What’s Going On With “Tiny’s Tavern” in Ocean Beach?

Customers and passersby are beginning to notice.  “Tiny’s Tavern” – a venerable watering hole and small grill on Voltaire Street in Ocean Beach – is closed and its doors are locked. What’s going on?

As close observers of the local scene as well as our readers may recall, Tiny of Tiny’s Tavern had an agreement with People’s Food Co-op Market.

The property on which his business rested was sold to People’s and Tiny had an agreement with them to continue to operate his tavern for one year – then he was going to retire to Hawaii with his proceeds. And the market was going to use the property as part of their expansion.

Here’s what I wrote back in January of this year:

The expansion plans of … OB People’s Organic Food Market have been placed on hold due to the unfortunate and untimely death of “Tiny”, the owner of Tiny’s Tavern.

The market co-op … on Voltaire Street in OB, has just recently purchased the two parcels of land directly to the store’s east, one containing a duplex and the other containing Tiny’s Tavern. And part of the store’s expansion plans were based on an agreement with “Tiny” who was on the verge of retiring from operating his bar and small grill.  “Tiny” – the nickname of Alan Kajiwara – had planned to use the land sale to the co-op as a push for him to move back to Hawaii where he has family, but his fatal stroke at the age of 54 ended all that.

And as Nancy Casady, the co-op’s CEO, told me … the store is “cooling our jets” in deference to Tiny’s family and to Dara, Tiny’s minority partner at the bar. “We’re in a holding pattern,” she said, “until the conditions and status of the bar are settled.” The store certainly does not wish to unsettle Tiny’s family or crowd more than they already are due to his death.

 Wanting an update on the situation, I called Nancy of People’s this morning to see what she knew.

Apparently, Dara Rexroad – Tiny’s minority partner – had locked the doors at the tavern. People’s and Dara, Nancy told me, could not come to an agreement on how to proceed. From Nancy’s perspective, it appeared that Dara didn’t feel comfortable with the agreement being proposed.

The Co-op had given Rexroad and the bar 3 months free rent in order to make the transition – starting in January. That’s about $1,900 a month, I was told, with the 3 months going to the end of April. Casady didn’t know why she closed the place early.

Because the property was in People’s name, Nancy said, they were legally exposed should any incident or accident occur on the property. People’s would be on the hook. Also, there were structural problems with the buildings, and if the City cited anybody for any code violations – People’s would also be on the hook and be responsible for correcting them.

This brought up the issue of the future of the building that Tiny’s Tavern was in.

Nancy said, that in the process of figuring out the best use of the site, and catering to the wishes of their customers who want a sit-down vegetarian restaurant and organic juice bar, People’s is trying to decide what to do.

The current evaluation of the building – actually “three buildings all cobbled together” she said, with walkways, with misplaced toilets, is finding a lot of problems. A lot of it is not ADA compliant, not up to code requirements, – there’s a “saggy foundation.” Nancy added, “they’re old structures.”

I could tell by the sound of her voice, that she didn’t think there was much future in the old building.

People’s needs parking; they want to put in a veggie restaurant and juice bar – and housing for some of its workers. They definitely have plans for the site.

People’s will be going to the community for input. They plan, Casady said, to go to the OB Planning Board for feedback and to the OB Town Council for advice. They want to do what the community wants – in terms of their needed expansion.

But Tiny’s patrons and fans are finally realizing they’re saying good-by to an old friend.

In the meantime, we are trying to reach Dara for comment.