Deli to Occupy West Park Vacancy

The past few weeks have been eventful for Joe Brand.

Weeks before the head coach of the hockey team at Long Beach High School won his eighth county championship last week, Brand lost his job as commissioner of Long Beach Recreation when the new Democrat administration took charge in January. Now, Brand will once again turn to running an eatery in the middle of town.  

The Long Beach City Council granted Brand a waiver of off-street parking requirements Tuesday, effectively giving him a green light to open a deli at the vacancy that once housed a diner.

“It will be a take-out delicatessen business, occupying 44 West Park, which is the old ” Brand told the council at the Feb. 21 meeting.

The deli’s doors will be open daily form 6 a.m. to 5 p.m., Brand said, and he plans to employ locals. “Depending on how busy the store is, anywhere between six and a dozen,” Brand said when council President Fran Adelson asked him the number of employees he would hire.

Brand has experience in the business as the former owner of Zamboni’s Deli, at 250 W. Park Ave., two blocks west of his new establishment. He was unavailable for comment Wednesday morning.

The property owner at 44 W. Park is listed as Angelos Stamatelatos of Baldwin. The owners of Ocean Park Diner, the unit's prior occupants, last year moved a few doors east, where Monterey restaurant once did business, and renamed their establishment Avenue Cafe, which serves breakfast starting at 10 a.m.