Westside : His Ship Has Come In: Purchase of Diner Fulfills a Dream

C. J. Rudolph started going to Snug Harbor for breakfast and burgers when he was a teenager. Even then, Rudolph loved the cozy curbside diner at 2323 Wilshire Blvd. in Santa Monica, and knew he wanted to buy the place.

For nearly 15 years, every time he stopped by, Rudolph would ask the owner, Christa Rosenloecher, when she would sell Snug Harbor to him. It became a running joke between the two, her response always: “I’m not ready yet.”

Last month, Rosenloecher, a native of Germany who ran Snug Harbor alone for 27 years, decided she was ready to retire. And when Rudolph posed his standard question, Rosenloecher told him she would sell.

In business for a week, Rudolph says he’s still in shock.

“I never thought when I came in here that day that this would happen,” he said, beaming. “It had become a dream to me.”

With its dark green vinyl booths and stools that line up along the counter, Snug Harbor (“the Snug” as Rudolph calls it) is an authentic old-fashioned diner that he believes puts the trendy retro 1950s diners to shame. Much of the decor dates back to when the diner opened in the 1940s--including the stools, the counter tops, the ice cream freezers and the blenders that still grind out milkshakes.

When Rosenloecher bought Snug Harbor in 1969, 13 years after she began working at the diner, she added a German twist to the food. Her biggest seller has been the Zwiebel burger--hamburgers smothered in onions and “other goodies,” Rosenloecher said.

Rudolph kept the old favorites and added his own touches. Snug Harbor now serves vegetarian burgers with guacamole as a garnish. And the diner is open all night on weekends.

Rosenloecher says she is “thrilled” that the legacy of Snug Harbor will continue.

“Someone could have bought it and made a shoe store out of it,” she said. “I would have been sad if that happened.”