{"id":81478,"date":"2024-02-10T07:00:34","date_gmt":"2024-02-10T15:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/hi-lo\/?p=81478"},"modified":"2024-02-13T02:56:22","modified_gmt":"2024-02-13T10:56:22","slug":"former-egg-heaven-servers-reunite-to-revive-a-55-year-old-breakfast-institution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/hi-lo\/food\/former-egg-heaven-servers-reunite-to-revive-a-55-year-old-breakfast-institution","title":{"rendered":"Former Egg Heaven servers reunite to revive a 55-year-old breakfast institution"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When Gaby Sanchez walked into Egg Heaven three months ago, she was shocked to find her former workplace almost empty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For as long as she could remember and before the onset of the pandemic, the 55-year-old Fourth Street diner, which only holds a few dozen seats, had almost always attracted a long line of customers in the morning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u201cMore than half of them were regulars,\u201d server and co-manager Sanchez said. \u201cWe used to bring out coffee to the people waiting in line.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In COVID\u2019s aftermath, the restaurant has faced periods of closure due to management turnover. Then, the owner faced difficulties trying to sell the business. The classic diner, left to rack up bills with little profit, is facing closure if things don\u2019t turn around soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Egg Heaven Cafe restaurant in Long Beach, Friday Jan. 26, 2024. Photo by Thomas R. Cordova.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Sanchez has made it her mission to save the restaurant, and she\u2019s recruited former server Maggie Mendoza and former chef Ruben Martinez to do just that. Together, they have dedicated a collective 67 years to the establishment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, the trio brought back the restaurant\u2019s original 1969 menu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the restaurant reopened in January after months of intermittent closures, Martinez has been back in the kitchen preparing familiar plates, like the \u201cfamous\u201d Monterey omelet (bacon, ham, sausage, veggies, cheese and avocado), the super browns (loaded potatoes), and of course, their signature fluffy buttermilk pancakes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But they\u2019re still having trouble getting people in the door.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon after opening 55 years ago, it quickly became a locals\u2019 spot, according to former owner Joe Byron. Originally, it was a drug store on the ground level of a two-story apartment building erected in the 1930s. Then, it was transformed into a tapestry and dress shop in the early 60s before finally becoming the corner cafe that stands today, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For decades, it was a place where people brought their loved ones on weekends and ate breakfast with their children before dropping them off at school. Regulars stopped by so often they basically became family to the staff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mendoza was one of those regulars before she began working at Egg Heaven in 2003.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI used to eat here, I was serving at the Mexican restaurant in the afternoon,\u201d Mendoza said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Patrons walk out of Egg Heaven Cafe after eating at the restaurant in Long Beach, Friday Jan. 26, 2024. Photo by Thomas R. Cordova.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The manager at the time asked her five or six times to come work there before she finally agreed. Once she did, she said she didn\u2019t look back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI loved it, completely loved it,\u201d Mendoza said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the restaurant was looking for another server nearly a decade later, she convinced Sanchez to come aboard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pair met in the early 2000s while their children attended school together. Sanchez was working as a physical therapist at the time, but the schedule that Egg Heaven offered allowed her to be done with work in time to pick up her kids from school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMaggie said \u2018we need someone like you,\u2019\u201d Sanchez said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like Mendoza, Sanchez caught the bug. The rush of service, the constant bustle to turn over tables to keep people from waiting on the sidewalk too long, and the tips, made it the ideal job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like the rush you have when you do drugs,\u201d Sanchez said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe became a family,\u201d Mendoza said. \u201cWe knew people from babies to university.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But all of that came to a halt when the COVID-19 pandemic shut down restaurants across the country. The business tried to come up with a way to make money and do good in the community during a dark period by partnering with an organization to provide meals for local seniors. Then, they hosted a taco stand outside.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But ultimately, it wasn\u2019t enough. Eventually, Sanchez, Mendoza and long-time chef Ruben Martinez were forced to move on to other restaurants that had made a faster recovery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Egg Heaven\u2019s current owner Ramona Streit had been trying to sell the restaurant just before the pandemic hit. She asked Joe Byron, a former owner of the restaurant, to help her sell it, but he was unsuccessful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the business had many interested buyers, Byron said nothing worked out for one reason or another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Different managers came and left and the restaurant couldn\u2019t find its footing. The menu changed a few times and its lack of continuity became a turn off for regulars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy son convinced me to go back,\u201d Sanchez said. \u201cMy kids said \u2018we can\u2019t let this happen.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While it was Mendoza who originally got Sanchez her job at the cafe, it was Sanchez who called on Mendoza recently and told her they had to leave their jobs to return to Egg Heaven to help steer the ship around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mendoza was a manager at a different restaurant where she knew her salary was more than whatever Egg Heaven could offer, but still, she agreed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI went through so many things over the 20 years [there]\u201d, Mendoza said. \u201cIt\u2019s not just a breakfast place, and if we can help then it\u2019s time to help.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chef Ruben Martinez was also called to come back and Sanchez recruited chef Carlos Lopez who has 43 years of experience as a chef at Old Town Cafe in Seal Beach where Sanchez had found a job after leaving Egg Heaven.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, the team is focused on not only serving high-quality dishes from the original menu, they want to bring back the family atmosphere they had all those years ago. Sanchez\u2019s daughter grew up in the restaurant, now she works there as a server on the weekends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recently, a young man came into the restaurant with an Egg Heaven tattoo on his arm. His parents took him there as a child and were still regulars. It\u2019s these moments that bring the staff hope.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But their efforts to save a sinking ship have come at a cost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe were just talking about how we used to have money to save,\u201d Sanchez said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The restaurant used to make around $2,000 a day. Now, it barely breaks $1,200. If this continues, Sanchez and Mendoza \u2014 who now co-manage the restaurant \u2014 say the restaurant\u2019s 55-year story may come to an end in a mere few months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis place is home to a lot of us,\u201d Sanchez said. \u201cWe want to build a homey environment with good food and make it even better than it was.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Egg Heaven is located at 4358 E. Fourth Street<\/i>.<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Ruben Martinez’s name.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The classic breakfast diner has brought back its original 1969 menu and assembled former employees in an effort to attract customers and restore a struggling restaurant to its former glory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":314,"featured_media":81296,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[32305],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[32152],"class_list":["post-81478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food","tag-egg-heaven","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/314"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81478"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81478\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81539,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81478\/revisions\/81539"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/81296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81478"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=81478"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=81478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}