Melissa, and Enoteca is a kind of
wine bar and casual eatery in Italy. Kalb is
not the biggest fan of the name Jame, but
after a difficult lawsuit claiming the original
name (Workshop Enoteca) was too close to
an existing restaurant in Palm Springs, they
needed something that could not be in danger
of being duplicated on accident.
Jackson and Melissa put a lot of love and
work into their restaurant, still working seven
days a week. Since the opening of Jame, they
opened a second restaurant in Venice during
the pandemic, and as new homeowners here
in El Segundo, Kalb says they have exciting
plans for new projects in the community.
Most of all, Kalb hopes to bring a sense of
nourishment with his food, measured not
just in calories, but in comfort. •
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