16 years after massacre, Brown's Chicken rebuilds

[August 10, 2009]  CHICAGO (AP) -- The name -- the Brown's Chicken Massacre -- says it all.

When police pulled seven dead employees from a suburban Brown's Chicken and Pasta restaurant in January 1993, the killings became synonymous with the fast-food chain. Sixteen years later, the company still struggles to recover.

"The tragedy almost put us out of business -- emotionally and financially," Brown's CEO Frank Portillo said.

As the second of two suspects goes to trial, Portillo is focused on rebuilding the chain he helped launch in the 1950s alongside chicken farmer John Brown.

The victims were killed during a robbery in the quiet bedroom community of Palatine that netted less than $2,000. Restaurant owners Richard and Lynn Ehlenfeldt and employees Michael Castro, 16, Guadalupe Maldonado, 46, Thomas Mennes, 32, Marcus Nellsen, 31, and Rico Solis, 17, were shot and stabbed.

Nine years passed before former employee Juan Luna and his friend James Degorski were arrested. Luna was convicted in 2007 and sentenced to life in prison. Jury selection began last week in Degorski's trial.

In the early 1990s, the case dominated headlines.

"We were on the morning news, the afternoon news and the evening news for about a year," Portillo said. "It just scared our customers."

Gross sales dropped 30 to 40 percent the year of the killings, and for a time, sales dropped 10 percent across the board every time stories about the slayings were on the news, Portillo said.

Elmhurst, Ill.-based Brown's closed more than 100 stores in the dark days afterward. At the chain's peak, there were 172 outlets around the country; today, about 45 are clustered in Illinois and Indiana.

"There are some people who won't come into a Brown's because of that tragedy," Portillo said.

Industry experts said changing the chain's name wasn't an option because of obligations to franchisees who had bought into the Brown's name and because Brown's was a well-established brand.

Experts say navigating such a devastating situation requires businesses to be vocal and engaged with the public from the beginning.

"It's all about how you communicate to the families, to the community, and how they perceive you," said Dean Small, managing partner for California-based Synergy Restaurant Consultants. "So much of it is how you deal with it on the front end."

He pointed to Jack in the Box as an example of a restaurant chain that bounced back from a public relations nightmare. An E. coli outbreak in 1993 sickened hundreds of people and killed four who ate undercooked Jack in the Box hamburgers. Sales dropped, and it took the chain's parent company two years to turn a profit again.

San Diego-based Jack in the Box responded to the outbreak by making strides in food safety and remaking its brand through marketing, Small said.

Right after the killings, Portillo visited victims' families and attended funerals. Portillo said he's still haunted by the looks on family members' faces.

"I still start crying when I talk about it," he said. "I still see them when I close my eyes, the agony the people went through."

He threw himself into getting justice for his employees, criticizing police he said were inexperienced at handling such a crime and working to get other small businesses to bolster their security systems. He blamed himself for what happened.

"If I never had Brown's, those people would still be alive," he said.

Lloyd Gordon, president of Skokie, Ill.-based restaurant consulting firm GEC Consultants Inc., saw Portillo speak at a Kiwanis meeting shortly after the killings.

"(Portillo) said at that time that he was morally obliged to undertake the investigation and prosecution of those people that committed this crime," Gordon said. "That made a great impression on everybody."

Portillo started a radio talk show and promoted legislation that laid out penalties for crimes against workers who serve the public. The legislation didn't pass, and Portillo turned his focus to his struggling company. Brown's has paid off its debt and is working on rebuilding its assets.

The company hopes to grow by focusing on franchises and diversifying the menu, Portillo said. After decades of serving chicken, sides and pasta, Brown's has found new success by offering Chicago-style sandwiches.

Gordon said those changes, as well as modernizing restaurants and keeping prices in line with the market, will be key to Brown's success.

Portillo was 23 when he partnered with Brown, a friend of his father's, and Brown agreed to let Portillo and his wife open a franchise from their Elmhurst home.

Fifty years later, the chain's financial straits have Portillo feeling like he's in his 20s again: "We're broke with a lot of opportunity."

[Associated Press; By KAREN HAWKINS]

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