Owners are working with realty firm to come up with a plan that would allow the restaurant to stay.
By Laura Tate/Editor
All bets were off as of late Tuesday afternoon on the signing of a new lease for John’s Garden at the Malibu Country Mart.
Going from 90 percent to 50 percent sure that a new lease will be signed, Jim Musante, co-owner of John’s Garden, told The Malibu Times late Tuesday that a meeting he was to have with Koss Real Estate Investments, which owns property in the Malibu Country Mart, to sign a new lease was put off because of concerns with the lease and with remodeling plans.
At the recommendation of his lawyer, Musante said he needs to have further discussions with Koss about the lease. As for the remodeling plans, there were concerns about approval from the Los Angeles County Health Department.
This comes after several two- to four-hour meetings with Greg Kozak, vice president and general manager of Koss, and with owner Michael Koss, in which the three worked on creating a viable plan to reduce operations from 2,000 square feet to less than 900 square feet.
Musante said he, Koss and Kozak “did a lot of brainstorming” to come up with a plan.
Currently, food and supply storage for John’s Garden is located in a space that occupies perhaps a little less than a third of the restaurant/fruit vending business.
Kozak, in an interview Monday, said they came up with suggestions such as a walk-in that would have a front-display case for beverages. The walk-in would store food for the restaurant.
The new plans would leave no space for the fruit vending that John’s Garden does. However, Musante said their main business is selling sandwiches and salads.
“I’m happy but skeptical,” Musante said of the new space design. “I’m hoping it works out and that the customers accept the way it is.”
Kozak’s background in architecture and in the restaurant business came in handy for helping to solve space problems.
“It’s anything we can do to make it work,” Kozak said Monday.
Malibu residents have been rallying to help keep John’s open. A petition to “Save John’s Garden” was circulated by third-grade Webster Elementary School student Erika Wooller and sent to the Times with a letter asking, “Is there anything else we can do?”
Malibu resident Edla Garvey, who has been a customer of John’s for 15 years, said she was “so disappointed” when she learned the business might close. “[It’s] so unique to Malibu. We want to keep places like this, instead of all [those] chains.”
When told that a deal will probably work out to keep John’s at the Country Mart, Garvey said, “Thank God.”
Musante’s father, John, started the fruit vending business more than 50 years ago in Malibu. It has been operating in its present location for the past 28 years.
Musante, who owns the business with brother John, has worked his “whole life,” since high school, at John’s Garden.