As his staff prepared for dinner service at 4th and Olive on a recent afternoon, Navy veteran Dan Tapia sat at a table in his airy East Village restaurant, knowing it could all be ending soon.
The restaurant co-owner opened the corner spot two years ago with the hope of not just serving good food but also with a focus on helping fellow military veterans by giving them jobs.
Now, visibly emotional, the bearded disabled veteran who walks with the aid of a cane, took a slow breath as he looked around the space and contemplated the inevitable.
“I know that 4th and Olive will not exist this time next month. I know it’s going to be gone. I’m hoping we can pull something together…I am not entirely sure where we are going,” Tapia said.
But the Navy taught him one thing he can’t forget.
“I learned in the military the value of the person beside me as being as close as my own blood. They’re my family,” he said.
So he’s not ready to desert his restaurant family and is now on a new mission to look for investors and reopen as an entirely ew concept early next year.
And most importantly, he wants to keep his his 14-person staff, which is made up of nearly a dozen military veterans, employed.
“The only reason I would even try to repurpose the place and do a new concept is to save their jobs. This is exhausting, I’ve never made a dime here. It’s all been money from my family going into this place to try to make payroll and keep it afloat,” Tapia said.
Looking back and moving ahead
“At the end of the day we just didn’t have enough butts in seats,” said Tapia, who co-owns the Long Beach restaurant with executive chef Alex McGroarty.
4th and Olive opened in 2016 with a focus on Alsatian cuisine, which reflects the culinary traditions of both French and German country food as well as a mission to accommodate employees with special needs due to their military service. For example, there’s more space behind the bar than in a typical restaurant setup in order to accommodate a bartender or server who uses a wheelchair or prosthetics.
And while the food was very well-received, Tapia cited a number of factors that lead to his decision to close 4th and Olive, including issues with price points some diners were not comfortable with, a few parking woes and the cuisine itself, which is not a commonly known food.
“We’re the place people are always meaning to go but never do,” Tapia said.
So if he finds the investors it will likely mean a total re-branding of the place with maybe valet parking and other changes such as more familiar menu items to get people in the door.
“It’s going to definitely be a more democratic menu. We’re going to get away from the Alsatian cuisine and go into a broader Western cuisine,” he added.
Meanwhile, the veterans he employs are keeping a hopeful outlook on their future here.
“A lot of times people overlook that sometimes veterans get discriminated against. I’ve sat through interviews where I felt like the whole hiring process changed the second they found out I was a combat vet,” said 38-year-old Christopher Shouse, a Long Beach resident and Army veteran.
He noted things like PTSD can make potential employers nervous about hiring veterans.
But when he applied for a job as a sommelier and server at 4th and Olive, Shouse was welcomed with opened arms.
“I felt like these are people here I don’t have to prove myself to. These are people that have seen a few things and there’s that camaraderie there,” he said.
So while the news of the potential closing hit him hard, he’s confident Tapia will keep the ship afloat in one form or another.
“At first I was in disbelief wondering ‘Should I be out there filling out my resumes right now?’ But I heard the plans and the hopes so I’m definitely hopeful,” he said.
If You Go:
Where: 4th and Olive, 734 E. Fourth St., Long Beach.
Information: 562-269-0731; 4thandolive.com
http://www.presstelegram.com/why-veterans-are-rooting-for-the-survival-of-this-long-beach-restaurant 2018-12-15 16:27:23Z
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