9 for the ‘90s : Be They 9 or 89, Individuals Harbor Strong Ideas About What the Future Holds : A Time of Exultation

When Steve Grant was in college in the ‘60s, he was like many in his generation--”very political,” he says. “I really cared and made time for it.”

But as the 39-year-old restaurateur grew older and submerged himself in his career, “I never looked up again. I found that I really didn’t make time in my life for issues and the world. My world is basically my work and my self.”

Now, entering the ‘90s, “I’ve got more direction than I’ve ever had,” Grant says.

A 15-year veteran of the restaurant business, the Encino native spent the ‘80s trying to realize his dream of being his own boss. “I came very close a couple of times,” he notes. “And I was crushed when it didn’t happen.”

Then, in September, 1988, he was offered a partnership in Engine Co. No. 28, the downtown Los Angeles restaurant where he is also general manager. “Now I finally have a piece of the action, which was where I was trying to get to all these years.”

A sister restaurant is opening soon in West Hollywood and Grant believes the day will come when he can operate the company out of a central office and trim his 75-hour work weeks.

“I know that I’ve picked a type of business that requires a certain amount of workaholism. My goal in the ‘90s is to find that balance in my life. I’m trying to get into a situation where I can close my office door at night and go home to a family.”

Divorced without children after a 2 1/2-year marriage, Grant hopes to have the whole enchilada by the end of the decade--a wife, two kids and, of course, a mortgage. Right now, there’s only a steady girlfriend in the picture.

“For years, I just basically figured that the kind of work I did and the kind of life I led precluded any possibility for normality,” he says. “I began to feel like that whole era of having children and a nice home had passed me by, and that basically I would just be Uncle Steve instead of a father.”

But Grant thinks older fathers will be the rule rather than the exception in the ‘90s. “I see more and more people I know doing it,” he says happily. “And anyway I feel a very young 40.” One reason for that, Grant explains, “is like many people of my generation who came of age in the ‘60s, I had a substance abuse problem. But that’s all behind me now.”

His mood going into the ‘90s is optimistic, even buoyant--so much so that he pledges to make time for world issues again, along with museums and the theater. “I feel reborn,” he exults. “I feel like I’m just on the verge of getting where I want and having what I want.”