Excellent Food Takes Precedence
for McGeorge Graduate
by Pat Hart Jorgensen

The name "Paragary" will more likely than not conjure up a memory of a recent dining experience at one of the many restaurants located throughout the Sacramento area. However, many of you might not realize that the name "Paragary" is also the surname of one of your colleagues in the legal profession.

Like many of us, Randy Paragary first considered going to law school soon after he graduated from McClatchy High School. However, upon graduating from college, Randy knew he still had a few things to get out of his system. Randy recalls a day, in 1969, sitting around with a few buddies, lamenting the fact that there were very few gathering places in Sacramento for the increasing number of baby-boomers who were reaching the age of majority. As Randy puts it, "This was 1969, a turning point for society---when the 60's were giving way to the 70's." At that time there very few places that catered to the increasing number of young adults whose hair was a little longer than the perceived norm. So Randy, in partnership with one of his Sacramento high school buddies, opened the Parapow Palace, a saloon that served, beer, wine, apple juice, organic sandwiches, and peanuts, the shells of which served as saw dust for the dance floor. The Parapow Palace provided a venue for the best local musicians, primarily rock bands, folk bands, and rhythm and blues bands. Randy recalled that on several occasions, a hitchhiking musician who, while on the road "hearing about the Parapow Palace in Sacramento through the musician's grapevine" would stop in and offer to perform in exchange for food and drink.

The Parapow Palace, which was located at 30th and O Streets, also served as watering hole for McGeorge law students, professors, and Dean Schaber, himself. In his capacity as proprietor of the restaurant, Randy became acquainted with Dean Schaber and revealed his dream of someday attending law school and becoming a lawyer. Randy recalls Dean Schaber advising him that just because you attend law school it does not necessarily follow that you must become a lawyer---it was Dean Schaber's philosophy that the law school experience should provide people with the skills to pursue any number of career opportunities beyond that of traditional "lawyering." Fueled by Dean Schaber's encouragement, Randy finally decided it was time to get back on track. In 1972 he applied for admission to McGeorge School of Law, sold the Parapow Palace, and used the proceeds to pay for his first two years law school tuition.

In the summer of 1974, after Randy had completed his second year of law school, another high school buddy with whom Randy had, on various occasions, shared the "Gee wouldn't it be fun to run a small Italian restaurant together" pie-in-the-sky dream, telephoned Randy, telling Randy he better get over to the corner of 28th and N right now before someone else came and took the perfect place. Randy was apprehensive but agreed to meet his friend at the small Mom-and-Pop grocery store located on the corner of 28th and N Street, now home to Restaurant Twenty-Eight. When Randy got there, he knew this was the place., He felt the same rush of excitement he experienced when he embarked on his brief sojourn at the Parapow Palace. In December of 1974 Randy and his partner, whom he had known since junior high school, opened the doors to the Arbor, a small Italian restaurant, with a beer and wine license, that specialized in spaghetti and meatballs, eggplant parmesan, ravioli, and a cannelloni special for two with white and red sauce. A year later, in 1975, when Randy was in his third year of law school, he and his partner acquired the Fort Sutter Club, another corner building, directly across the street from the Arbor, and opened "Lord Beaverbrooks," Sacramento's first and foremost "fern bar," which now houses Paragary's Restaurant.

Business was booming, so Randy did not take the bar until July of 1977, one year after he graduated from McGeorge. In December, 1977, Randy became a member of the California Bar. As Randy puts it "After the time I spent dreaming about going to law school, attending law school, and becoming a lawyer, I felt obligated to hang my shingle." So, in the office space above Lord Beaverbrooks, Randy, when he wasn't wearing his restaurateur/bar owner hat, was practicing law, without a law library, without a legal secretary, without a paralegal, and without a law clerk. Randy recalls that he primarily represented friends, employees, and customers in dissolutions, child support matters, DUIs, and traffic tickets. He relied heavily on the legal form books, copying the applicable pleadings on his office copier machine, penciling the pertinent information in the blanks, and either he or his bookkeeper would type the pleadings on an IBM electric typewriter, with the all important "white-out backspace" feature. While Randy never represented a client in a bench or jury trial, he represented clients in preliminary proceedings and attended a few pre-trial conferences.

After a few of years of juggling the business of practicing law with the demands of the restaurant business Randy realized that he wasn't giving either business the full amount of attention that each enterprise required. The time to make a career choice had arrived---would it be practice of law? or the restaurant business? Luckily for Sacramento's gourmets he chose the restaurant business. However, as with all career paths, Randy encountered a few bumps in the road to the success that appears to come so effortlessly to him.

In 1982, Randy almost gave up his restaurant career. With a slump in the economy, Randy questioned whether he wanted to continue in a business, which at that time, included a second Lord Beaverbrooks on Fair Oaks Boulevard, that was driven by the demands of a clientele, that at best could be described as fickle. So Randy sold off his businesses under owner-financing arrangements. However, the same economic trends that prompted Randy to sell his businesses boomeranged the same businesses back into his hands. Within three years, the purchasers of all three business enterprises, unable to pay their mortgages, defaulted on their loans and Randy, this time not by choice, was back in the bar and restaurant business.

During his hiatus from the restaurant business Randy learned two very important things. The first was that it is not a good idea, especially in the bar and restaurant business, to carry the paper when you sell your business. More importantly he realized that if you want to be successful in the restaurant business, your top priority should be focused on the quality of the food you serve; once you have achieved a reputation for consistently serving quality food, you can then focus on creating the atmosphere that will complement the product you serve. Randy has demonstrated his mastery of the second rule, as evidenced by the success of his bars and restaurants which include, three Café Bernardo restaurants, two Paragary's Bar and Oven, Centro Cocina Mexicana, which specializes in Mexican food, Restaurant Twenty-Eight and Esquire Grill, both of which serve food in the California cuisine genre, the Blue Cue, a bar and upscale pool hall and the Monkey Bar, which caters to young adults.

Randy has also learned another fundamental rule of the restaurant business; if you treat your employees well they will become one of your most valuable assets. Paragary employees are given bonuses, provided with incentive programs, and many of the current managers have risen through the ranks. The payoff to Randy is that he has enough confidence and trust in his staff that he can spend more time away from his many "offices" in order to dedicate quality time to one of the newest jewels of the Paragary Enterprises, his one-year-old son.

As for his law career, Randy has no regrets. In retrospect, Randy realizes that, as Dean Schaber had predicted, his law school training had enabled him to pursue career opportunities beyond traditional "lawyering." For example, when he purchased the Arbor, Randy with Contracts, Real Property, and Agency under his belt, acting as his own agent, negotiated the purchase agreement, appeared before the City Planning Commission to obtain zoning variances, and represented himself before the Architectural Review Board t o obtain approval for modifications to the building. And, in the acquisition of the Fort Sutter Club, now one of the original Paragary's restaurants, Randy, representing himself, successfully obtained an owner financing agreement through negotiations with the Club's owner who was represented by an unnamed law firm still considered to be among the biggest and best in Sacramento.

Randy attributes a large portion of his success to his legal training and finds that rarely a day goes by that he does not utilize the skills he learned in law school. Clearly, if he had it to do all over again, Randy would still include law school as part of his career path.