Women making inroads in local restaurant industry

Max Jacobson

Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2000 | 9:28 a.m.

Las Vegas was once the bastion of the tuxedo-clad, all-powerful maitre d', a legendary figure who could make or break an evening, men whose palms were greased by celebrities and commoners alike.

A few of those men are still around, but a new generation of restaurants depend on general managers instead, and more and more, many of them are women. The following four are typical of this new trend in the restaurant world. All four got to where they are today by treading different paths, and all four face similar challenges in their careers:

Lana Trevisan

This tall, stunning woman, who stands well over 6 feet in her stylish heels, is the GM at Spago in the Forum Shops at Caesars. Because she is only 27 and looks even younger, she is often mistaken for a hostess. Don't be misled. She is a highly trained, highly disciplined woman who takes her job with the utmost seriousness.

Trevisan is from Chicago, but she has a degree in hospitality management from the Hotel and Restaurant School at Northern Arizona in Flagstaff. After doing the usual stints as waitress and bartender, she graduated to fine dining, and soon after, got a coveted internship with Cynthia Kaiser-Murphy, senior vice-president of human resources at the MGM Grand.

Later she worked for Marriott in Chicago, where her eye caught a sign that said, "Spago coming soon." Out of sheer curiosity, she stopped in for an interview, and was lured away from her management training program at the Marriott. She's been with Wolfgang Puck's restaurants ever since, first at Spago Chicago, later at our own Chinois, then opening GM at Lupo, and now her current position, which she received six months ago.

Spago presents a phenomenal challenge. It's a $10-million a year restaurant where the customers are ever so demanding, and she has to maintain scrupulous standards. The pressure is so high that, she says with reluctance, "I have to terminate around three people per week."

Trevisan manages a staff of around 150, 90 in front, and around 60 in the back. She's on the floor during both lunch and dinner, and she is involved with every aspect of the restaurant, having recently instituted a two week training program for all her employees. She's an imposing woman, and she runs a tight ship.

Nicole Ramos

Ramos, the GM at the bustling, Latin-themed Border Grill at Mandalay Bay, is a 34-year old San Diego native. She actually became a food and beverage manager at a Vermont ski resort at the ripe old age of 19. Later she worked as a manager at the legendary La Costa Resort, before her resume impressed Border Grill's two women owners, Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger.

Ramos is especially comfortable working for women owners, in part because she happens to be pregnant. "There's certainly no glass ceiling here," says Ramos, "and plus, the girls understand the special problems that a pregnant woman has, so everything will be exactly as it was for me when I'm ready to resume working."

She likes being in Vegas, but acknowledges that a GM's problems are very different here than they are in most places.

"Sometimes you have to comfort customers who have lost all their money," she says. "Other times, people come to the podium directly from the pool, dripping wet."

She also points out that the work ethic for service people is not the same in Las Vegas as it is in most major cities. She says that servers are harder to manage here because there are so many new restaurants begging for good people, and if things are perfect for them they know that they can get a new job in 10 minutes.

"So the way we keep people is to give them a voice, listen to them, and to create a perfect working environment," she says. And so far, so good.

Susan Ball

Ball is 43, and a relatively new employee at Station Casinos. She is the GM at the Iron Horse Cafe at Palace Station, and what is nice about her story is that she was born in Las Vegas, and worked her way up through the ranks. She began her career at the long defunct Silver City. Before coming on board with Station Casinos, she was a manager at Luxor.

Iron Horse Cafe is a 24-hour restaurant with a huge American menu and an excellent Chinese menu. (Try the bird's nest chicken, or the lobster Cantonese.) The restaurant seats 300, and the staff is 135, so her tasks are huge.

"I like to lead by example," Ball says. "That's the first thing I point out on my resume.

"One challenge about being a female manager is the relationship with the kitchen, which is predominately male. There is a feeling that we can't walk in their shoes," Bell says. "I admit that it is hard for employees in the front of the house to understand the stress in the kitchen, but the converse is true as well."

Her philosophy: delegate, empower, and keep the guests happy.

Joanne Takahashi

This delightful woman, at 25, has to be one of the youngest GMs of a major restaurant in the city. She's GM at Nobu in the Hard Rock Hotel, probably the city's best Japanese restaurant, which is quite an achievement considering the status that women have in Japanese society.

Takahashi started as a hostess at Nobu's flagship restaurant Matsuhisa, while still in her senior year at USC. An L.A. native, she wanted to live in New York, and when her boss Nobu Matsuhisa opened a restaurant there, she jumped at the chance to relocate. Little by little, she worked her way up to a managerial position, surprising even herself along the way.

"I'm comfortable with the bicultural aspects of my job because I grew up with it, but it hasn't always been easy, especially managing macho sushi chefs from Japan. In the beginning, when I'd make a suggestion to a man, I'd just get a blank look, until another manager came along to back me up."

But eventually she earned everyone's respect, and today, she manages a staff of around 75. Her biggest challenge?

"To make sure that the front and the back of the house communicates, and that there is no adversarial relationship between the two."

Cultural and social barriers are cracking everywhere in the new millennium, as Takahashi and her colleagues demonstrate with consummate grace.