Galpin's chef: From 5-star fare to dealership kitchen

LOS ANGELES -- Geovanni Euceda would understand if you thought he was slightly out of his mind to give up his position as a chef at the swank Beverly Hills Hotel to run a restaurant inside a car dealership.

"Oh yeah, I was told I was crazy," Euceda recalls. "They'd say: "You're in a five-star, five-diamond hotel in Beverly Hills. You deal with movie stars. You're going to a car dealership?'"

Before making the move in 2002, Euceda had to ask himself the same soul-searching question. That was before he talked to Bert Boeckmann, the legendary owner of Galpin Motors in North Hills, Calif., which includes Galpin Ford, the nation's best-selling Ford dealer.

"If you're in a hotel like that, it's owned by the Sultan of Brunei," Euceda said. "You never get to meet the guy. When I got to meet Bert and see what he's about -- he's the best human being I ever met."

Boeckmann, the elder member of the father-son team that owns Galpin Motors in Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley, takes food very seriously: "I cook but I'm not a fast cook."

Horseless Carriage, the eatery on the site of Galpin Ford, is billed as "America's 1st in-dealership restaurant."

As a salesman starting at the dealership in the 1950s, Boeckmann recognized that buying a car takes time and the customer does not want to spend all that time in the presence of a salesperson.

And around the busy industrial area where Galpin Ford is located, the need to find a place to eat was especially acute.

"I was concerned," said Boeckmann in his office above the showroom floor.

"You take a typical deal -- a customer picks out a car, test drives the car, gets the used car appraised; it goes through finance. ...."

With all that going on, Boeckmann believed customers needed to take a break for a bite to eat and think things over. Or they might want to visit the competition before agreeing to buy. Better to have them do their thinking right there on the premises, just adjacent to the showroom at Galpin, Boeckmann reasoned.

"What it really did was leave them alone," said Boeckmann, who, with characteristic modesty, credits founding owner Frank Galpin with the idea of opening a restaurant.

"You eat food when you're hungry," Boeckmann said. "I don't care if you're at the dealership or at an outpost in the middle of nowhere."

And, Boeckmann believes, if you're going to eat, the food might as well be top notch.

That's why he hired El Salvador-born Euceda, who migrated to the U.S. with his family at age 5 and trained as a chef in San Francisco. Since he arrived in 2002, Euceda has transformed Horseless Carriage into a full-blown restaurant that serves food Mon.-Sat., 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., and 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Sunday all year except for Christmas.

As befits an eatery attached to a dealership, Horseless Carriage has a diner theme. There's a counter with stools and turquoise Naugahyde booths. But this is no greasy spoon where you grab a quick order of bacon and eggs with a side of toast or a BLT with fries. From breakfast through dinner, the menu offers something for everyone, ranging from meat and potatoes to gourmet fare.

The breakfast menu features lobster and eggs, Angus top sirloin and eggs, seven-grain pancakes and Belgian waffles. No Aunt Jemima syrup or cold pats of butter here. They serve real maple syrup and melted butter to go with the delectable, light, crispy waffles.

Burgers and sandwiches dominate the lunch offerings, while steaks, fish and Italian specialties are featured at dinner.

The Daily News, a publication in the area, recently honored Horseless Carriage with its "Best Breakfast in the Valley" award for 2016.

Jeff Skobin, marketing manager at Galpin, says the restaurant serves a mix of customers, some who have business at the dealership and others who don't.

"In our area, there's not a lot of restaurant choices," he said. "It's definitely a mix of both customers and non-customers and customers that just come to eat. A lot of people will strategically schedule a service appointment around breakfast, lunch and dinner."

Euceda estimates that 65 to 70 percent of diners have no business at the dealership, at least not on the day they're eating there. The rest are either waiting for service appointments or thinking over a deal. Galpin salespeople frequently treat their customers to a meal.

And there's never a shortage of customers. After all, Galpin sold 23,664 new and 6,808 used cars in 2015, ranking No. 32 on the Automotive News list of top 150 dealership groups based in the U.S.

Over the years, many dealerships have tried to open restaurants on the premises, but the idea has never really taken hold.

"To my knowledge Bert was the first one who perfected it and brought a good chef in and had good-quality meals," said Peter Welch, president of the National Automobile Dealers Association and former president of the California New Car Dealers Association.

At Galpin Motors, Horseless Carriage has become an extension of the dealership's community outreach.

On a typical day recently, the dealership's two kitchens were serving food in the 60-seat restaurant, as well as a 25-seat employee dining room behind it. In addition, the kitchens were catering a dinner for 40 employees of Galpin's soon-to-be-opened Kia dealership and a white tablecloth dinner for 12 "movers and shakers" in the San Fernando Valley, including several leaders of the local law enforcement community, for which Boeckmann has been a longtime supporter.

Between Horseless Carriage and the employee dining room, Euceda and his staff of 34 serve about 700 meals a day, not including all the catering for special events. Among other things, the staff bakes 10,000 cookies a week for customers.

During special sales-promotion events, the kitchens will serve as many of 2,000 customers in a single day.

And Horseless Carriage is not the only retail food operation on the premises. Across the road at Galpin's Premier store -- which sells Jaguar, Land Rover, Lincoln, Volvo and Aston Martin vehicles -- there's a Starbucks outlet, claimed by the dealership as the first one in an auto dealership. 

Euceda says Boeckmann's love of food lets him be the chef he wants to be. 

"It's important in everything we do that I represent Galpin," Euceda said. "I make sure we always do the best. We don't take any shortcuts. If I were to be working at other places, they'd probably say, "Don't use filet mignon.' I don't have to be afraid of purchasing the best quality out there from Angus beef to wild salmon to burger. If it's a burger, it needs to be the best of the best. It comes to me fresh every day. If I don't like it, it goes back." 

That all goes back to the boss, Euceda says. 

"We understand each other so well because Bert loves food and he wants his guests to have perfect food."