Tiffy’s Cafe Gets Tough : Big Disneyland Resort Plan Sends Owner Into Court Fight for Survival

A family-restaurant owner whose fortunes have long been linked to Disneyland now finds himself fighting the corporate giant’s theme park expansion plans for his restaurant’s economic survival.

Afraid that his Tiffy’s restaurant at the corner of Katella Avenue and West Street might soon be plowed under and made into a street for the $3-billion Disneyland Resort, Ben Hathaway said he had no choice but to sue the city and Disney seven weeks ago over the project.

“There are a lot of dreams tied to that restaurant,” Hathaway, 55, said. “Not just mine, but all my employees’.”

The 37 waitresses, cashiers, busboys and cooks at Tiffy’s say they fear for their livelihoods, wondering if they will be able to make their car or house payments and hoping they won’t have to find new jobs.

“I had planned on being here in the future,” said Jeanne Jacoby, a 70-year-old cashier who has worked at Tiffy’s since 1966. “It’s a shame that Disney and the city don’t give the smaller people just a little bit of thought.”

Even though the planning documents for the Disney project suggest that Tiffy’s might have to be leveled to expand streets in the area, Deputy City Manager Tom Wood said his staff has reviewed the situation and concluded that at worst the front entrance of the restaurant would have to be “reconfigured slightly,” at the expense of Disney and the city.

Disney declined to discuss Hathaway’s lawsuit--one of three against the massive project. The plans for the proposed resort include a new theme park next to Disneyland, several hotels, a 5,000-seat amphitheater and two of the nation’s largest parking garages.

Attorneys for the city and Tiffy’s are negotiating ways to minimize the impact to the restaurant in an attempt to reach an out-of-court settlement.

“At this point, however, we don’t even have a tentative agreement,” said attorney Craig E. Courter, who represents Hathaway.

It is the uncertainty over the restaurant’s future that has Hathaway and his employees--several of whom have been at Tiffy’s for many years--in a lather.

“There is a lot of concern here,” said manager Tom DeSena. “We’re hoping things work out . . . obviously a parking lot or a left-hand turn lane doesn’t employ as many people as this restaurant.”

DeSena, 42, of Anaheim, who has worked at Tiffy’s for five years, said that if the restaurant is demolished he might have problems finding another job.

“Nobody likes an old restaurant person,” he said.

Waitress Edna Throneberry said the restaurant “has become a second home” to her.

“We’re all just like a family here,” said the Garden Grove woman as she sat in a booth in the restaurant and took a drag on a cigarette “This is a good place with good people.”

Tiffy’s, named after one of Hathaway’s daughters, was first located in the Disneyland Hotel in the late 1950s. The restaurant moved to its present location in 1966 and has become a popular dining spot for tourists because of its location. Friendly service and homemade ice cream add to its popularity, DeSena said.

Many of the dairy products used at the restaurant come straight from a farm that Hathaway owns and lives on in Tillamook, Ore.

Hathaway says he takes pride in his restaurant and spends a substantial amount of money to make it look nice. Recently, he said, he spent $150,000 on landscaping outside the building. That landscaping might have to be torn out when the streets are widened.

But Hathaway, who also owns motels and holds interests in casinos, said he isn’t challenging the Disney project solely over money. He’s fighting for his employees’ jobs and for a place that holds “sentimental” value to him, he said.

“This is an emotional issue,” he said. “I’ve spent many nights sleeping on the floor of that restaurant when it started out.”

Hathaway said that as a boy he admired Walt Disney and considered the Disneyland creator a hero. Disney and Hathaway’s father had socialized together and belonged to the same Christian businessmen’s association.

That’s one reason, he said, why his lawsuit against the city and Disney is so painful.

“We’re not so naive as to think that we would be successful if it were not for the Disney people,” he said. But things have changed.

Hathaway said he firmly believes that he wouldn’t have to sue just to keep his business afloat if Walt Disney were still alive and in control of the company.

“I don’t think he would have gone for the type of behavior that the company pursues nowadays,” Hathaway said. “Walt was a gentle giant. But maybe it takes people who can crush and be divisive to get what they want today.”

As for his legal battle against the corporation that still fuels the success of his family restaurant, Hathaway has little hope.

“I think we’re going to lose,” he said. “But that doesn’t mean we’re not going to put up a good fight.”