Value Added: Creating a conveyor belt for renovation Monday, March 21, 2011; One of my favorite intellectual exercises, often with the help of others, is examining a business through a different lens. McDonald's or Starbucks are real estate companies as much as food and beverage stops. Disney On Ice's ideal customer isn't a 10-year-old; it is a parent who wants to be a hero to her kid. And General Electric's biggest strength is management, not light bulbs. Washington developer, technology entrepreneur, restaurateur and nightclub owner Anthony Lanier prompted me to look at real estate differently when he explained the business discipline that built a Georgetown barony that occupies 60 buildings and enough square footage to fill eight football fields. "We built a conveyor belt for renovation," said Lanier (pronounced lon-YAY), 59, explaining the methodology that turned dilapidated townhouses into profitable stores and offices. Lanier's assembly line was made up of engineers, architects, historical preservation specialists, zoning lawyers and construction firms that could pump out renovated buildings one after another.

The first purchase in the mid-1990s was a townhouse at 3060 M St. NW. Price: $540,000. It's now worth about $2 million, Lanier said. Next was a townhouse down the street. Cost: About $1 million. He bought 3067 M St. NW for $600,000. Then he bought 3210 M St. NW out of foreclosure. Through that process, Lanier built profit margins and credibility with city authorities. "That aside, the 'salami approach' served as an excellent risk diversification, as no project and therefore, mistake, in itself was big enough for it to make a significant impact," he said. It took 10 years, increasing property values and retail demand, but Lanier's bets are paying off. His Georgetown tenants include Brooks Brothers, Crate & Barrel's CB2 chain, MAC Cosmetics and Madewell. His property portfolio is worth several hundred million. The successes have not come without controversy. He is embroiled in a very public, five-year court case with developer Herb Miller over the rights to purchase Georgetown Park mall.

The Lanier empire includes more than 200 employees across several companies, including the real estate management and development company EastBanc Inc., EastBanc Technologies, Kafe Leopold restaurant and L2 Lounge, his trendy nightclub where celebrities such as Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and comic Kathy Griffin were hanging out recently. Lanier is as interesting and eclectic an entrepreneur as I have ever met. He isn't thumpingly rich like the Lerners (real estate, baseball) and Rales brothers (Danaher Corp.). where to get sushi grade fish in montrealBut's he's got money. yo sushi voucher codesProbably tens of millions.how do you get in sushi high roller in pokemon x

Get Your Foodie On: 9 Tasty Eateries that are Kid-Friendly San Diego kids have a good life! Not only does the sun shine nearly all year long, there’s also no shortage of awesome restaurants that promise way more fun than a kids menu and coloring sheet. Several of San Diego’s culinary spots have fun features to entertain the wee ones while parents savor delicious bites and craft drinks. Click through to see where you need to take the family for your next dinner out. Kula Revolving Sushi BarEven the pickiest of eaters will be excited to eat sushi that comes to the table on a revolving conveyor belt. tupperware sushi maker (maki and nigiri)Kula Revolving Sushi Bar is the newest (and coolest) way to eat with chopsticks. ichiban sushi menu spring gardenHere's how it works: You're seated at a table that's next to a moving conveyor belt. sushi online bestellen prenzlauer berg

Throughout your time at the restaurant, the chefs send out tons of different sushi plates on the belt. You pick and chose exactly what you want to eat. Once you finish your food, simply place the plate in the slot at your table that goes right back to the kitchen for washing. Each plate is about $2.25 each, so you can eat as much as you'd like. Kids are especially motivated to eat because they get a prize (right at the table) for every 15 plates returned. Kula Sushi is delicious, affordable and will keep the kids eating and entertained for the duration of your lunch or dinner.cara nak order sushi king Insider's Tip: If your kiddo isn't a fish or sushi can, you can also select plates filled with edamame, watermelon chunks and other fruit. Save room for mochi or cheesecake for dessert (also from the revolving sushi go-round)! Where do you like to go when you’re craving a delicious meal with the kids in tow?

— Leah R. SingerSushi Opens First U.S. Location Might there be a Yo! Sushi in Georgetown's future?Sushi opened its first U.S. location in Union Station July 25. The conveyor-belt, sushi-themed restaurant has plans to expand into the U.S. market. At least ten Yo! Sushi restaurants are slated to open in the D.C. area alone. Chinatown has been marked as the second D.C. spot for this U.K. chain restaurant. Comments are temporarily disabled.Los Angeles' car culture was in full bloom after the war, and the innovations that came along with an auto-centric lifestyle were also booming. No other region is more associated with drive-thru, drive-in restaurants and drive-in theaters than Southern California. And while the drive-thru restaurant has endured through the decades, the rest feel like novelties at this point. The "Motormat" is no exception. Patented by Kenneth C. Purdy in 1948, the Motormat was designed to eliminate the need for carhops to take your order and deliver your food by having everything done via conveyor belt.

The Track restaurant, originally at 8201 Beverly Blvd. in Beverly Grove, had 20 stalls utilizing this technology that were arranged around the central building like the spokes on a wheel. A metal bin on a conveyor belt served as the waiter, busboy, and server. "It saves from 30 to 50% of the time it takes you to eat at an ordinary drive-in," Purdy told The Milwaukee Journal in 1949. "You don't have to wait for a carhop, blow dust out of your food, honk for your check or wait for change." Indeed, the process was quite comprehensive. Purdy's Motormat all but cooked the food for you, as the book Paradox of Plenty: A Social History of Eating in Modern America explains: A customer would drive up to a window-high bin, mounted on rails, containing glasses of water, menu, pencil, and pad. He or she would then fill out the order, push a button, and send the bin scooting back to the kitchen, which lay at the center of the circular structure. While the order was being prepared, the bin would be sent back with the bill.

After the bin was returned with payment, the food and change would be sent back down the rails, with no need to tip a waitress. The top speed, by the way, of the Motormat was only 120 feet per minute, less than 1.5 miles per hour. At least that reduced the possibilities of spills! Although the Motormat never quite took off—it's tough when you're replacing girls in rollerskates with slow robots—the novelty was enough to garner some hype. Purdy told The Milwaukee Journal that The Track sold three days worth of food to 3,000 customers on its opening day, and fed almost 40,000 mouths in its first two weeks. The Track no longer stands where it once operated on Beverly Boulevard, down the street from what is now The Beverly Center, though the Historic Los Angeles blog points out that there once was a listing for "The Track No. 3" in Culver City, so it seems there was an expansion to at least three restaurants. The Motormat's legacy lives on, though. In 2006, a Chick-fil-a in Houston opened with a second "remote" drive-thru lane that features food delivered via conveyor belt.