Brea’s Make-Over Has Restaurateur Nervous
La Esquina Restaurant has been a fixture in downtown Brea for almost 50 years, an establishment that loyal customers--some who drive in from neighboring cities--regard as a second home.
The nearly 100-year-old building has been a Mexican restaurant for much of its time. Leo Ramirez bought the place in 1965 and originally named it the Corner Cafe.
But now, as new retail buildings sprout up and down North Brea Boulevard--products of downtown redevelopment--Ramirez’s widow says she is being prodded by the city to sell out.
Recently, the city purchased a medical office two doors down and razed the building. Now, city officials have offered to buy Ramirez’s restaurant and the office building next door, which was converted from a house built in 1908. “I’m scared,” said Adela Ramirez, 53, a Brea resident for 31 years. “I saw what happened on the boulevard, where people who owned businesses for many years were forced to move so new stores could be built. My husband and I worked very hard to establish the restaurant.”
City Manager Tim O’Donnell said officials have had “friendly discussions” with Ramirez about acquiring her property. But he said the City Council has not authorized its acquisition through eminent domain, the process by which government can condemn private property. And he denied that the city will force her out.
Ramirez, a native of Jalisco, Mexico, said she would feel added pressure to sell if the building owners next door agree on a sale price with the city. Accountant Rudy Silva, part-owner of the office building, said he would consider selling. “I’m OK with that, if they pay me a fair price,” said Silva, who said he is waiting for the results of an appraisal done by the city.
Silva’s building and the restaurant are the only structures left on the block on their side of the street. Brea is one of the oldest cities in Orange County, but much of the boulevard is hardly distinguishable from the retail centers built in the county’s newest start-up towns. Mom-and-pop stores have given way to chain stores and fast-food restaurants.
The two buildings eyed by city officials are elegant leftovers from Brea’s turn-of-the-century downtown. The storefronts are landscaped, the architecture distinctive and the buildings’ interiors a throwback to a different time. In contrast, newer buildings along the street appear as if they’ve fallen out of a mold.
Demolition Likely If Buildings Acquired
If the city acquires the properties, O’Donnell said they would be sold to a developer, and the buildings probably would be torn down.
“We target certain neighborhoods. When properties become available we buy them, combine the lots and do a decent project that would work for the neighborhood,” said O’Donnell. “We see an opportunity to stimulate the economic development of the block. No single property owner can do that.”
But Ramirez’s customers say they want the restaurant to stay.
“Look at the building. It’s beautiful and old. It’s different from all of the development around it,” said retiree Paul Segura. He and his wife, Maria, live in La Habra but eat lunch at La Esquina as many as three times a week.
Rene Schlater, who works in a nearby office, said she eats lunch at the restaurant at least three times a week. Sometimes more.
“She’s worried, and I can’t blame her,” said Schlater, nibbling on a carnitas taco and taking sips from a bowl of tortilla soup. “The city should realize that old places like this are nice to keep. A business like this is like a second home to people like Adela. Find a newer place that’s part of a chain and you won’t find the home atmosphere you have here.”
Ramirez said she works seven days a week at the restaurant. It’s been like that for 32 years, since she married her husband, who died 11 years ago. “It’s very tiring, but because I’m the sole owner I have to be involved in everything,” she said. “I’m here so much that hardly anybody comes in whom I don’t know. I’ve got a waiter who has worked for me for more than 15 years. He knows all of our customers.”
Ramirez and her husband raised two daughters, who spent much of their adolescent years helping out in the restaurant. Now, they do not want anything to do with the business, she said.
Ramirez said she has already rejected a $700,000 offer from the city to sell her restaurant. Although $700,000 is a substantial sum, Ramirez is concerned that it would not be enough to open a restaurant in Orange County at a good location, given property and equipment costs. She is also concerned about whether a new restaurant would even be successful.
“The restaurant has been good to my family, and it’s the only work I know,” she said. “At my age, I cannot afford to gamble on a new business. And after paying taxes and other debts, I’d probably end up with half of the money the city gives me.
“I’m only 53 and the restaurant is my only source of income. What am I going to do the rest of my life? That’s not enough money to retire on or open another business. That’s why I’m scared.”
Silva, the CPA next door, said he understands Ramirez’s concern. He has been in his building six years and has already moved his business once from Montebello. “I’m not worried about losing clients. They’ll follow me wherever I move to,” he said. “But with her, it’s a different story. Even if she opened another restaurant it’ll be hard to keep the old customers and build up a new list of loyal ones.”
O’Donnell, who said he has eaten at Ramirez’s restaurant many times over the years, insisted that “if she doesn’t want to sell, that’s it. We’re gone.”
But Silva believes that the city will ultimately end up with the properties, one way or another.
“Either through eminent domain or they’ll meet an owner’s selling price. But it doesn’t surprise me that they’ve got their eye on these properties. The city’s intentions were obvious after they took over the medical office next door and tore it down,” he said.
For now, Ramirez said she will wait and see what the future brings. She also worries about what will happen to her five employees if she is forced to sell.
“I worry about whether they’ll be able to find jobs,” she said. “I’m alone, but some of them have families.”
