At a time of heightened security, small biz gets its guard up, too

It was just two weeks after the opening of Chi-Cha Lounge that Mauricio Fraga-Rosenfeld's newest establishment was robbed of its weekend sales.

"I just had a box," Fraga-Rosenfeld says, describing his early, naive method for safekeeping his Washington lounge's earnings. "I was thinking that it was small and no one would really care."

So, Fraga-Rosenfeld, then fairly new at the restaurant business, sought the help of Arlington-based Federal Lock & Safe, a company that installs and maintains security devices.

The security company visited Chi-Cha, assessed the premises and made suggestions. After the security experts were done, Fraga-Rosenfeld had a safe bolted to the floor, cameras monitoring the grounds, a new door lock and a newly installed computer system.

"With a bar-restaurant, which always have high turnover, you don't want employees to make a key without your knowledge," says Mike Groves, vice president of Federal Lock & Safe (http://www.FedLock.com).

Simple things - like a safe with an electronic keypad that can monitor the time and date of who opens the safe by their pass code - are overlooked by some restaurant owners, Groves says, but once they are presented with the option it becomes obvious.

"If a client is willing to listen, and it's not need-based, we can get across the need for preventative measures pretty easily," Groves says. "Sharp people see the value in what we do."

Perhaps the most difficult task for a security company like Grove's is to stay educated on advances in technology that bring reality to gadgets that were thought of as only for science-fiction movies.

A relatively new security capability that is becoming popular, Groves says, is remote monitoring, which allows owners to watch security cameras on a Web site accessed from anywhere. Also he says his 30-employee company has installed several retina scanners and fingerprint readers for local companies -mostly telecommunications companies - but they haven't become widely popular because of the lofty price.

But restaurant and bar owners have to worry about different things, like the night manager walking out with the till or employees who sneak back in after closing. Fraga-Rosenfeld learned of those concerns the hard way.

Fraga-Rosenfeld returned to Federal Lock & Safe when he opened his other establishments, including Gua-Rapo in Arlington and the District's Bambule and Gazuza. And, he says, because his establishments haven't been robbed or broken into, Federal Lock & Safe will also service the opening of his two newest restaurants, in January and March, which will both be in Washington.

Fraga-Rosenfeld also called on Federal Lock & Safe to secure his new home in Northern Virginia.

"Now, I put my head on my pillow at night," he says, "and fall right to sleep without a problem."

e-mail: tmazzucca@bizjournals.com phone: 703/312-8347

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