Egg Heaven, one of Long Beach’s oldest restaurants, reopened earlier this year after three former employees came back to revive the struggling institution.
But their attempt to save the beloved breakfast diner, which so far seems to be drawing back customers, was preceded by another rescue attempt — one that ended with hurt feelings, finger-pointing on a local website and, now, a lawsuit that may be working its way slowly toward a trial.
Esperanza McCorkendale, a former Egg Heaven employee, filed the lawsuit in November 2023, alleging the restaurant’s former owner, Joe Byron reneged on a deal to sell her the business after she and her nephew Elias Cruz poured tens of thousands of dollars into it.
“She never would have invested all this money if she wasn’t going to buy the restaurant,” McCorkendale’s attorney Diana Spielberger said.
Byron, who says he was working on behalf of the current owner to help keep Egg Heaven alive, disputes the accusations, alleging it was McCorkendale who ultimately walked away from the business after a frustrating series of misunderstandings.
“I wish things had worked out with Esperanza purchasing the restaurant,” Byron said in a statement. “That is what I wanted and I spent months working towards that goal with her, ultimately the deal fell out due to her not qualifying for the restaurant lease with the owner of the building.”
Before the disagreement, McCorkendale and Byron had known each other for years. She worked under him at Egg Heaven in the late nineties and early 2000s, according to her lawsuit.
Byron owned Egg Heaven for over a decade but, he says, he later sold the business to Paul La Fond before it was bought by Ramona Streit. Business records show Paul La Fond as the manager of Egg Heaven, LLC in mid-2022 before that role was transferred to Ramona Streit in December that year.
Throughout that time, Byron stayed involved with day-to-day operations. In September 2022, McCorkendale approached Byron about possibly buying the business, according to her lawsuit. The restaurant had been closed since the beginning of 2022.
Court documents describe an October 2022 meeting where they came up with a plan: McCorkendale did not have the upfront finances to purchase the restaurant, so she was given four months to operate the business and hired as an employee in December 2022 when the restaurant reopened. McCorkendale believed she would be sold the restaurant at the end of that trial period.
The lawsuit cites the document it says memorialized their agreement. It outlines a handful of responsibilities for each party and concludes with “this agreement shall begin November 1st, 2022 and end February 28th, 2023 at which time the agreement may be extended, terminated, modified, or business sold with Esperanza having First Right of Refusal, with a predetermined purchase price of $175,000.”
A right of first refusal means if McCorkendale wanted to purchase the restaurant at the end of the term she could exercise that right, according to attorney Brad Hakala of Hakala Law Group, who agreed to review the document for the Long Beach Post.
But, Hakla said, the document is so ambiguous it opens up a host of other questions about whether Byron was authorized to act on behalf of Egg Heaven’s owner, whether he was responsible for making sure the lease was transferred to McCorkendale and what assets the sale encompassed.
“This is just a spider web of problems,” said Hakala, who is not connected with either party in the lawsuit, but has litigated thousands of business transactions, including the sale of restaurants.
“Nothing is delineated,” Hakala said. “There’s so many questions that are just unknown here.”
During her four-month trial period, the lawsuit says McCorkendale and her nephew spent “at least $45,000” of their own money to cover the first few staff payrolls, hire contractors to put in a new floor, repaint, change bathroom furniture and more.
But when the trial period ended, the suit alleges, Byron raised the price of the restaurant above $175,000 and then backed out of the deal.
Byron denies this, saying he continued trying to make the sale happen but the plan was blocked by Egg Heaven’s landlord, who refused to allow McCorkendale to take over the lease for the restaurant’s space.
Byron called this “disappointing.”
“I wanted Esperanza to get a lease but, it is clearly understandable why the property owner said no, and in afterthought I think he made a good business decision with the information he was given at the time,” Byron said, adding that Esperanza was operating the restaurant at a loss and relying on co-signers to guarantee the lease.
Egg Heaven’s landlord did not respond to requests for comment.
The lawsuit also alleges Byron took advantage of McCorkendale by withdrawing a total of $7,000 from Egg Heaven’s accounts. Byron called the accusation that he controlled the bank account “complete nonsense.”
McCorkendale’s lawsuit seeks compensation of at least $500,000, including reimbursement of the $45,000 she says she and her nephew invested in upgrades. After the deal deteriorated, Byron offered in an email to pay McCorkendale back for the money she put into upgrades, but then he stopped responding to further communication, according to attorney Spielberger.
Byron’s statement to the Post did not directly address a question about the $45,000. In court documents, he and Streit, who is also named as a defendant, have issued blanket denials of the allegations.
After McCorkendale reopened Egg Heaven in December 2022, the renewed turmoil outlined in the lawsuit caused it to close again in June 2023.
There’s been a renewed rescue effort this year, with former employees Gaby Sanchez, Maggie Mendoza and Chef Ruben Martinez operating the restaurant. They returned after the June 2023 closure because they dedicated a collective 67 years to the establishment and were determined to keep the diner, which has been home to so many, alive.
Mendoza said there are no plans to purchase the restaurant at this time; they are there to help Streit and serve up its iconic menu.
Egg Heaven is at 4358 E. Fourth Street.