Bette's Oceanview Diner has been a Berkeley mainstay for nearly 40 years, until the owner recently closed the Fourth Street restaurant.
But locals need not fret. The diner will reopen at the end of the month as the Oceanview Diner, with almost no changes, except it will be run as a co-op going forward, according to reporting by Berkeleyside.
The diner's owner Manfred Kroening, announced the closure last month, due to many reasons, including the pandemic and wanting to retire, the outlet reported.
But the restaurant's long-time employees weren't ready to say goodbye. William Bishop, a Bay Area restaurant veteran who worked at Bette's, decided to reach out to the building's owner and co-founder of the diner, Denny Abrams, and see if a new tenant had taken the space. They hadn't.
So Bishop organized seven of the diner's employees, including the chef. Together they will run the restaurant, not only as employees, but also now as managers and co-owners, the outlet reported.
Abrams and his development partner, Richard Millikan, are going to support the endeavor financially.
The aim is to run the restaurant like a co-op, which Abrams thinks will be the new model for "small, single-entity restaurants that don't have the financial presence of these big restaurant groups. It might be the only way this business can survive," the outlet reported.
The idea isn't new. The original owner, Kroening, had been interested in going co-op in previous years, but the pandemic threw a wrench into things, according to the outlet.
The new team is in the final stages of ironing out the details, and expects to be serving eggs and pancakes with the same recipes again by the end of the month.
Related
