Business

BY KEN SAIN

Managing Editor

The first attempt to open a Modern Margarita restaurant and bar in Chandler started off well, but went down in flames.

Literally.

“I was there that day,” said Kyle Mason, the restaurant’s vice president of operations. “I was in the office doing some admin work, I’m smelling something. And I thought it was an electrical fire. … I’m sniffing around and all of a sudden, the backdoor kicks in, it’s Chandler Fire Department, ‘Get out, get out.’ We’re like, what?”

That was in May 2018, when Modern Margarita was celebrating one year of being in operation in Downtown Chandler.

Four years later they have finally reopened in the city, this one in South Chandler, near Ocotillo and Gilbert roads. The new location held its grand opening earlier this month.

Mason said the cause of the downtown fire was never definitively determined, but they suspect it started in the pizza oven. At the time, they were a dual concept restaurant, with Modern Margarita and La Bocca Urban Kitchen shared the space that is now operated by The Uncommon at the corner of Boston and Arizona.

“It was a complete loss at the end of the day, from not only the fire, but the water issue that they had,” Mason said. “Because it was crazy.”

Mason said in the restaurant business there are many factors that determine if you will be a success or not. Location, good food and service are all important. So is luck.

He said it was lucky for them they did not try and reopen the restaurant quickly.

“If we did reopen, what would have happened 18 months later down the road?” he asked. “A pandemic. So we were very fortunate that we didn’t reopen. And here we are today.”

Mason describes Modern Margarita as a place where you can go to get craft cocktails, without the long wait you usually find at craft bars.

“I don’t want to say we’re a craft cocktail bar or anything like that,” he said. “But when you come in here, you will get a craft margarita, but without the time. We try to make everything fast. I’ve been to several craft cocktail bars. I’ve been a craft mixologist before as well. So I know that you sometimes sit at an establishment and you’re waiting 5, 6, 7 minutes for a cocktail.”

Kyle Mason, vice president of operations of Modern Margarita in south Chandler, recalls the day the eatery’s first location in downtown Chandler caught fire. (David Minton/Staff

Photographer)

BY KEN SAIN

Managing Editor

Richie Vaia’s journey from hot dog cart operator to successful restaurateur in Chandler includes a detour caused by a collision with a semi-truck.

“I went back to Chicago, we did our last run, I turned around and came right back home and got all the way to Albuquerque in a construction zone,” Vaia said. “A semi came flying over the hill and totally wiped out all my personal belongings, all my equipment, my truck. Everything got wiped out. I was down to nothing.”

Until that moment, Vaia had been building his new life selling a bit of Chicago to former residents of that city who missed home. He started out selling hot dogs out of a cart at the Home Depot until they chased him away.

“It’s always better to ask for forgiveness than permission, right?”

He upgraded from that to a food truck with a long-term plan to eventually open a brick-and-mortar restaurant that he figured was a few years away and now owns Richie V’s Chicago Eatery at 4975 S. Alma School Road, Chandler.

After losing his Home Depot lot spot, Vaia returned to Chicago to pick up his belongings and new supplies for his business. Along the way to Chicago, he stopped often to do some charity work.

“I had to go back to Chicago to pick up my belongings,” Vaia said. “I had them all in storage because I didn’t know if I was going to stay out here. So I said what a good idea if I get some sponsors … and I can feed the homeless and battered women across America on the way back, make some noise, bring some awareness. The turnout was fantastic at every stop I did. There were over 1,500 people along the way.”

Before deciding to move to Arizona, Vaia worked in the entertainment industry, working on shows like “Chicago Fire,” “Chicago PD,” and “Shameless.” He said he did lighting, special effects and rigging, calling it the “best job in the world.”

Then the pandemic began and production stopped as the entertainment world tried to figure out how to keep going. Vaia said he always thought the best way to spread happiness was through their stomachs.

He had some experience in running a food cart and restaurant. When he arrived in Arizona he started by trying to sell pizzas. Vaia said it wasn’t until he switched to Chicago food that he realized he found his niche.

He said it seems the Sun Lakes area is filled with Chicago natives. He imports his food directly from Chicago to keep it authentic. It’s been such a hit, he has regular customers from as far away as Yuma.

“I got one guy that comes up twice a week from Tucson,” Vaia said.

The menu is not extensive. It features Chicago hot dogs, Italian beef, Italian sausage and a supreme tamale. Add in fries, Italian ice and beverages, and that’s about it.

And that is exactly what his customers are looking for, authentic Chicago comfort food in South Chandler.

He was able to open up the restaurant at the corner of Alma School and Chandler Heights with the help of his business partner, John Hornacek, brother of the former Suns player and coach.

It’s been such a success Vaia said he’s already thinking expansion.

“We’re looking toward the Queen Creek area or Maricopa, those are my two choices,” Vaia said. “Absolutely by March, we’ll have another one up and running, 100%.”

Left: Richie Vaia owns Richie V’s Chicago Eatery at 4975 S. Alma School Road, Chandler. Right: The spacious Richie V’s Chicago Eatery in Chandler caters to ex-Chicagoans who miss the tastes of the Windy City. (David Minton/Staff Photographer)

On the food side, they try to keep it simple. Most of the focus is on tacos. They just give it a modern update.

“We’re not your traditional Mexican, authentic cuisine that you would go to see … unlimited chips and salsa coming out the wazoo. We really focus on a creative aspect, or modern aspect, to the traditional taco. [For example,] using Korean beef as a short rib. We’re using a Nashville hot chicken right now in a taco. So we’re just trying to infuse a little bit of fusion and at the same time have different culinary aspects.”

This is the second Modern Margarita location in the Valley, joining the one in CityNorth in Phoenix. Mason said since both locations are doing well, they do plan to expand.

“I would like to go to the west side,” Mason said. “Goodyear, that kind of area. The residential growth is substantial out there. And there’s not a lot of options for people either.”

In addition to expanding in the Valley, Mason said they may also look to other states, mentioning Texas as a possibility.

One thing you won’t find at a Modern Margarita, however, is a pizza oven. Mason said they’ve given that up.

Modern Margarita’s new south Chandler location promises efficient service, tasty beverages and

yummy tacos. (David Minton/Staff Photographer)

4165 S. Gilbert Road, Chandler 480-687-4264 chandler.modernmargarita.com

BY MARK MORAN

Staff Writer

Logan Brooks, 6, and his 9-year old brother Brian were headed out on Brian’s bicycle to play some Saturday morning football at an elementary school by their house in Coos Bay, Oregon, with the younger sibling riding on the handlebars.

Nobody really knows what happened next that day in January of 1987.

“There was a stop sign. Somehow, we went out into the street and I got hit and pretty much took the brunt of it. Fractured my skull,” Logan Brooks recalled. “I was told I was millimeters from being brain dead.”

He was left for dead by a nurse who happened on the scene as the boys’ dad rushed to the scene.

“I was laying in a pool of blood. The nurse told him that I was dead, actually gone and we don’t need to focus on him, we need to focus on this one here that’s alive. My brother in the end came out almost completely unscathed.”

Logan was unconscious and teetering on the edge of life, his face and body badly disfigured.

Rescued and stabilized in Coos Bay, he was eventually taken by air ambulance to Portland, where he required months of hospitalization, reconstructive surgeries and rehabilitation.

“I almost felt like I had a superpower instilled in me that day,” he said. “From that day forward, I have never really been afraid of anything. I think that was built through something that occurred in those moments afterwards. I’ve never stepped down from a challenge.”

And there were plenty of them.

Fast forward a decade or so from the accident, and just having graduated from high school, Brooks followed his brothers to Arizona, a little bit directionless, looking for work and something to help shape his future.

“It was either go to school in small town Oregon or take a chance,’ he said.

“Looking back, as I’ve gotten a little older, I wonder ‘what the hell was I thinking and how did I make it through that?’ But I think it’s just part of who I am. From what I remember I never looked back,” he said.

Brooks spent the next decade searching for purpose and dealing with challenges. A severe bout of insomnia cost him a marriage and he began to search for something to make him feel like his life, miraculously spared, had some meaning.

He happened to have grown up in the same town as distance running legend and Olympian Steve Prefontaine.

Even years after Prefontaine’s death, Brooks stumbled on his inspiration. He took up running on a whim, traversing trails in Arizona.

“This is exactly where I was supposed to be; This is exactly the sport I was supposed to find. This is the meditation I was supposed to find,” he said. “I took up trail running when I was about 29 years old and I’ve never looked back. It just became my absolute passion.”

Ironically, Prefontaine died in an auto accident while he was running for the University of Oregon, training for the 1976 Olympics, years before Logan Brooks was born.

“In the running work, he was a god,” Brooks said. “He was the guy who made running cool. He died in a car accident and there were some parallels there. Running went from nobody knew what running in America was to this guy changing the idea of what running even meant to our country.”

Inspired, Brooks took up road racing, continues running competitively to this day, and wanted to help others do the same.

But there was more frustration. More setback. Ready to open a running shop in Prescott, the timing, finances and his personal situation sunk those plans and Brooks found himself living in Queen Creek, making a go at having a family.

After some market research, he transferred his plans south from Prescott and opened Queen Creek Running Company in 2018, a specialty shop devoted to all things running.

Tucked inconspicuously between a doughnut shop and a tanning salon, Brooks aims to help customers who have taken their running to the next level and want to be competitive, focusing on individual service.

“Amazon and all these other insti-

As the owner of the Queen Creek Running Company, Logan Brooks and his business partner can spend one-on-one time with customers to ensure they get the best footwear possible for their running style. (David Minton/Tribune Staff Photographer)

tutions and softwares have ruined that handshake between people where they can come in and get physical attention and technical knowledge,” Brooks said.

And there is a lot of technical knowledge wedged into this strip mall store at the corner of Chandler Heights and Power Rd. Brooks and his business partner Karl Neimeister greet customers with a series of questions to help narrow down what it is that the runner is looking for in a pair of shoes.

What are you running for? What’s your weekly mileage target is your goal, and what’s your injury history and basic knowledge of running and how your body reacts to it?

Armed with that knowledge, it’s off to a multi-colored machine with lights and screens … the Aetrex foot scanner.

“It gives us clear dimensions of your foot. Everything from the length of your foot to the width of your foot to the height of your instep to the girth of your arch,” he said. And it gives us a map of the pressure under your foot so it shows us where you have a tendency to lean and how you pressurize or depressurize your foot. We can literally zoom in and show them a 3-D image of their foot.”

Brooks sends that image electronically to a specialist who can create a shoe insert, or orthotic, for the customer within a few days.

Using the Aetrex image, Brooks helps the customer select a shoe that is best for their foot. Then he puts them on the treadmill over against the wall to test the shoe and see if it really is the best one for the customer’s foot.

“I bought a new pair of Sauconys for an upcoming event that I have. I have two more months of training,” said Alexis Earhart. “I needed a good pair of shoes and I needed someone who knew what they were talking about and would analyze my gait and my foot and give me the appropriate recommendations.”

In a good week, Brooks sells about 150 pairs of shoes.

Because his business is small, he takes his time and focuses on each customer as they come through the door. The business is growing though and, Brooks says, will need more space soon.

Brooks wants Queen Creek Running Co. to be an integral part of the business community.

“We eventually would like to put on a couple of races here in this area. There is no point in being successful and making money without giving back,” he said.

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