Losing a Coffee Shop Can Be Like Losing Your Best Friend

In the 15 years John Yu has owned Sheri’s Coffee Shop inside a 21-story office building in Westwood, he has learned the names of just about every tenant.

On any given day, he knows who isn’t feeling well, and what kind of soup might make them feel better. He delivers lunches in a brown sack to whoever can’t make it to his eighth-floor shop--”just like Mom,” one customer notes.

Along with his wife, Sue, and daughter Jeannie, the 62-year-old businessman has spent long hours earning the loyalty of the psychologists, doctors, accountants and lawyers who work in the building, which is known around Westwood by the name of the restaurant housed on the top floor: Monty’s.

Now, however, the building is about to be remodeled. The tenants are moving out and unlikely to come back when the rents predictably rise. Yu has a lease that entitles him to stay in the building, but with no customers it would be rough going until the work is done and tough to create another clientele when the new tenants began arriving.

So whether he stays or finds a new place, Yu is about to lose his most valuable business asset: his staunchly loyal customers. And they are about to lose something uncommon in Southern California: a place where somebody knows them.

“For me, one of the biggest losses is going to be being separated from them,” said Janis Goldman, a clinical psychologist who has worked in the building for 16 years.

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The Yu family came to Los Angeles from South Korea in 1983. They had saved money in their homeland and borrowed from friends and relatives in hopes of making their own business in this country.

Yu said he rejected several business options--including buying a liquor store or laundry--because he didn’t want to spend seven days a week away from daughter Jeannie and his two younger sons.

The coffee shop required only a few weekend and night hours during which to attend trade shows or vendor meetings or to work on the shop’s appearance. Other than that, it promised normal Monday through Friday business hours.

Attracting customers was the hard part. The previous owners had alienated many of the clients, Yu said, so Yu and his family worked hard to bring them in. The coffee shop was also in some disrepair; the first few years saw Yu and his wife spending more nights and weekends on fix-up work than they expected.

“We started doing hard work,” Yu said. “If one did a good job, with good service and good food, I knew everybody would start coming in.”

Yu made friendly inquiries about people’s business and families as he made change, and made sure to offer the coins before customers could reach for them. “I would prefer that I wait for you, so you don’t have to wait for me,” he would say.

He introduced himself and his children to his customers’ customers--the clients and businesspeople who regularly visited the building’s tenants.

“Everyone in the building knows him; everyone’s patients know him,” said Barbara Cadow, a clinical psychologist who has worked there for 12 years. “Even my kids--their favorite thing to do after school is go to the coffee shop.”

When Cadow broke her leg, and crutches made it impossible for her to carry anything, the Yus followed her upstairs with her morning coffee, then returned each day to bring her lunch.

When customers ran short of money, Yu extended credit. When clients moved out of the building, he delivered to their new offices.

“We cannot refuse them,” he said. “They are our customers.”

In 1996, Yu expanded the shop, adding tables and chairs to the front of his small front counter. He thought he was getting it ready for Jeannie, 32, to take over from him and his wife.

But the remodeling plan has left him wondering what he has to leave her.

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The terms of the Yu family’s possible departure are in dispute. Yu said the owners refused to guarantee him a spot in their renovated building. Real estate investment trust Arden Realty Inc., the managing partner of the building, says it offered the family a variety of fair options. The matter is now in litigation.

At this point, none of the scenarios is particularly heartening to Yu or his customers. All realize that the building needs repair; occupancy has been falling steadily as the structure ages.

“Our clients and ourselves, we’re like family,” Yu said. “I’d like to continue working--if I am out of my business and I can’t find anyplace to go, it will be so, so sad for me.

With little prospect of rejoining his tenants, Yi thinks he might be better off finding another office building coffee shop to run.

“It’s fun,” he said. “It’s a challenge to life. You deal with all sorts of people: doctors, workers, laborers, janitors. When you converse with all the different customers, you learn a lot from them.”

Those customers say they have learned a lot from him as well.

“My hunch,” said psychologist Goldman, “is they’re who they are, they’re good people, their food is good quality, they’ll do well wherever they go.

“It’s really sad. We wish we could all go to another building together.”