Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

A Good Egg: Mike McGowan living charitable life as owner/operator of Omelet House chain

Mike McGowan has never been married and has no children, but that doesn't mean he hasn't been a father figure.

McGowan, 62, has worked to improve young people's lives nearly his entire adult life.

As a college student, he worked with underprivileged children, and originally planned to become a probation officer so he could continue to work with young people.

But McGowan became disillusioned with police work and dealing with bureaucracies, and went into business for himself the restaurant business.

Most of his original restaurant projects are gone, but longtime Las Vegans most likely remember his Food Factory and Burger Garden chains of the 1970s, and the Omelet House, which he began in that decade, remains a popular haunt for politicians and fans of old Las Vegas. There are two others one at 316 N. Boulder Highway and the other at 2227 N. Rampart Blvd.

The first Omelet House at 2160 W. Charleston Blvd. started as a small dining area and expanded twice as businesses around McGowan went out of business or moved.

The original dining area has pine wood trim in the foyer and around most of the tables. A large mural of a lake shore frames a far corner, and pictures and paintings cover much of the other wall space. Artificial plastic plants hang throughout the area, and almost every one of the 12 booths has its own unique overhead light.

Knickknacks, such as old-fashioned cookie jars, contrast with grayish carpeting and worn Spanish tile throughout. McGowan's love of stained glass is evident, including the words "Garden Eatery" in yellow and green at the entrance and a large parrot in the waiting area.

"We wanted it to have a California look," McGowan said. "This is one of the last of the old Vegas restaurants."

But despite his career path shift, McGowan is quick to say he continues to work with young people and those less fortunate just in a different way.

"I still work with kids by employing them and caring about them," he said. McGowan is in negotiations to open a fourth restaurant so that one of his cooks, Eduardo "Lalo" Rebollo, can have his own place to operate.

"He said he wanted to get involved and make money," McGowan said. "We're going to give him a chance."

Giving people a chance is what McGowan is all about, says his business partner Kevin Mills, who operates the Omelet House in Summerlin.

"No employer is more generous and gives more fourth or fifth chances than Mike," Mills said.

In addition, McGowan is selling coffee mugs celebrating the city's 100th anniversary, the proceeds from which will benefit Shade Tree, a shelter for abused women and their children.

"The money isn't what makes this job. It's the fun you have and the people you deal with," McGowan said. "I don't think I'm in the food business. I'm in the people business."

Family business

McGowan grew up around the restaurant business, but never imagined it as a career. His father, Robert, managed a hotel/restaurant in Grand Forks, N.D., and his mother, Elsie, was an accomplished cook.

"She was a taste cook, no recipes," he said. "She'd always say, Does this taste good?' I'd tell her yes, and she'd say, Then it's done.' I learned at an early age that if something tastes good, you don't try to make it better, because you're going to screw it up."

After six miserable years in North Dakota "I hated the cold," he said McGowan's grandfather, Daniel, a onetime mayor of Grand Forks, and his wife, Lucy, moved to California with their children to help them open McGowan's Bar & Cafe in Long Beach, Calif., in 1949. Elsie cooked and Robert managed the restaurant, but McGowan never worked there.

"My interests were sports, sports, sports, girls, girls, girls, and cars, cars, cars," McGowan said, adding he has owned more than 600 vehicles over his lifetime. He currently has three.

McGowan's dream was always to be a professional athlete, and he had a great mentor in his uncle, Tom Amberry, who made the Guinness Book of World Records in 1993 for the most consecutive free throws -- 2,750.

"He was an All-American basketball player who took me to clinics and coached a Navy AAU basketball team," McGowan said, adding that he inherited his family's basketball talent.

"I could shoot the lights out."

McGowan's speed, combined with his work ethic, guaranteed him a spot on first teams in baseball, football and basketball -- up until the sixth grade.

"I fractured both ankles jumping off a school building," he said. "I think I was retrieving a baseball, and the maintenance guy scared me and I jumped off."

It took nearly a year for his ankles to heal, but his speed was never the same. "My uncle (Amberry, who was a podia- trist) told me years later I probably lost 2 inches on my growth," McGowan, who is 6-foot-1 1/2, said.

The accident cut short any hopes he had of a professional career.

His final year of high school, in which he "rode the bench" as the sixth man, taught him a valuable lesson.

"I learned that everyone deserves a chance," McGowan said.

He's spent the remainder of his life trying to make sure of that.

Kids first

While he was a student at Long Beach State, McGowan began working with children, becoming an events director for the Long Beach Parks and Recreation Department.

In addition to scheduling field trips, McGowan organized arts and crafts and coached baseball, volleyball, football and basketball games for disadvantaged kids.

McGowan realized the difference he could make by getting involved, and changed his major from philosophy and business to criminology.

"I changed my major to criminology because I wanted to make a difference in kids' lives," he said. "I wanted to become a probation officer."

The last year of college, McGowan got a job as a "Teen Post" director under the federal government's "war on poverty" program in 1966. As director of a Teen Post in San Pedro, Calif., McGowan did almost exactly what he did for Long Beach, but on a federal level.

"We had a donated Navy facility with a basketball court and pool table, and I entertained the kids," he said. "But I got disillusioned with it quickly, because it started out for kids, but it ended up giving their parents the money to get together and complain about their housing and quality of life. There was so much anger back then, and I was caught in the middle."

Shortly after graduation but before taking the probation officer exam, McGowan worked briefly for the Garden Grove Police Department as a patrolman, where things only got worse.

"I experienced things as a police officer that I didn't like," he said. "Resentment, prejudice, the attitude in the community and among the department. To succeed there, I would have had to change the person I was, and I didn't want to do that."

McGowan took the test a few months later, but failed.

"My friends took me out for beers before the test so I'd be relaxed," he said. "The questions were logic-based, and they penalize you for guessing. I either didn't listen completely or I was too smart for my own good, but I blew it."

Raising the bar

McGowan had to wait six months before he could take the test again. In the meantime he had to make money, and one of his unemployed friends -- and a fellow ex-basketball player -- suggested they start their own business.

"He wanted to open a bar, and he wanted me as a partner because I qualified -- I could drink a beer and shoot pool," McGowan said.

The two men opened the Bearded Clam in Long Beach in 1968, and the enterprise lasted nearly two years. McGowan loved the work so much he decided not to take the probation exam again.

"I never looked back," he said. "I never made any money working with kids, and the bar was very successful. I have no regrets."

McGowan sold his interest in the bar in 1969 and experimented with the franchise world, buying and operating a Tastee-Freez in Long Beach for a year.

"I wanted to take the profit and buy a McDonald's franchise, but my dad wouldn't go with me on it," he remembers. "He didn't think it would last."

It wasn't the first time his father's instincts were wrong.

"Back when my family had the restaurant, my grandmother, Lucy, made the pies, and they were considered the best pies in the city," McGowan said. "But my father got mad and didn't want her to do it anymore because it was hard work and there was no money in it."

McGowan's father opted instead to buy pies from a woman who had a nearby small production facility -- her name was Marie Callender.

While he concedes that his father missed the chance to open a chain of Lucy McGowan's restaurants nationwide, McGowan said his father "never felt bad about it. He just thought it was too much work for his mother."

The Tastee-Freez idea was a disaster.

"I never made a penny profit," he said. "It was in a bad location and I worked it like a slave."

Eager to leave franchises behind, McGowan opened an independent restaurant, Peg Leg's, in Marina del Rey in 1970. For three years he served as manager and cook, and enjoyed cooking his original creations.

"With Tastee-Freez, I had to cook their food," he said. "I didn't want to do that anymore."

Vegas connection

McGowan made the move to Las Vegas in 1973 upon the urging of a friend, Mike Kaplan, who had connections there and wanted to open a fast-food restaurant.

"He thought I was a good choice to operate it," McGowan said.

The first Food Factory opened that same year. "It was the first drive-through restaurant in Las Vegas," McGowan said.

For the next three years the Food Factory expanded to seven locations throughout Las Vegas, and McGowan was in charge of all of them. "I had that Irish work ethic, and I was young," he said.

Things were going so well that McGowan and his partners opened Alias Smith & Jones, a TGI Friday's-style restaurant on Twain Avenue and Swenson Street, in 1976 (the establishment is now a PT's Pub).

The restaurant was a big hit, but McGowan, who was again put in charge, was nearly at the point of exhaustion.

"It (the workload) broke my back," he said. "I walked off the job. I was worked to death and not appreciated."

McGowan unsuccessfully sued to get his initial investment in Food Factory back, but in the process met Lou Weiner, one of the first people to pass the bar in Nevada and a onetime attorney for Bugsy Siegel.

"He helped out a lot of people in town, and he liked me for whatever reason," McGowan said. "We became partners in 1977."

The two began a new fast-food restaurant called Burger Garden, another successful operation that expanded.

It was while opening the third location in 1978 on West Charleston Boulevard that the Omelet House was born.

"The location for our third Burger Garden was bad for a fast-food restaurant, but the local developer who owned the building really wanted us there, so we opened a restaurant there instead."

All Food Factory branches closed within six months of McGowan's departure (he still has a wooden sign from the first restaurant hanging in the original Omelet House), and he sold the Burger Gardens so he could focus on the Omelet House.

Over the last 26 years McGowan has opened -- and closed -- five other Omelet Houses in Las Vegas.

"He's not doing this for the money. He's had to sell houses and live in apartments to keep this thing rolling," Mills said.

But McGowan said being his own boss and being able to influence others' lives has been worth the sacrifices he's made.

"I love it," McGowan said.

He loves the creative side of the business as well.

The omelet selection includes the Cowboy Special (chili, cheddar cheese and onions), the Bugsy Siegel (roast beef in an Italian red sauce with sour cream and jack cheese) and My Little Chick-A-Dee (white chicken breast pieces, broccoli, onions and cheddar cheese).

While the restaurant is best known for its omelet selection and corned beef hash, it's also built a reputation on its fried zucchini (a McGowan specialty for decades) and his specialty spuds, nicknamed "Rip's Chips" after comedian Rip Taylor, who orders them on his frequent visits.

You're also assured a good sense of humor as part of your dining experience. Item "33 1/2" on the menu, "The Flatlanders Special," includes "raw liver, parsnips, peanut butter, organically grown black jelly beans, sauteed grunion lips (2), gardenia petals and topped with mint ice cream," and sells for $69.

"People order that all the time," McGowan said. "They play the joke right back at us. I always say, 'I've got one left. I'll have to defrost it.' "

McGowan's partners now include Fred Ostertag, who operates the Boulder Highway business, and Mills, Weiner's stepson, who came on board in 1990.

"When I was growing up in Las Vegas, I remember driving out of my way to get some of Burger Garden's fried zucchini and cheese sauce," Mills said. "In 1990, when my stepfather asked me to come and help, I was working for the Westin in San Francisco and hating life. I was packing a bag before I was off the phone."

McGowan keeps in touch with his brother, Daniel, 67, who lives in Mexico, and his sisters, Patti, 50, and Cathi, 46, who live a block apart in Bakersfield, Calif. His mother died five years ago, and his father died nine years ago, but with 65 employees, he feels like his family's around him all the time.

"I once had desires of raising a family, but working here has been like having children," McGowan said.

Mills humorously added, "If he ever thinks about actually getting married, Fred and I will take him out in the desert to think about it."

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