Authors: Ben Ruhe
Date Submitted: May 31, 2005
Article Type: Journal

Raised on a California beach, Pete Siracusa studied petroleum engineering at Berkeley until it dawned on him that his profession would land him either in Oklahoma or Saudi Arabia, where there was no surfing. Perish the thought! He soon took himself into the restaurant business.

Many, many years later he sold his Rusty Pelican chain of 30 eateries and retired to Maui, “The Spot,” he calls it, where at age 51 he and wife and three sons looked forward to leading the good life.

Siracusa found he was too young and energetic to settle down to lotus land life and went back to work, eventually building his new chain of restaurants, Baja Fresh, into a 170-unit operation. In due course he and partners sold out to Wendys, and it was retirement again, this time for keeps and with ample funds.

PDF Link: Journal Issue