History and Philosophy of Tres Hombres

Tres Hombres Restaurants began in 1974 in Lake Tahoe, California. Since they met in 1975, Johnny Scurto and Michael Thomas have designed, constructed and operated six successful restaurants in northern California. They also designed and constructed four additional restaurants in California and Mexico.

Opening in January 1988, Tres Hombres Chico is the foundation in which the company is being built. There are several reasons why Tres Hombres has been and will continue to be successful. Tres Hombres pays close attention to the details of the everyday operations, have excellent abilities in hiring and training people, they make an effort in interacting with customers and continually make improvements to an already successful concept. New partners Pablo Scurto, Marc Milton and Dan McGarry have fine tuned their operational skills in the past several years at profitable restaurants and bring new energy to the concept.

Paying attention to the everyday details of food and drink quality and presentation, correct lighting and music selection, restaurant cleanliness, employee neatness and knowledge are several areas that keep the concept consistent. Training employees to provide service that is enthusiastic, friendly and casually professional keeps the customer upbeat and feeling they have been well taken care of. One difference between the Tres Hombres Experience and a corporate restaurant experience is Tres Hombres employees are not taught what to say but instead how to feel. Extra time is spent teaching social skills: How to be helpful, friendly, courteous and nice; how one would treat a guest invited to their home for dinner is an ongoing analogy used in training. Each server treats their section as if it was their own restaurant within a restaurant.

Johnny, Michael, Pablo, Marc and Dan make an effort to get to know their customers, to make them feel special; to listen to what they want and then react. It is not unusual for some customers to become close friends. This philosophy is taught to both managers and employees.

Beginning as an experiment in our Concord restaurant, our taco bar has become a main focal point of the Tres Hombres Experience. The Taco Bar features an exhibition kitchen surrounded with 15 seats and dining bar allowing people to watch cooks cook. Allowing cooks to be entertainers as well as cooks creates interaction with customers. The customer then becomes actively involved in the Tres Hombres Experience. Customers also become part of the Tres Hombres Experience by interacting with each other. While there are subtle differences, the Tres Hombres Experience holds true in the dining room and at the Long Bar. Meeting new friends over good food and drinks is always enjoyable.

The Tres Hombres Experience is unique among independently owned restaurants and rarely found in corporate chain restaurants. It is this experience that is the foundation for the success and growth of Tres Hombres Restaurants.