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CHAPTER 4

Spurred on

In an interview in October 2005, financial journalist Bruce Whitfield asked the executive chairman of Spur Corporation, Allen Ambor, where the idea for Spur as a Western-themed steakhouse came from.

It was a good question, as for years the Halamandres family has claimed that Spur was started with the know-how of George Halamandres, a fact Allen refutes strongly to this day.

Allen told Whitfield: “Well, there had been a couple of steakhouses in Johannesburg, where I grew up, that had that sort of feel about them. And I decided I wanted to go into that business and live in Cape Town where I had come on holiday. We came down here, but it took me a long time to find premises, two years; and another year and a half for them to be built.”

He said that a friend, Michael Hallier (who later became a renowned artist), designed the signs of the zodiac in batiks as part of the look and feel. “There were a lot of cattle in it as well, and bearing in mind we were Spur steak ranches that was appropriate,” Allen told Bruce.

When quizzed again about the Western theme, Allen answered: “It was just something that seemed right. Bearing in mind the niche that we chose was one of steaks and grills and barbeques.”

Max Rivkind, who was to become Allen’s partner, remembers the holiday that Allen referred to. “A couple of years after starting as waiters at Seven Steer, Arthur [Balaskas] met a Russian girl called Mina, and because she wanted to see her mother who was living in Cape Town, the four of us decided to go there on vacation.”

Max says they ate at many steakhouses, “but nothing was as clean and family-friendly as the Steers back home where Allen and I worked”. The idea arose that they would set up business in the Mother City. He says that he and Allen spoke to locals who knew the Halamandres steakhouses up north, and they agreed with the budding entrepreneurs that they could do well.

Allen says, however, that he got the idea for the steakhouse before that holiday, in 1962-’63 already, when he went to Cape Town on holiday with his first wife, Reina. He didn’t want to become a part owner of one of the restaurants in Johannesburg because “the [Halamandres] family was verkramp and controlling; they weren’t prepared to let outsiders in – they couldn’t see the bigger picture”.

He started looking at premises in 1963, and it was only in December of that year that he, Arthur, Mina and Max went on holiday, he says.

Once back in Johannesburg, recalls Max, he and Allen spoke to their friends Georgie and Arthur about plans to open a Steers in Cape Town. “The basis for opening was to sign a franchise agreement with them, but details weren’t discussed,” says Max.

The plan was that he and Allen would be 50/50 partners, but Allen says it never reached that point. Max initially dropped out of the venture and Allen only approached him 18 months later to become involved again.

“I did all the initial research,” says Allen.

It took him two years and several trips to Cape Town to find a potential location in Newlands. Only because he then badly needed a partner, did he involve Max again – late in 1965. Max only accepted in December 1966, says Allen, “after I had done all the set-up work alone for almost three years”.

Allen had R4 000 capital in hand, and Max says he equalled that. He had some savings from working in the Seven Steer and also took a loan of R2 000 from a close cousin, Philip Shulman. “Unfortunately my parents weren’t people of means and my father could lend me only R2 000 ,” says Max.

Allen got his franchise agreement from Arthur, as he was going to operate the franchise side of the business. Allen recalls that George got cold feet at that stage and discouraged him from signing the lease. “I was a 22-year-old going on 18 and [George] feared for me. But I had to do it, it was my dream and I had put two years into making it happen.” He adds that he had no other way of making a living.

He also maintains that he signed the lease on his own. “I took all the risk,” he says. But Max disagrees. “We signed a lease and a franchise agreement with Arthur and Georgie, but both parties were naïve in what they signed. There was no local franchisor infrastructure and the resources and raw materials were dissimilar,” he says.

Allen remembers that he was expecting a lot of help from the Halamandres family, and had an undertaking that nine people would come to Cape Town to help him open the business. But this never happened. Max explains: “The burden on Arthur and Georgie to deliver was heavy, and in all fairness they couldn’t deliver. Not because they didn’t want to, but because of logistics and manpower. They weren’t a franchisor in the true sense of the word. It was very early days still.”

“They never helped me when I was trying to find a suitable location,” says Allen. He says there was also nobody to help when the parts for the restaurant that had been built had to be assembled. “I don’t want to sound like a martyr, but we could have gone bankrupt if we weren’t so tenacious. I was the leader of the whole thing and we were floundering.”

Allen says he had to sort out the manufacturing of all the equipment, as well as the shop fittings and décor. “Where do you buy groceries when you go to a new city? Where do you find manufacturing companies?” Finding reliable supplies took a lot of research, as did finding specialised fridge-­ducting and equipment manufacturers, he says.

One of the problems seems to have been that Allen and Max weren’t happy with the layout for the Newlands restaurant that Teddy Hollander had drawn up. “I had to redraw the plans myself, although I wasn’t a draughtsman,” says Allen. Michael Hallier designed the décor after Teddy had “ducked and dived about it”.

“But even though the design elements, art and logos were slightly different, the DNA was exactly that of the Steers. You would always know you were visiting the same group,” says Max. “And even though the franchise agreement states the franchisor must do all of that, Allen took it upon himself to help Michael.” He hints that control was always rather important to Allen.

Allen says the DNA was the same only up to a point, because the food items were different. “And the sauces were different, even though they were based on the same recipes.” He also believes that the design was substantially different.

Another of Allen’s issues was that he could get out of the whole deal only before he had signed a lease, but after he signed he was locked in. “Then I asked for assistance, but they didn’t help.”

Max left for Cape Town in February 1967 to finish his final year at the University of Cape Town and complete his articles with Hugh Nathan, who eventually became Spur’s accountant. He rented a dilapidated cottage in Mow­bray (close to Newlands and the university) and used public transport. He remembers that Allen came to Cape Town shortly thereafter and stayed for a short time while they did some work. Max supervised the end of the construction of the restaurant, and when Allen flew back to Johannesburg he left Max his Mini. He didn’t return for many months.

Allen reiterates that Max came in at the end only, in April 1967. “I was fanatical; I had pride in what I had achieved on my own,” he says. He says he left in May of that year to go and earn money in Johannesburg, and returned in August.

The business was due to open in October and when Allen came back for good, the two of them and friends of Allen’s, Tommy McClelland and his wife Lynn, “got the place together”, says Max. Stanley Adelson, who used to wait on tables with them at Seven Steer, was to help them as a casual waiter.

For Allen the worst was that the vent didn’t work on the test night before the official opening and filled the whole restaurant with smoke, “because we had not been given the plans. I was going nuts.”

Max says they hired all the staff and sent a Mrs Ross to Johannesburg to be trained at Seven Steer.

Allen complains bitterly that Cape Town staff were very unreliable compared with those in Johannesburg because of the “dop” system (where farmers traditionally paid their workers in part with alcohol). And because they couldn’t afford a kombi, he had to take the last eight staff members home in two shifts at 2am after the majority had left on the last bus at 11.15pm.

Max says the staff issue didn’t bother him too much as he could do anything they could, and could easily train or stand in for staff himself. He had spent a lot of time in the kitchen at Seven Steer learning how to prepare meat, bake the apple pie and cheese cake and make the fruit juices. Allen was also taught how to cut the meat and bake, but he says he learnt how to make only some of the fruit juices from the Halamandres family and Alfonso Calbacho, of Milky Lane, also taught him how to make some.

John Halamandres remembers that a problem arose regarding transporting the sauces from Seven Steer to Cape Town. “Back then logistics were much more complicated than today; railways and aeroplanes were expensive options, and to preserve the sauces was a problem.” He says for this reason they gave Allen the sauce recipes, “which, in hindsight, was unfortunate”.

But Allen says he had had the recipes long before that, and the base materials available in Cape Town tasted different from those that were bought from a company called Carmel in Johannesburg. They had to refine and modify the recipes anyway. “It was nobody’s fault, it was just the circumstances,” says Max. Allen got the help of a food chemist and cook, Lea Melmed, to develop the sauces. “It was myself, Leah Melmed and my wife, Reina, who initiated the Spur sauces, which are still in use today. We ended up with a better salad dressing because we created it ourselves,” says Allen.

Their franchise agreement didn’t preclude them from adding items to George’s menu either. Both Allen and John recall that Allen named a new drink after John because he was usually the one responsible for the drinks. It was known as the John Lee Special (John’s full name is John Lee). “For years you could find the John Lee Special on the Spur menu, which was a Coke with lemon juice,” says John.

As for choosing a name for the restaurant, John and Max seem to remember the process similarly.

John says Allen and Max wanted to call the restaurant Steers, but there was already a furniture removal company called Steer & Company in Cape Town. “Allen then reverted to the original name of our restaurant in Rosebank, the Golden Spur, and my father and brother agreed to the name.”

Max confirms they wanted to use a name with Steer included, but “it just so happens that Steer is a very common last name in Cape Town. With so many businesses with Steer in the name, from transport to real estate, choosing the name Golden Spur made sense, as it was a very well-known restaurant in South Africa and still, theoretically, part of the family.”

Allen insists this was not the case. There was already a Black Steer restaurant in Pinelands in Cape Town as George never registered the brand name Black Steer. And if he did, Allen didn’t know about it. He says he bought the name Golden Spur from a coffee company.

Responding to Allen’s claim that he got no help in setting up his steakhouse, Barbara Halamandres says: “Allen certainly had help in Newlands. It was the first outlet in Cape Town so there was no way he had no help. I was there myself.”

But Max says maybe Barbara was there in her capacity as a very good friend, because he can remember him and Allen remarking that it was a shame that nobody from the family came down for the opening. “But there was already trouble brewing, so maybe it was for the better,” he says.

Whatever the case, the Golden Spur was a great success and that particular Spur still exists today.

John remembers that he and his brother Georgie went to Cape Town to help at the second restaurant during the very busy December holidays. John was turning 15 and still at school. “I was pouring drinks,” he says.

The second Cape Town restaurant opened in Main Road in Sea Point on 4 January 1968. Allen claims the Halamandres brothers arrived in Cape Town only the day before.

“They called it Seven Spur because of the Seven Steer name, the mother of all the steakhouses. The restaurant was doing okay, but it wasn’t a huge success,” says John. “Max’s restaurant wasn’t profitable,” agrees Allen.

Max says Golden Spur in Newlands did extremely well from the moment they opened, “but Sea Point was the toughie – the holiday season only lasted five weeks and then there was the miserable winter”.

John’s cousin Peter Caradas remembers going to Cape Town to help Max and Allen. “Allen Ambor was a good businessman,” he reflects.

Stanley was a right-hand man and he stayed for about two years before bigger things in the industry called him back north.

Max says while setting up Newlands, he and Allen signed a lease for the Sea Point restaurant, even though the franchise agreement precluded it. “But Johannesburg didn’t object.” Again, Allen says he signed the lease, Max never did.

Whatever the case, Georgie had a share in the second restaurant.

Allen found it a pity that Arthur Balaskas, who was going to run all franchises, was on his way out of the country. Between the initial talks with Arthur two and a half years before and the openings in Cape Town, he decided to bow out. As Max drily puts it: “He had gone all hippy on us and was dropping out of the real world.” Arthur popped in on his way to Spain to say hello, though, Allen remembers.

Keith Madders, who shared a house with Allen and Max at the time, and who later became friends with Arthur when he had moved to London, remembers that Arthur once told him that he was embarrassed that they couldn’t provide Allen with more support from Johannesburg before he left for Spain. “If Arthur had stayed, he and Allen would have been a formidable team,” says Keith, today deputy chairman of Spur.

Because of the limited help they received with the Newlands restaurant, Allen and Max weren’t happy about paying franchise fees. The franchise fee dispute gave birth to a different deal in Sea Point. “We gave them equity and I was an equal owner with Allen in the second restaurant,” says Max.

George was the initiator and brains of the business in his restaurants, says Allen. “I got on well with him and used to pop in at his office in Johannesburg to say hello.” He admits that George was brilliant at retail, but says it is very important to remember that the Halamandres family didn’t know how to franchise. “They tried to implement it, but they didn’t know what it took to implement or look after the business.” According to him they didn’t grow because they wouldn’t give people who worked for them a decent deal or salary. “They made a lot of money but kept it all for themselves.”

Allen says Max, as the accountant, decided to stop paying the franchise fees for Golden Spur after six months, and he was relieved about that.

In the beginning Max was at Newlands all the time, and when Sea Point opened they also hired Tony Williams. Newlands employed Gavin Gordon and Farrel Lazarus, says Max. “Business wasn’t doing great in Sea Point, so it was decided that I would run Sea Point and Allen would run Newlands,” says Max. But he says at this point a lot of conflict arose between him and Allen.

“I was going to get married in January 1970, so I decided if he offered me a decent price, I would sell out completely. And after some bitter negotiations I did.”

Ironically, shortly afterwards, Allen also wanted to sell up, remembers Stanley. In the period before Stanley left to go back to Johannesburg, Allen offered him his share of 50 per cent, “which was worth R38 000”. “But of course I couldn’t raise the money and had to decline,” recalls Stanley. Allen says, “I wanted to sell for about 24 hours, because I was overworked. I worked all hours God made.”

This wasn’t the end of the road with Spur for the Halamandres family, but at the end of 1969 it was for Max. He moved to America and started a bathroom and ceramics business with a partner that spread over southern California. He then switched to the coffee business and eventually sold to a parent franchisor who subsequently sold it on to a $13-billion food company.

It bothers Max that “in all the articles written about Allen all you hear is ‘I’”; that people who helped him never received credit for anything other than “just being there”. In an article as recent as May 2013 in You magazine, “Allen vaguely mentions Johannesburg people, refusing to mention the Halamandres connection, and once again there is no mention of me as an equal partner, also regarding the start-up capital”.

Max also believes that while Allen has denied or ignored it for years, they started Spur with the intellectual capital of George Halamandres. “The fact is, the revenue stream of Allen’s public company comes from the source of the river, and that was the Seven Steer in Highlands North.”