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<strong>October</strong> 13, <strong>2016</strong><br />
Volume 47, Issue 10<br />
Motorcycle maverick<br />
Michael Schreiber<br />
Town to table | Lifeguard family | Call of the sea<br />
<strong>Beach</strong> Dining and Attorney Guides
Considering a Major Remodeling Project?<br />
Architectural Design &<br />
Remodeling Seminar<br />
TWO Dates<br />
to Choose From!<br />
Saturday<br />
<strong>October</strong> 15 th<br />
at 10:00 am<br />
Saturday<br />
November 12 th<br />
at 10:00 am<br />
This informative seminar will help you learn:<br />
• Functional designs to make the best of your<br />
living space<br />
• Choosing a contractor: What to look for and<br />
how to hire.<br />
• Exploration of materials, from granite<br />
to quartz and more!
6 Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> magazine • <strong>October</strong> 13, <strong>2016</strong>
<strong>October</strong> 13, <strong>2016</strong><br />
Volume 47, Issue 10<br />
ON THE COVER<br />
South Bay Customs’<br />
Michael Schreiber<br />
Photo by Paul Roustan<br />
Michael Burstein is a probate and estate planning<br />
attorney. A graduate of the University of California,<br />
Hastings College of the Law in 1987, he is admitted<br />
to the California, Kansas and Oklahoma Bars and<br />
is a member of the Order of Distinguished Attorneys<br />
of the Beverly Hills Bar Association.<br />
As an estate and probate lawyer, Michael has prepared<br />
approximately 3,000 living trusts and more<br />
than 4,000 wills.<br />
An Estate Planning,<br />
Estate Administration,<br />
and Probate Attorney<br />
l Living Trusts<br />
l Wills<br />
l Powers of Attorney<br />
l Asset Protection<br />
l Veterans Benefits<br />
l Pet Trusts<br />
l Advance Health<br />
Care Directives<br />
l Insurance Trusts<br />
l Probate<br />
l Conservatorships<br />
l And Much More!<br />
Call us to schedule an appointment or for our<br />
FREE Guide:<br />
Selecting the Best Estate Planning Strategies<br />
111 North Sepulveda Boulevard, Suite 250<br />
Manhattan <strong>Beach</strong>, California 90266<br />
310-545-7878<br />
BEACH PEOPLE<br />
22 by Ryan McDonald<br />
After founding a road rally that winds across Europe and Africa, Hungarian-born,<br />
Andrew Szabo sets out on a more tranquil adventure, paddling<br />
from his adopted hometown of Manhattan <strong>Beach</strong> to Tijuana.<br />
26 by Mark McDermott<br />
Michael Schreiber creates an alternate universe built around motors,<br />
music, and art, helping to spur a creative movement in El Segundo's<br />
Smoky Hollow warehouse district.<br />
32 by Richard Foss<br />
Manhattan House chef Diana Stavaridis isn’t content with farm to table<br />
produce. She’s growing her produce in town, with help from local school<br />
kids and Deep Roots Nursery.<br />
54 by Mark McDermott<br />
Sanam Madhav and Neil Chhabria, of Hermosa <strong>Beach</strong>, wed in a three day<br />
ceremony informed by four centuries of Indian tradition.<br />
58 by Randy Angel<br />
Lifeguard Mel Solberg has competed on 18 Taplin Bell championship<br />
teams and shared his love of the ocean and competition with his daughter<br />
Jenna.<br />
12 Manhattan <strong>Beach</strong> Hometown Fair<br />
16 <strong>Beach</strong> calendar<br />
20 Manhattan <strong>Beach</strong> 10K<br />
34 <strong>Beach</strong> Dining Guide<br />
STAFF<br />
PUBLISHER Kevin Cody, ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Richard Budman, EDITORS Mark McDermott, Randy Angel, David Mendez<br />
and Ryan McDonald, ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT Bondo Wyszpolski, DINING EDITOR Richard Foss, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHERS<br />
Ray Vidal and Brad Jacobson, CALENDAR Judy Rae, DISPLAY SALES Adrienne Slaughter, Tamar Gillotti, Amy Berg and<br />
Shelley Crawford CLASSIFIEDS Teri Marin, DIRECTOR OF DIGITAL MEDIA Daniel Sofer/Hermosawave.net, GRAPHIC<br />
DESIGNER Tim Teebken, DESIGN CONSULTANT Bob Staake, BobStaake.com, FRONT DESK Judy Rae<br />
EASY READER (ISSN 0194-6412) is published weekly by EASY READER, 2200 Pacific Cst. Hwy., #101, P.O. Box 427, Hermosa <strong>Beach</strong>, CA 90254-0427. Yearly domestic<br />
mail subscription $100.00; foreign, $200.00 payable in advance. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to EASY READER, P.O. Box 427, Hermosa <strong>Beach</strong>, CA 90254. The<br />
entire contents of the EASY READER newspaper is Copyright <strong>2016</strong> by EASY READER, Inc. www.easyreadernews.com. The Easy Reader/Redondo <strong>Beach</strong> Hometown News<br />
is a legally adjudicated newspaper and the official newspaper for the cities of Hermosa <strong>Beach</strong> and Redondo <strong>Beach</strong>. Easy Reader / Redondo <strong>Beach</strong> Hometown News is also<br />
distributed to homes and on newsstands in Manhattan <strong>Beach</strong>, El Segundo, Torrance, and Palos Verdes.<br />
CONTACT<br />
BEACH LIFE<br />
48 RB Shade opens with LA Rams<br />
50 Switzer Center celebrates 5-0!<br />
61 South Bay Attorney Guide<br />
67 <strong>Beach</strong> Home Services<br />
n Mailing Address P.O. Box 427, Hermosa <strong>Beach</strong>, CA 90254 Phone (310) 372-4611 Fax (424) 212-6780<br />
n Website www.easyreadernews.com Email news@easyreadernews.com<br />
n Classified Advertising see the Classified Ad Section. Phone 310.372.4611 x102. Email displayads@easyreadernews.com<br />
n Fictitious Name Statements (DBA's) can be filed at the office during regular business hours. Phone 310.372.4611 x101.<br />
8 Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> magazine • <strong>October</strong> 13, <strong>2016</strong>
each people<br />
44TH ANNUAL<br />
MANHATTAN BEACH<br />
Hometown Fair<br />
E<br />
ach year the Manhattan <strong>Beach</strong> Hometown Fair improves<br />
the arts and crafts offered for sale, as well as<br />
the food, drink, music and kids play areas. The one<br />
constant that can’t be improved on is the now four decades<br />
old tradition of catching up with friends and neighbors.<br />
1<br />
Photos by Brad Jacobson<br />
1. The Friendship Circle.<br />
2. Ready to ride.<br />
3. No fear.<br />
4. The Hometown Fair Committee, the people who<br />
make it happen.<br />
5. Manhattan <strong>Beach</strong> Mayor Tony D’Errico and wife<br />
Kris.<br />
6. Static Flow competes in the Battle of the Bands.<br />
7. The Mira Costa High Marching Band.<br />
8. Manhattan <strong>Beach</strong> Girl Scouts.<br />
9. Fair committee president Anne Kelly with the<br />
participating Command Center crew.<br />
10. Manhattan <strong>Beach</strong> Motorcycle Police prepare to<br />
lead the Hometown Fair Parade.<br />
2<br />
4 5<br />
3<br />
6<br />
7<br />
8<br />
9 10<br />
12 Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> magazine • <strong>October</strong> 13, <strong>2016</strong>
“Home is everything.”<br />
It’s where you come back to after a long day and<br />
can finally relax and be with your family.<br />
Your home is that place you’ve dreamed of ever<br />
since you were a child.<br />
It’s not easy to find that perfect home.<br />
We are here to help make that dream a reality.<br />
Mike Levine<br />
Real Estate & Construction<br />
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• Dual Solar Paneling & Water Filtration System<br />
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Mike@Levine-homes.com<br />
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• New Construction<br />
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$3,700,000<br />
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• Zen Paradise • 5,840 sf<br />
• Main House with 4 Bedrooms & 4.5 Baths<br />
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LEVINE-HOMES.COM<br />
CSLB License # B985034 | BRE License # 01928630
S O U T H B AY<br />
CALENDAR<br />
Former NBA star Steve Nash meets with young, American Martyr School<br />
basketball players prior to the parish fair on Saturday and Sunday, <strong>October</strong><br />
15 and 16. A clinic for 20 kids, led by Nash will be auctioned at the Parish<br />
Fair dinner on Saturday, <strong>October</strong> 15. For more information visit American-<br />
Martyrs.org. Photo by Brad Jacobson<br />
Friday, <strong>October</strong> 14<br />
Fashions for seniors<br />
The Peninsula Seniors 9th Annual<br />
Fall Fashion Show Fundraiser begins at<br />
11 a.m. with a fashion boutique and is<br />
followed by lunch and a fashion show.<br />
Doubletree by Hilton, 21333<br />
Hawthorne Blvd, Torrance. For tickets<br />
call (310) 377-3003. Pvseniors.org.<br />
Good dog<br />
An Advanced Rally AKC Competition<br />
class is offered through the Lomita<br />
Obedience Training Club, a non-profit<br />
organization. The class is designed for<br />
people and their dogs who already<br />
know the rally novice stations and are<br />
ready to learn and/or practice the advance<br />
and excellent stations. To learn<br />
more please call (310) 530-4814 or visit<br />
LomitaDogTraining.org.<br />
Saturday, <strong>October</strong> 15<br />
Am Martyrs fair<br />
The 46th Annual American Martyrs<br />
Parish Fair takes place Sautrday and<br />
Sunday and will feature a raffle in<br />
which the grand prize is a 2017 Lexus<br />
CT 200h hybrid. A maximum of 2,500<br />
tickets will be sold at $60 each ($50<br />
each if two or more are purchased).<br />
Tickets may be purchased after all the<br />
Masses, at the fair or online at<br />
Lucky21@americanmartyrs.org. Another<br />
highlight of the fair weekend is<br />
the annual parish dinner, which will be<br />
held Saturday at 6 p.m. Tickets are<br />
$20. Silent auction items include a basketball<br />
clinic for 20 by former Laker<br />
star Steve Nash, as well as Rams tickets,<br />
and trips to Paris and Las Vegas<br />
(aboard a private plane). American<br />
Martyrs is located at 624 15th Street,<br />
Manhattan <strong>Beach</strong>. For more information<br />
visit AmericanMartyrs.org.<br />
Pumpkins in the Park<br />
The Hermosa <strong>Beach</strong> Friends of the<br />
Parks hosts the 10th Annual Pumpkins<br />
in the Park day, featuring free mini<br />
pumpkins, games, crafts, popcorn, hot<br />
dogs and a puppet show. Come in costume.<br />
11 a.m. - 1 p.m. Edith Rodaway<br />
Friendship Park, Prospect Ave. & Hollowell,<br />
Hermosa <strong>Beach</strong>. For more information<br />
call the Chamber at (310)<br />
318-0239.<br />
Flying Wings<br />
Northrop Grumman historian Tony<br />
Chong discusses “Flying Wings and<br />
radical things,” including Northrop’s<br />
secret aerospace projects and concepts<br />
from 1939 through 1994. $5. 11 a.m.<br />
Western Museum of Flight, 3315 Airport<br />
Drive, Torrance. For questions<br />
email Tom Lasser at<br />
lassertom@aol.com or visit wmof.com.<br />
Sunday, <strong>October</strong> 16<br />
JMMF Surf Fiesta<br />
“The Jimmy” matches entrants on<br />
handicapped teams and is open to all<br />
levels of surfers. Proceeds benefit the<br />
Jimmy Miller Memorial Foundation,<br />
which offers ocean therapy for mentally<br />
troubled and physically injured<br />
vets and kids. 42nd Street, Manhattan<br />
<strong>Beach</strong>. Sign up at jimmfsurf<br />
fiesta.eventbrite.com/ or jimmymillerfoundation.org/.<br />
Cabrillo Aquarium<br />
Autumn Sea Fair<br />
Celebrate the bounty of the sea with<br />
fun-in-the-sun games and hometown<br />
spirit. Children of all ages will enjoy<br />
ocean related activities throughout the<br />
day, including face painting, origami<br />
lessons and gyotaku, the Japanese art<br />
of fish printing. Join in the search for<br />
buried treasure, learn how to cast a<br />
fishing rod, and use recycled materials<br />
to compete in the Ocean Monster costume<br />
contest. Free. 3720 Stephen M.<br />
White Drive, San Pedro. For information<br />
call (310) 548-7562 or visit cabrillomarineaquarium.org.<br />
Ghostly good cause<br />
The 21st annual Halloween Ball<br />
fundraiser to support Pediatric Therapy<br />
Network includes dinner, cocktails,<br />
live music, costume contests, live<br />
and silent auctions and raffle prizes. 4<br />
- 9 p.m. Under a white tent on Cabrillo<br />
Avenue, Torrance. To donate an auction<br />
item email. events@ptnmail.org.<br />
For tickets visit e.gesture.com/<br />
events/4Tv/.<br />
Thursday, <strong>October</strong> 20<br />
BOMB Awards<br />
The annual Best of Manhattan <strong>Beach</strong><br />
dinner brings together business and<br />
community leaders to honor the best<br />
and brightest of MB business. 6 - 9<br />
p.m. Manhattan Marriott, 1400<br />
Parkview Ave, Manhattan <strong>Beach</strong>. Manhattanbeachchamber.com.<br />
Hear HER pitch<br />
Join the South Bay Entrepreneurial<br />
Center for a fun, educational event utilizing<br />
the popular “Shark Tank” format.<br />
Women entrepreneurs representing a<br />
variety of industries will pitch to a<br />
panel of angel, investors and the audience.<br />
7:45 - 10 a.m. Toyota Auto Museum,<br />
19600 S. Van Ness, Torrance.<br />
Saturday, <strong>October</strong> 22<br />
Redondo Ballet presents<br />
“Through the pages”<br />
Pack your toothbrush and join the<br />
Redondo Ballet at Grandma's house.<br />
See your favorite bedtime stories dance<br />
to life. This fairy tale of fairy tales, features<br />
the stories of the Wizard of Oz,<br />
Cinderella, Peter Pan, the Three Little<br />
Pigs and more. 3 to 6 p.m. Redondo<br />
Union High School, One Sea Hawk<br />
Way, Redondo <strong>Beach</strong>. For tickets visit<br />
TicketRiver.com/event/ 20822.<br />
Chuck Johnson and the<br />
CJS Quintet<br />
Manhattan <strong>Beach</strong> Parks and Recreation<br />
Department Cultural Arts Division<br />
invites the public to an evening<br />
concert featuring Chuck Johnson and<br />
the CJS Quintet. 5 - 7 p.m. Joslyn Community<br />
Center, 1601 North Valley<br />
Drive, Manhattan <strong>Beach</strong>. Free. For<br />
more information call (310) 802-5448.<br />
Calendar cont. on page 18<br />
Team Donald Trumpkin promises to Make Halloween Great Again this year<br />
during the 26th annual World Famous Pumpkin Race on Sunday, <strong>October</strong><br />
23. Hoping to improve on their humiliating fourth place finish in last year’s<br />
race are LA Car Guy’s Mike Sullivan, Manhattan <strong>Beach</strong> Parks and Rec<br />
Department’s Idris Al-Oboudi and Trumpkin’s campaign managers Jeff Gill<br />
and Kristen Carter. For race questions contact the Manhattan Chamber at<br />
(310) 802-5000 or visit citymb.info. Photo by Caroline Anderson<br />
16 Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> magazine • <strong>October</strong> 13, <strong>2016</strong>
Buying or Selling<br />
“Since 1992”<br />
Don Ruane<br />
Serving the South Bay <strong>Beach</strong> Cities and beyond<br />
Office: 310.546.3441<br />
Cell: 310.643.6363<br />
Email: Donruane@verizon.net<br />
DRE#01036347<br />
<strong>October</strong> 13, <strong>2016</strong> • Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> magazine 17
Calendar cont. from page 16<br />
Run for Refugees<br />
The 4th Annual Hungry Hearts 5k<br />
Fun Run for Refugees, scavenger hunt<br />
and harvest festival is geared towards<br />
having fun while raising money to help<br />
with the Syrian Refugee Crisis. Regis<br />
tration 7:30 - 8:15 a.m. Race at 8:30<br />
a.m. South Coast Botanical Gardens,<br />
26300 Crenshaw Blvd, Palos Verdes<br />
Peninsula. To register visit hungryheartsint.com/<br />
5k-run-for-refugees/.<br />
Sunday, <strong>October</strong> 23<br />
Friendship Walk<br />
The Skechers Pier to Pier Friendship<br />
Walk is expected to attract 12,000 walkers<br />
and raise $1.5 million for local<br />
schools and charities, including The<br />
Friendship Foundation, which provides<br />
peer mentoring for special needs kids.<br />
Singer and dancer Asia Monet Ray,<br />
the New District band and dancer<br />
Aidan Prince will join boxing legend<br />
Sugar Ray Leonard, the Dodger’s<br />
Tommy Lasorda and South Bay fitness<br />
guru Denise Austin in entertaining the<br />
walkers. 9 a.m. at the Manhattan<br />
<strong>Beach</strong> pier. To register visit Skechers-<br />
Friendship Walk.com.<br />
Manhattan <strong>Beach</strong><br />
Pumpkin Race<br />
The Mallet-O-Justice will be smashing<br />
race pumpkins found to be cheating.<br />
But otherwise, pumpkins andbe<br />
their pit crews will be treated like the<br />
world class competitors that they are<br />
at the 26th Annual World Famous<br />
Pumpkin Race. Races start at 12 p.m.<br />
Pumpkin race kits may be purchased<br />
at the Live Oak Tennis office 1901 Valley<br />
Drive, Manhattan <strong>Beach</strong> for $25.<br />
Manhattan <strong>Beach</strong> Pier. For race questions<br />
contact the Manhattan <strong>Beach</strong><br />
Chamber at (310) 802-5000 or visit<br />
citymb.info.<br />
Vintage celebration<br />
The Torrance Antique Street Faire<br />
18th Anniversary will feature over<br />
200 vendors with vintage treasures,<br />
DJ Ozzie and live music. Raffle. Halloween<br />
costume contest and Trick or<br />
treat for the kids. 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.<br />
Downtown Old Torrance, Sartori Avenue.<br />
Torranceantiquefaire.com. B<br />
18 Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> magazine • <strong>October</strong> 13, <strong>2016</strong>
Simply Tiles Design Center<br />
Fine Ceramics, Natural Stone, Hardwoods, Cabinetry, Faucetry.<br />
Kitchen & Bathrooms Specialist.<br />
3968 Pacific Coast Hwy., Torrance • (310) 373-7781 • www.simplytiles.com<br />
License #904876<br />
<strong>October</strong> 13, <strong>2016</strong> • Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> magazine 19
each sports<br />
SCHMIDT, HIGLEY WIN<br />
Manhattan <strong>Beach</strong> 10K<br />
F<br />
ormer Redondo Union High School<br />
distance runner Simon Schmidt raced<br />
to the championship of the 39th annual<br />
Manhattan <strong>Beach</strong> 10K, outpacing David<br />
Cardona and last year’s winner Teddy Kassa,<br />
both of Torrance.<br />
Now living in Los Angeles, Schmidt<br />
crossed the finish line at the Manhattan<br />
<strong>Beach</strong> Pier in 31 minutes, 35 seconds. Cardona<br />
recorded a time of 31:53 while Kassa,<br />
who won the 2015 race with at 31:41, posted<br />
a time of 32:43.<br />
After a third-place finish in 2015, Redondo<br />
<strong>Beach</strong> running icon Nathalie Higley<br />
improved her time by 36 seconds to win the<br />
women’s division with a time of 37:55. Former<br />
Mira Costa High School cross country<br />
state champion Savannah Pio, of Hermosa<br />
<strong>Beach</strong>, finished second at 38:02, just ahead<br />
of last year’s runner-up Alison Kielty, of Torrance,<br />
who recorded a time of 38:22. -Randy<br />
Angel<br />
1<br />
2 3<br />
PHOTOS BY RAY VIDAL<br />
1. Former Redondo Union High School<br />
and UC Berkeley distance runner Simon<br />
Schmidt sprints to at the finish to win the<br />
39th Annual Manhattan <strong>Beach</strong> 10K.<br />
2. Redondo <strong>Beach</strong> running legend<br />
Nathalie Higley won her 13th Manhattan<br />
<strong>Beach</strong> 10K Women’s Division Championship<br />
in 18 attempts.<br />
3. Club Ed runners Tim Burdiak,<br />
Nicholas Burdiak, Ed Avol and Alison<br />
Atkinson.<br />
4. Nearly 3,500 runners competed on<br />
the streets of Manhattan <strong>Beach</strong>.<br />
5. Hermosa <strong>Beach</strong>’s Savannah Pio was<br />
the second female to cross the finish line.<br />
6. Spectators knew why 65-year-old<br />
Richard Bard, of Hermosa <strong>Beach</strong>, was on<br />
the course.<br />
7. Alison Kielty, of Torrance, captured the<br />
female 24-29 division while finishing as<br />
the third-fastest woman.<br />
8. Manhattan <strong>Beach</strong> resident and former<br />
Mira Costa distance runner Shadeh<br />
Tabatabai placed fifth in the women’s division.<br />
9. The Gregg Young band lays down the<br />
beat.<br />
10. Torrance runner David Cardona<br />
placed second, after winning the 2014<br />
Manhattan <strong>Beach</strong> 10K.<br />
11. Emily Mitchell, of Manhattan <strong>Beach</strong>,<br />
won the female 35-39 age division.<br />
4<br />
5<br />
6 7<br />
9 10<br />
8<br />
11<br />
20 Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> magazine • <strong>October</strong> 13, <strong>2016</strong>
LA’s DIY Brewing Experience<br />
Grand Opening<br />
10/14/<strong>2016</strong> 12 - Close<br />
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Mention AD get 20% on bookings through <strong>October</strong><br />
Brew your own Holiday and NYE Cheer!<br />
Brewing and Tasting Room Hours<br />
Tuesday-Thursday 4-9<br />
Friday 4-10<br />
Saturday 10-10<br />
Sunday 12-6<br />
310-791-1015<br />
zymurgybrewworks.com @ZymurgyBrewWorks<br />
22755 Hawthorne Blvd., Torrance, CA 90505<br />
<strong>October</strong> 13, <strong>2016</strong> • Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> magazine 21
Call<br />
sea<br />
of the<br />
Szabo lands on the rocky beach of Bluff Cove in Palos Verdes during a practice run. Photo by Kevin Gilligan<br />
by Ryan McDonald<br />
Andrew Szabo kayaks from Manhattan <strong>Beach</strong> to Tijuana,<br />
another step in his paced walk on the wild side<br />
The dunes are covered in concrete, the vacant lots swallowed by suburbia,<br />
and the alleys are prowled by police. Even the Pacific Ocean<br />
seems pacified: Surfing, once the pastime of drop-outs and derelicts,<br />
now comfortably draws hedge-funders to the lineup. Can the South Bay<br />
still howl with the call of the wild?<br />
Andrew Szabo thinks so. The Manhattan <strong>Beach</strong> resident came here from<br />
New York with his family in 2008. After some discussion with his wife<br />
about where in Southern California to live, they settled on the South Bay in<br />
order to be close to the coast.<br />
“We were supposed to live in Silver Lake. I said ‘Come on,’” Szabo recalled<br />
with get-over-yourself tilt of the head.<br />
Living here, he now thinks constantly of how easy it is to stumble into<br />
wilderness.<br />
“It’s just so unbelievably convenient to take my kayak out of my house,<br />
walk two or three blocks and be in the ocean,” Szabo said. “Not a lot of people<br />
can say that.”<br />
One Sunday last month, Szabo hauled his kayak down to the beach at<br />
29th Street and pushed it into the ocean. Unlike a typical jaunt, however,<br />
he would not return later that afternoon. He would be gone almost two<br />
weeks, kayaking from Manhattan <strong>Beach</strong> to Tijuana.<br />
Szabo, a Hungarian Internet entrepreneur, is a refreshing contrast to the<br />
modern adventure-lete, polished in a sterile gym and clad in fashionable<br />
activewear. He has wild hair and thick glasses, and when we met his casual<br />
ensemble betrayed no trace of sponsorship. His powerful upper body<br />
teeters over an injured knee, and is marked by the distinct appearance of<br />
muscle added later in life — an unchiseled burliness that suggests he could<br />
survive for a while if truly stranded.<br />
Szabo was an avid kayaker when he was younger, but abandoned the<br />
sport some 20 years ago after nearly drowning when his kayak capsized<br />
while going down the Danube River in Budapest. But he picked it up again<br />
last year, reinvigorated by the treasures lurking just offshore.<br />
He enrolled in a sea kayaking class at UCLA and, not much after that,<br />
22 Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> magazine • <strong>October</strong> 13, <strong>2016</strong>
announced his intentions to trek to Tijuana.<br />
Szabo’s wife Erica Lefkowits was hardly surprised.<br />
“Quite honestly I wasn’t really shocked. It goes<br />
along with his personality. He said he wanted to<br />
learn how to sea kayak. Then, ‘Oh yeah, I’m<br />
kayaking to Tijuana,’” his wife said.<br />
Having realized how easy it was to get in the<br />
water, Szabo quickly found he did not have to go<br />
far to find himself immersed in a new world.<br />
“People fly to the end of the earth, they fly to<br />
Antarctica to ‘go on adventures,’” Szabo said. “but<br />
they really haven’t seen all the coastline in a 200-<br />
mile radius, which is just as fascinating.”<br />
Of course, when Szabo says “people,” he means<br />
people like himself.<br />
On the road<br />
Szabo is the founder of the Budapest-Bamako,<br />
an annual event in which 400 to 500 participants<br />
drive from the capital of Hungary to the capital<br />
of Mali. On their way, they pass through everything<br />
from glitzy Monte Carlo to the harsh Mauritanian<br />
desert. Dubbed the world’s largest<br />
amateur rally, it is a road race in which contestants<br />
spend little time on actual roads.<br />
But what makes Szabo’s more passive vision of<br />
adventuring cohere is that for the most part they<br />
are not actually racing either. There are no stopwatches<br />
or checkered flags in the Budapest-Bamako.<br />
Contestants have designated start and<br />
finish points each day, while nights are often<br />
spent communally, sharing stories — how a river<br />
was forded, or how a car was flooded — over<br />
food, fire and drink. The rally, while taxing, is<br />
more about finding yourself in a new place and<br />
enjoying your surroundings.<br />
“It doesn’t matter how fast your car is, as long<br />
as you know how to drive, and you know how to<br />
take care of your car, and you know how to navigate,”<br />
Szabo said. “And how well you can get<br />
along with your partners for two weeks.”<br />
The inspiration for the rally came by accident.<br />
In 2004, while working for a mining company,<br />
Szabo travelled to Conakry, the capital of Guinea,<br />
on a business trip. He was scheduled to travel on<br />
to Bamako, but his plans fell apart.<br />
“I had a plane to catch on Saturday, and then<br />
on Thursday the airline’s only plane crashed. It<br />
fell into a swamp,” he said.<br />
He began looking into other options, and found<br />
few. There are no trains or car rental companies<br />
in the area, and bus service was limited. So he<br />
and a business companion spoke to a “local fixer,”<br />
hired a car, and drove across 36 hours of savanna,<br />
sahel and jungle. The experience was life changing,<br />
and he wanted to repeat it.<br />
“At first I wanted to enter the Dakar Rally. Until<br />
I realized it was not only way out of my league,<br />
but that it was organized in an old-fashioned,<br />
colonial, ‘We’re going to drive through your villages,<br />
we don’t get out of the car, we drive as fast<br />
as we can,’ style,” he said. “So I wanted to come<br />
up with a kinder and gentler rally.”<br />
For many of the participants, the Budapest-Bamako<br />
marks their first time in the backcountry.<br />
One such newbie was Sean Flynn, a North Carolina<br />
resident who met Szabo during the 2012<br />
running of the Budapest-Bamako.<br />
“It was my friend Dan, his buddy Art, Dan’s<br />
son Connor, and me,” Flynn recalled. “I think Art<br />
might have been the only one who had driven<br />
anything offroad before.”<br />
Caught in the net<br />
A longtime Greenpeace supporter, Szabo made<br />
the trek from Manhattan to Tijuana last month<br />
to raise awareness of unsustainable fishing practices<br />
among major canned tuna companies.<br />
“He doesn’t like to do anything for no reason,”<br />
his wife said. “He always likes to have some kind<br />
Mali is still emerging from a civil war that plagued the country, with periodic attacks still occurring. Soldiers in the Malian army offered protection for the<br />
rally’s participants. Photo courtesy budapestbamako.org<br />
<strong>October</strong> 13, <strong>2016</strong> • Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> magazine 23
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Damir Filipovic of Croatia celebrating his successful finish of last year’s Budapest-Bamako<br />
rally with Malian villagers. Photo courtesy budapestbamako.org<br />
of a purpose or a cause.”<br />
Canned tuna processors have<br />
been under scrutiny for years. A sixpart<br />
New York Times series last year<br />
documenting slave labor practices<br />
and illegal fish poaching prompted<br />
Congressional inquiries into Thai<br />
Union, the world’s largest canned<br />
tuna company. (Following the<br />
Time’s revelations, Thai Union issued<br />
a new “Code of Conduct” in<br />
November 2015, and said in a statement<br />
they plan to increase the<br />
share of their tuna coming from the<br />
Proactive Vessel Register, an industry-sponsored<br />
initiative to promote<br />
sustainable tuna fishing.)<br />
The solution, Szabo said, is to rely<br />
more on line-and-pole-caught tuna.<br />
Although he admits this would<br />
drive up the price for consumers,<br />
and probably force a significant reduction<br />
in overall consumption,<br />
Szabo believes that the current<br />
model is not sustainable.<br />
“It’s just like cigarettes: Years ago,<br />
everyone smoked, people thought it<br />
was fine,” he said.<br />
The journey and the cause<br />
quickly began to intertwine. His<br />
route would take him through San<br />
Diego, where many of the U.S.<br />
headquarters for tuna companies<br />
are located.<br />
But it was not exactly an operation<br />
of military precision. Szabo<br />
charted out an 11-day course to<br />
tackle the roughly 130-mile distance<br />
— or about 150 miles with<br />
“zigzagging,” he estimated. He<br />
would camp at night along various<br />
portions of the California coast,<br />
hoping to avoid state park rangers<br />
for fear of being mistaken for a vagrant.<br />
The middle of the day was<br />
set aside for rest and granola bars.<br />
He paddled a pre-owned Current<br />
Design Storm GT kayak, a 17-foot<br />
long model no longer in production.<br />
He recorded his observations in a<br />
bound journal with laminated<br />
pages.<br />
Among the obstacles he encountered<br />
were rapidly rising swells between<br />
San Onofre State <strong>Beach</strong> and<br />
Oceanside Harbor, which nearly<br />
tossed him into the ocean. He also<br />
had to be on the lookout for military<br />
ships, and used his most advanced<br />
piece of technology — a marine<br />
radio — to inform the Navy that he<br />
came in peace.<br />
Navigation was done mostly by<br />
“keeping the coast on my left.” He<br />
stayed less than a mile from shore,<br />
and came even closer to Palos<br />
Verdes to take in the wildlife.<br />
“There’re just so many undiscovered<br />
places along the coast that you<br />
can only see from a boat — that you<br />
can only see if you stay close to the<br />
beach,” Szabo said.<br />
Racing for the future<br />
Szabo was greeted in Tijuana by<br />
friends waiting on the beach with a<br />
bottle of tequila. He took some time<br />
to decompress, and then drove<br />
home with his wife. Journey completed,<br />
the focus shifted back to the<br />
cause.<br />
There was no Kickstarter, no Go-<br />
FundMe, no social media linking<br />
his quest to the pocketbooks of<br />
strangers. Szabo wanted to focus on<br />
changing people’s hearts, minds<br />
and habits. He is working on a documentary<br />
about his trip and the<br />
tuna industry that he plans to show<br />
to schoolchildren, in hopes that<br />
they will ask their parents to pack<br />
something different for lunch.<br />
24 Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> magazine • <strong>October</strong> 13, <strong>2016</strong>
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Szabo gets a musical accompaniment to celebrate the completion of his<br />
journey on a Tijuana beach. Photo by ArcoirisExplorer.org<br />
“It’s so easy to say, ‘Ah, climate<br />
change is out of my hands,’ or ‘Arctic<br />
oil drilling, the politicians really<br />
need to do something.’ This is small,<br />
you can do something about it,” he<br />
said.<br />
Szabo is also working on organizing<br />
the Baja 4000, a rally slated for<br />
the coming January that will propel<br />
contestants from Los Angeles,<br />
down the Baja peninsula along the<br />
Sea of Cortez, and then back up<br />
along the Pacific Ocean. A portion<br />
of the race’s proceeds will go to<br />
Corazón de Vida, an organization<br />
dedicated to improving the lives of<br />
orphans in the area.<br />
“With the rallies, there is always<br />
some kind of charitable component.<br />
He wants to make it about more<br />
than just him,” his wife said.<br />
Szabo’s philanthropic impulse is<br />
matched by a kind of social engineering<br />
streak, in which the race<br />
becomes a tool to jostle the outlook<br />
of its participants. Every running of<br />
the Budapest-Bamako, for example,<br />
features a stage in which contestants<br />
are not given GPS coordinates.<br />
In villages whose names appear on<br />
no map, drivers and passengers get<br />
out of their cars, and talk to the people<br />
who live in the places they are<br />
passing through.<br />
“You had to go out into Senegalese<br />
bush and make nice with natives.<br />
That was a great day,” said<br />
Flynn, the former Budapest-Bamako<br />
contestant.<br />
The link between cultural exposure<br />
and international empathy is<br />
not as clear as it might seem. Contestants<br />
likely do not sign up for the<br />
Budapest-Bamako intending to save<br />
the world. (In Flynn’s year, money<br />
from the rally built a school in<br />
Guinea-Bissau.) But whether they<br />
plan to or not, participants are<br />
forced to slow down and get involved.<br />
“That, I think, is Andrew’s humanitarian<br />
genius. He figured a<br />
way to leverage other people’s adventurism<br />
and innate decency into<br />
providing real, tangible aid — and a<br />
lot of it — to people who desperately<br />
need it,” Flynn said. B<br />
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A LA CAZE DEVELOPMENT COMPANY PROJECT<br />
<strong>October</strong> 13, <strong>2016</strong> • Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> magazine 25
Michael Schreiber of<br />
South Bay Customs.<br />
Photo by<br />
Paul Roustan
Motors + music + art<br />
by Mark McDermott<br />
How South Bay Customs became the coolest place in the coolest town in the South Bay<br />
Every night during the dog days of the summer of 2007, a gunmetal<br />
grey 1950 Chevrolet pickup truck roamed slowly through the streets<br />
of Smoky Hollow. A long, tall, razor thin dark-haired man sat behind<br />
the wheel, surveying the buildings in El Segundo’s rundown warehouse<br />
district.<br />
Michael Schreiber was looking for a home. He sought a place where he<br />
could not only build motorcycles, but assemble something else, something<br />
he’d never seen before except in his mind’s eye — a pirate’s ship of a building,<br />
a skull and bones kingdom where he could make his own rules. He<br />
was prepared to make a stand.<br />
Schreiber had reached a make it or break it point in his life. He was 36<br />
years old and been building cars and bikes since before he was old enough<br />
to drive. He’d spent 10 years working as a mechanic for Harley Davidson<br />
shops but had constantly run afoul of his bosses. It wasn’t an issue of work<br />
ethic, or ability. Schreiber was a hard worker and a meticulous craftsman.<br />
In fact it was his commitment to his meticulousness that was the problem.<br />
“I was always having difficulties working with other people, because I<br />
thought I knew a better way,” Schreiber said. “But not out of arrogance. I<br />
would see something I saw as an efficiency, and I wanted to make it better….I<br />
would go outside the lines of convention. I was told, ‘Just show up<br />
and do what you are told — it doesn’t matter if it’s right, wrong, or indifferent,<br />
just one and done, let’s do it.’ And I couldn’t. So I ended up in a lot<br />
of trouble.”<br />
Being a mechanic was more than a vocation for Schreiber, but almost a<br />
spiritual endeavor. He was the son of a mechanic who’d grown up bouncing<br />
back and forth between Redondo and Lomita, and from the age of six would<br />
find machines and appliances in other people’s trash and start taking them<br />
apart and putting them back together.<br />
“I just look at something, and all I can do in my head, it’s like extra vision<br />
— I look into it and start thinking about how it works and take it apart,<br />
piece by piece,” he said.<br />
He quit his job with Harley Davidson before he could be fired, again. He<br />
knew he had to strike out on his own. His passion was to build motorcycles<br />
from the ground up, his own way, less overtly stylized than typical custom<br />
bikes.<br />
Schreiber had a partner in crime. His girlfriend Robbin Holden was an<br />
artist and a classic car enthusiast. Together they felt the stirrings of a different<br />
kind of vision for how they could build a life. He sold his beloved ‘69<br />
Chevelle, which he’d completely restored and owned for 15 years, and<br />
Holden sold her ‘62 Falcon. They took the money, paid off some debt,<br />
bought some equipment and moved into a little 250 sq. ft. section of a warehouse<br />
in South Redondo <strong>Beach</strong>. Thus was South Bay Customs born. The<br />
space, which was part of a strip mall, wasn’t big enough. Ten months later,<br />
a larger space opened at a friend’s warehouse in El Segundo, and they<br />
moved. This only lasted a year — the building sold, and they had 30 days<br />
to move. They found a temporary location on Franklin Street in El Segundo,<br />
but time was running out for South Bay Customs.<br />
Hence Schreiber’s nightly hunts. “I would just drive around every night,<br />
so miserable,” he recalled. “I knew I had to get out of it.”<br />
One night that September, he finally spied a “For Lease” sign outside a<br />
low slung warehouse on Penn Street. He called from his truck, made an<br />
appointment to see the place the next morning, and signed a lease three<br />
days later.<br />
He knew he had his work cut out for him. The first time he walked in,<br />
the word that came to mind was “dump.” The 3,000 sq. ft. warehouse had<br />
been occupied by an auto mechanic for several years, and then for the previous<br />
year it had been a bread bakery.<br />
“So it was a combination of the guy who didn’t clean up very well, the<br />
auto mechanic, and then the baker...he made a mess” he said. “You know,<br />
a little flour slurry everywhere. It was disgusting. I couldn’t sleep the night<br />
after seeing it. I knew.”<br />
But he also saw something else. The scale and feel of the warehouse was<br />
expansive enough to contain more than a custom motorcycle shop. He’d<br />
found his pirate ship.<br />
“I started seeing what it is now, just instantly,” Schreiber said. “It all<br />
came.”<br />
What South Bay Customs is now defies easy description. It’s a motorcycle<br />
shop, art gallery, music venue, and event space, but it’s also something<br />
more. SBC is an alternative universe, the distillation and perhaps evolution<br />
of some of the South Bay’s and particularly El Segundo’s proudest traditions<br />
— precision mechanics and a defiant but pronouncedly unbothered inclination<br />
to go one’s own damned way. Rock ‘n’ roll not as a musical genre<br />
but a way of life.<br />
Schreiber, to whom the idea of art was anathema prior to meeting Holden<br />
10 years ago, has been described in the custom motorcycle press both as a<br />
master of his craft and an artist. His reason for founding South Bay Customs<br />
sounds a lot like what many artists say about their calling to create art.<br />
“I couldn’t not,” he said.<br />
Writer Jack Kerouac famously wrote, “The only people for me are the<br />
mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous<br />
of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a<br />
commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn…”<br />
Schreiber is more of a slow burn. And South Bay Customs is his flame.<br />
“For some people, it’s going to to burn a way out of them if they don’t let<br />
it out. Michael is that guy,” said his friend Tony Goodreau, an El Segundo<br />
native and a musical mainstay at South Bay Customs. “If he didn’t do this<br />
he would wind up in a padded cell. And that’s an artist to me. You watch<br />
Schreiber cont. on page 28<br />
<strong>October</strong> 13, <strong>2016</strong> • Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> magazine 27
Schreiber cont. from page 27<br />
true artists, like a great guitar player, and you<br />
think, ‘Man, if he wasn’t doing this, he’d catch<br />
fire.’ It’s like an exorcism. Michael does that with<br />
everything, whether he’s working, shaping metal,<br />
or putting on a show, putting together flyers…<br />
He’s intense that way. It’s definitely art to me,<br />
man.”<br />
South Bay love<br />
It began at Pat’s Cocktails II.<br />
Schreiber was having a drink with<br />
friends at the quintessential dive bar<br />
in South Redondo. Holden was likewise<br />
there with friends. She noticed<br />
a tall man at the bar.<br />
“I first thought he was cute, then I<br />
was like, ‘I don’t know,’” she recalled.<br />
“He kind of just didn’t seem interested...He<br />
was single, so he was<br />
probably scanning the floor.”<br />
Schreiber is, if not taciturn, selfcontained.<br />
He’s deliberate in most<br />
things, including whom he lets in his<br />
life. He was more interested in<br />
Holden than he let on. Within a couple<br />
weeks, they went out on a date.<br />
“So we met at another bar, and had<br />
the world's worst, most awkward<br />
first date ever,” Schreiber said. “I really<br />
couldn't wait for it to be over. We<br />
are not clicking, it was uncomfortable,<br />
and we ended up going our<br />
seperate ways that night. I was like,<br />
'Well, that is that, right?'”<br />
He didn’t hear from her until<br />
about a week later, on his birthday,<br />
when she called and left a message<br />
wishing him a happy birthday. The<br />
cool simplicity of it got his attention.<br />
He told his sister about the call. She<br />
told him he should give Holden another<br />
shot.<br />
“Who knows?” Schreiber thought. So he asked<br />
her out again.<br />
“That date went way better than the first one,”<br />
Schreiber said. “And now it’s been 10 years.”<br />
A photographer who shot Robbin Holden once<br />
described her as “the calmest person I ever met.”<br />
She’s a self-taught artist with a bent towards assemblage,<br />
steampunk and darkly Victorian art<br />
who knows every good swap meet and antique<br />
store in a 100 mile radius and pores over art and<br />
design magazines for ideas or art she can clip out.<br />
She knew she had her work cut out for her<br />
when she met Michael.<br />
“He and I are so opposite,” Holden said. “He<br />
hates art. I mean, he likes it now, but he hated it<br />
then. He thought we were a bunch of stuck up<br />
assholes who sit on our pedestals and judge people.<br />
All he wants to do is work on bikes and listen<br />
to rock 'n' roll, that was his thing. So it's been ongoing,<br />
but spending time and realizing that lowbrow<br />
artists are not the same ...it's just a different<br />
type of person. I don't have a degree and I'm not<br />
pretentious.”<br />
“I have to give Robbin credit for her influence.<br />
I was super naive to what art really even meant<br />
28 Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> magazine • <strong>October</strong> 13, <strong>2016</strong><br />
or could be before I met her,” Schreiber said. “I<br />
kind of had this opinion that everyone who is into<br />
art is an arty kind of person. I thought they were<br />
sort of like snobs and they walked around with<br />
their pinkies in the air. It really quickly dawned<br />
on me when I met Robbin and saw the art that<br />
she does, and the art she appreciates, the way she<br />
decorates things -- I was completely wrong. She<br />
really opened up my eyes to what art is and can<br />
Robbin Holden of South Bay Customs, with Hank, chairman of the SBC<br />
Board. Photo by Michael Schreiber<br />
be, and even sort of taught me that I had a little<br />
bit of artist in me, even though I'd never recognized<br />
it, or even wanted to admit that what I was<br />
doing was artistic.”<br />
Holden’s idea of art wasn’t overwrought. She’d<br />
grown up poor in San Pedro and came to art more<br />
from necessity than some need to make a conceptual<br />
statement.<br />
“I hung out with poor kids,” she said. “So my<br />
view was just like, ‘Okay, this is what I do, how<br />
I express myself. I can't go to the mall and buy a<br />
shirt, so I'll just paint my own.’”<br />
Something Holden and Schreiber had in common<br />
from the beginning was a work ethic somewhere<br />
between relentless and outright insane.<br />
When Schreiber is on task, for example, sleep becomes<br />
inessential. He possesses an outsized capacity<br />
for single-minded focus.<br />
When the couple took over the warehouse and<br />
began its transformation into South Bay Customs,<br />
they dug deep. They scrubbed and scraped and<br />
painted and fabricated and assembled. Holden<br />
went into overdrive, scouring swap meets and antique<br />
stores, paging through her vast collection of<br />
art books and magazines, clipping and framing<br />
and hanging art.<br />
“For like a month, the doors were closed,”<br />
Schreiber said. “We decorated it, and started<br />
building it out. It resembled very much what it<br />
is now.”<br />
If you build it<br />
The building at 115 Penn Street calls little attention<br />
to itself. It’s a tan, single story brick warehouse<br />
adorned with two slanted metal awnings<br />
and a sign that says, “South Bay Customs”<br />
in large ornate lettering and, in<br />
a simple bold font beneath, “American<br />
Motorcycles.” There are two<br />
hints something unusual might be<br />
going on behind the glass front door:<br />
the 1950 Chevy pickup always<br />
parked out front, and a small rocket<br />
painted with the words “Motors”<br />
“Art” “Music” hanging on chains<br />
from the far right roof ledge.<br />
The experience of walking inside<br />
for the first time is something nearly<br />
every visitor remembers long after.<br />
The artist Holly Socrates moved to El<br />
Segundo three years ago to open her<br />
own gallery on Main Street, and people<br />
kept telling her she needed to go<br />
check out SBC. She was in the neighborhood<br />
one day and decided to finally<br />
visit. To this day, she can’t find<br />
the words to describe the experience<br />
of that first visit — the long hallway,<br />
thick with art, ranging from vintage<br />
horror movie posters to collections of<br />
old magazines (“The Radio Times,”<br />
“Woman’s Own,” “Punch”) to a<br />
photo assemblage featuring dozens of<br />
photos of midgets from the first half<br />
of the last century (one is stamped<br />
“Photo Roto Co of N.Y.” and shows<br />
two midgets boxing, with the caption,<br />
“Mike and Ike, twin midgets<br />
measuring 24 inches at 20 years<br />
old”). A bright red, old school popcorn<br />
machine a little further in has a sign that<br />
reads, “Please don’t feed the...” above a photo of<br />
Michael and Robbin’s dog, a very mixed breed<br />
named Hank (“pure bred awesome,” as Schreiber<br />
describes him), looking sadly popcornless. And<br />
then you step inside the shop itself, which feels<br />
like stepping back into some century that could<br />
have existed a hundred years ago but never did.<br />
Hundreds of photos, assemblages, posters (a<br />
bright colored Carter the Great magician poster<br />
exclaims, “Carter Beats the Devil!”), and motorcycle<br />
parts framing artworks (one Victorian Age<br />
man looks solemnly at you from one angle, then<br />
becomes a skull from another). A stage is at the<br />
front of the room, with a backline of amplifiers<br />
and a drum kit and dozens of professional-grade<br />
show lights above. The building further opens up<br />
into another, larger room, with a hoist and and a<br />
lot of other mechanical gear and a rugged looking<br />
but sleek, stripped-down motorcycle on display<br />
at the back of the room. (Dubbed “Death or<br />
Glory,” the bike is Schreiber’s masterwork, which<br />
Schreiber cont. on page 30
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Schreiber cont. from page 28<br />
he raced on the Bonneville Flats, a<br />
“bucket list” goal achieved). The<br />
room opens to a sloping back deck,<br />
where there are picnic tables and a<br />
smoker (Schreiber has taught himself,<br />
with characteristic avidness, the<br />
fine art of BBQ).<br />
There are a hundred captivating<br />
details, it seems, per square foot. But<br />
as Socrates noted, the main feeling<br />
you come away with is warmth, because<br />
every guest somehow is invited<br />
to be complicit with this secret<br />
world Schreiber and Holden have<br />
constructed.<br />
“They are just good people,”<br />
Socrates said. “I just love that if you<br />
do what you love, good things will<br />
come — Michael is living it. It’s such<br />
a cool inspiration as a small business<br />
owner seeing that.”<br />
The shop has flourished and has<br />
done so in ways even Schreiber did<br />
not envision.<br />
His primary business in the beginning<br />
was, of course, building motorcycles.<br />
Early on, he started hosting<br />
music shows -- both because of his lifelong passion for music, and in the<br />
hopes that people visiting for shows might become motorcycle customers,<br />
given the crossover between music and motorcycles. His first show was<br />
the locally based Irish punk band, Hoist the Colors. Word immediately<br />
spread throughout the South Bay music community that a new, legit musical<br />
venue had arrived.<br />
Elvis Cortez, the lead singer and guitarist of the Wilmington-based band<br />
Left Alone and the punk supergroup Transplants, remembers hearing<br />
about SBC and investigating.<br />
“I googled it, and was like, ‘Huh, it’s kind like a bike shop, but they do<br />
shows?’” he said. “I’m from the South Bay and I’ve been booking shows a<br />
long time and I’d never heard of this place...I showed up and was blown<br />
away just walking in. ‘Okay, it’s a museum, but also an awesome bike<br />
shop. And eventually I started playing there, and it’s hands down my favorite<br />
place I’ve ever played — and I’ve played a lot of places, from the<br />
House of Blues to Conan O’Brien to a hundred other clubs.”<br />
“I compare it to those little backyard places. The vibe is undeniable. And<br />
people you take there feel at home. No one disrespects you, everyone is<br />
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“That makes everything worth it to<br />
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constant I want to keep for this place<br />
is that no matter who walks through<br />
the door, they feel welcome, comfortable,<br />
like they can just come and<br />
focus on what's going on. They don't<br />
have to worry, 'Oh, am I dressed<br />
right? Is that dude going to give me<br />
the hairy eyeball? Am I cool enough<br />
to be here? Is this my demographic?'<br />
There is no demographic for this<br />
place. You'll have people who bring<br />
their kids, and you'll have middle<br />
aged kids, you have adults, you have<br />
senior citizens, long-haired, shorthaired,<br />
bikes, no bikes, tattoos, no tattoos,<br />
it doesn't matter. The only thing<br />
we insist on is you show up with a<br />
good attitude. Don't be a dick.”<br />
Schreiber, once he delved into putting<br />
on shows, did extensive research<br />
and obtained state-of-the art everything.<br />
The lighting and sound systems<br />
are as good if not better than<br />
South Bay Customs, an American motorcycle shop, music and art venue,<br />
event space, and alternate universe. Photo by Brad Jacobson<br />
any full time music venue in Southern<br />
California.<br />
“There's probably more lighting up in those rafters in this motorcycle<br />
shop then there is in 90 percent of the venues in the South Bay, maybe Los<br />
Angeles,” Schreiber said. “That just goes back to my personality. I don't<br />
know how to leave things alone. Good enough is never good enough for<br />
me.”<br />
Cortez said SBC has established itself firmly on musicians’ maps throughout<br />
the country. Tim Armstrong, the lead singer of Rancid, has filmed<br />
videos there, and both local and nationally touring bands regularly grace<br />
its stage. Goodreau and his musical partner Neil Van Flue started playing<br />
there in SBC’s early days with their band Hangdog Expression. Their duo,<br />
Sanguine and Shiny, have become a house band in recent years.<br />
“It’s the best music venue in the South Bay,” he said. “We rarely play<br />
anywhere else, and it feels kind of weird when we do — like I almost want<br />
Michael’s blessing, ‘Shit, dude, I’m cheating on you.’ It’s just home for us.”<br />
An unexpected aspect of the business began about five years ago when<br />
a woman attending a concert was having the typical “Holy hell, what is<br />
the place?” first time experience at SBC. She asked Schreiber if he ever<br />
rented it out for private birthday or holiday parties. The thought had never<br />
crossed his mind.<br />
“I gave her the most confident look and I go, ‘Yeah, all the time,’” he recalled,<br />
laughing. “Because I instantly realized, ‘Great idea.’ In the 10 seconds<br />
it took to answer her question, I realized, ‘I need to do that.’”<br />
He gave her his card, hosted her event like it was routine business, and<br />
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was off and running in the event<br />
business.<br />
“Word started spreading and now<br />
it's more than 50 percent of my<br />
business,” Schreiber said. “Birthday<br />
parties, wedding receptions, record<br />
releases for bands, corporate holiday<br />
parties, bar mitzvahs — I'm not<br />
kidding, we do bar mitzvahs. So one<br />
day we have Tim Armstrong from<br />
Rancid and Hellcat records and<br />
then 24 hours later we've got little<br />
Billy celebrating his 15th birthday.<br />
That's how we roll here at South<br />
Bay Customs.”<br />
Socrates had a vision the first<br />
time she visited, as well. She instantly<br />
thought that El Segundo<br />
should host an Art Walk. Two years<br />
ago, she asked Schreiber if he<br />
would help. His answer, in her<br />
mind, would determine if such an<br />
event was feasible. He emphatically<br />
said yes. The El Segundo Art Walk<br />
just completed its second summer<br />
and has widely been lauded as the<br />
best event of its kind in the region,<br />
with over 30 businesses hosting a<br />
wide range of art, putting the little<br />
town on the map as an emerging<br />
artistic haven.<br />
Mayor pro tem Drew Boyles said<br />
SBC is emblematic of El Segundo,<br />
itself.<br />
“What is cool is what he’s doing<br />
— he’s actually building things in<br />
there, but he’s also got all this beautiful<br />
art all around, and music, this<br />
really cool combination of creativity<br />
and machines,” Boyles said. “It’s<br />
like El Segundo, and further to that<br />
point, what Smoky Hollow is becoming,<br />
reinventing spaces into<br />
something cool, fun, and creative.”<br />
Socrates still can’t quite describe<br />
it. She has one word of advice for<br />
anyone who wants to know what<br />
this curious motorcycle shop in<br />
Smoky Hollow is about.<br />
“Go,” she said. “Just go. You have<br />
to experience South Bay Customs.<br />
You can’t explain it to somebody.<br />
You just need to go and see for<br />
yourself.”<br />
See a photo gallery and video at<br />
EasyReaderNews.com. South Bay<br />
Customs is at 115 Penn Street in El<br />
Segundo. For more information, see<br />
SouthBayCustoms.net. Sanguine<br />
and Shiny play SBC on Oct. 15 with<br />
touring act DB Rouse and local musician<br />
Aaron Jones for a “Rad Swampy<br />
Americana Night.” The annual Halloween<br />
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<strong>October</strong> 13, <strong>2016</strong> • Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> magazine 31
food<br />
Chef Diana Stavaridis works with Deep Roots owner Jon Bell on raising produce for Stavaridis’ Manhattan House restaurant. Photos by Brad Jacobson<br />
Tby<br />
Richard Foss<br />
Farm-to-Table is used frequently in the local restaurant community,<br />
though many who toss it around find it difficult to say exactly what<br />
it means. Manhattan House chef Diana Stavaridis’ understanding is<br />
practical rather than vague and mystical.<br />
“I interpret that as a direct channel from the grower to the chef, working<br />
closely with the farmer, or even being the farmer yourself. That’s what<br />
I’m trying to do. I work with Deep Roots Garden Center. Right now we<br />
have a garden growing tomatoes, squash, radishes, cucumbers, carrots,<br />
chili peppers, chives, and Italian parsley. It really means something when<br />
the chef gets their hands in the earth, nurturing and developing varieties<br />
of fruit and vegetables that will be on the plate the day they’re picked.”<br />
Much of her produce is grown by the community, specifically district<br />
school children through a program she created with local nonprofit Growing<br />
Great.<br />
“At the moment I get about 10 percent of our produce from the garden<br />
at Deep Roots and some of the rest from the five elementary schools that<br />
Chef Diana Stavaridis plants<br />
seeds and ideas at local schools<br />
for the produce she serves<br />
at her restaurant<br />
have gardens. I’m going to be starting at Meadows this month, where<br />
I’ll work with a group of fifth graders for five weeks. We plan<br />
the menu with the students over a month before, because<br />
you can grow radishes and some other items in three to<br />
five weeks. Every month I run focus groups at a school<br />
and teach the kids what they’re growing in their garden.<br />
“I start with two sessions about what foods get<br />
them excited, what they like to eat, and then I engineer<br />
a program for them to put a dish on our menu.<br />
Last time we made Swiss chard agnolotti, and we brought<br />
30 kids here on a field trip and taught them to make the dish.<br />
For a whole month the kids are allowed to bring their families and<br />
come into the kitchen to make that dish with me. They love it. They get<br />
their name on the menu and they have the experience of being in a restaurant<br />
eating a dish they designed and cooked, made with herbs and vegetables<br />
that they grew.”<br />
The program teaches the children about nutrition, about ordering and<br />
dining in restaurants, and other elements of food security and economics.<br />
Many students have come up with suggestions to expand the program.<br />
“They’re interested in making sausages, cheese, smoking bacon… some<br />
stuff would take at least a half day and I’d like to arrange a field trip so<br />
that would be possible. They always want to learn more, they’re so excited.<br />
Some of them email me even a long time later and ask questions, so I know<br />
they’re still learning on their own. Many are now at Manhattan <strong>Beach</strong> Middle<br />
School and have asked me about doing classes there.”<br />
This program that connects children with ancient food skills came about<br />
in a modern way.<br />
“When I moved here I googled ‘elementary school gardens’ because I<br />
wanted to find out if there were any around here. The first thing that<br />
32 Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> magazine • <strong>October</strong> 13, <strong>2016</strong>
popped up was Growing Great. As<br />
soon as I saw what they were doing<br />
I knew I had to contact them. Jill<br />
Coons and Jennifer Jovanovic developed<br />
this program and we have<br />
quite a partnership going. They put<br />
the gardens in these schools, funded<br />
the seeds and maintenance and<br />
work to integrate the gardening and<br />
cooking into lessons about nutrition<br />
and food security. I love being involved<br />
in it. I love teaching and I<br />
love kids. I can sit and talk with<br />
them longer than I can talk with<br />
adults.”<br />
So she’s a hit with children, but<br />
that demographic doesn’t go out to<br />
fine restaurants often. Are their parents<br />
also fans? Happily for Diana,<br />
even though she didn’t grow up in<br />
the South Bay, her background has<br />
served her well. She is the daughter<br />
of a Greek immigrant who taught<br />
her about Mediterranean flavors<br />
and subsequently served under several<br />
great chefs.<br />
“I cooked for Neal Fraser at Grace<br />
in the mid-Wilshire area, then ran<br />
his BLD restaurant for about five<br />
years. Then I studied in Paris and<br />
London. My partners found me<br />
when I came back. They saw this<br />
space and knew they wanted to<br />
open here, but they needed a chef<br />
and a concept. My partners were<br />
passionate about what I wanted to<br />
cook: scratch-made, super seasonal,<br />
fun and playful on both small and<br />
big plates. I was an artist when I<br />
was a kid and almost went to art<br />
school and I’m very particular about<br />
how things look. You start to eat<br />
with your eyes, as the saying goes,<br />
and I want you to see each vegetable,<br />
see how it’s cooked instead<br />
of being hidden and buried. I have<br />
been drawn organically and naturally<br />
to creating a landscape look<br />
where you can see what you’re eating.<br />
”<br />
That hyper-seasonal, hyper-fresh<br />
agenda means that Manhattan<br />
House makes things that most<br />
restaurants buy.<br />
“We pickle our chillies, cucumbers,<br />
and radishes, infuse our own<br />
oils, and make all of our ice creams<br />
and sorbets. Same with gluten-free<br />
crackers, made with flax, pumpkin,<br />
and chia seeds, mushroom stock,<br />
and tomatoes. We cook down 20<br />
pounds of mushrooms to make two<br />
cups of stock - that’s enough for two<br />
or three days. And of course we<br />
cure our own meats and smoke our<br />
own bacon.<br />
We make 12 loaves of sourdough<br />
each day, 24 on weekends, six loaves<br />
of brioche every other day. We’ve<br />
been using the same sourdough<br />
starter for a year and a half and we<br />
feed it every day. The dough sits<br />
overnight to develop a great flavor<br />
and texture, which is the French<br />
style of baking. We cook it in cast<br />
iron pots to recreate the steam that<br />
you get from the traditional technique.<br />
We’ve had people from the<br />
community who have come to our<br />
back door trying to buy a loaf, and<br />
we have just started selling it to go.”<br />
After just over a year in business,<br />
Manhattan House is doing very well<br />
and Diana is full of ideas for new<br />
projects. There are plans to sell their<br />
pickles, condiments, and other<br />
items and she hinted that in time<br />
she and her partners might seek a<br />
second location in the area. She also<br />
has been asked to give classes for a<br />
new demographic: students who are<br />
a lot older and taller than her fifth<br />
graders.<br />
“We have a lot of adults who want<br />
classes in bread, brioche, ice cream.<br />
A lot of locals in the community are<br />
interested in classes, but I really do<br />
have to run a restaurant. I have 10<br />
students in that kitchen who are my<br />
most important people because they<br />
keep the place going. I have a great<br />
team here that is dedicated and<br />
great at what they do. Though I<br />
practically have to force myself to<br />
leave any time we’re open because<br />
I’m attached to this place, I know<br />
they can step in when I’m gone and<br />
could keep things going if I spend<br />
part of my time elsewhere.”<br />
In time, Stavaridis may open other<br />
restaurants and she wistfully mentioned<br />
her dream of someday cooking<br />
at a restaurant on a farm. For<br />
now she is focused on Manhattan<br />
House, her education programs, and<br />
the passion for surfing that brought<br />
her to Manhattan <strong>Beach</strong> long before<br />
she ever touched a stove here. Her<br />
uncompromising dedication to reducing<br />
the distance between farm<br />
and table is changing the way two<br />
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PIZZA, PASTA & MORE<br />
“A Taste of Brooklyn” in Manhattan <strong>Beach</strong> and El Segundo<br />
Family owned and operated, serving Brooklyn – style pizza. Everything is made<br />
fresh daily including homemade bread, meatballs, eggplant, subs & sauce.<br />
DELIVERY IN LIMITED AREA<br />
CATERING AVAILABLE<br />
975 AVIATION BLVD<br />
MANHATTAN BEACH<br />
310.318.5959<br />
150 S SEPULVEDA BLVD<br />
EL SEGUNDO<br />
310.426.9494<br />
<strong>October</strong> 13, <strong>2016</strong> • Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> magazine 33
34 Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> magazine • <strong>October</strong> 13, <strong>2016</strong>
<strong>October</strong> 13, <strong>2016</strong> • Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> magazine 35
S O U T H B AY<br />
DININGGUIDE<br />
1<br />
El Segundo<br />
Deluca Trattoria<br />
225 Richmond St.<br />
(310) 640-7600<br />
delucapasta.com<br />
2<br />
3<br />
4<br />
5<br />
Rock & Brews<br />
143 Main St.<br />
(310) 615-9890<br />
rockandbrews.com<br />
Valentino’s Pizza<br />
150 S. Sepulveda Blvd.<br />
(310) 426-9494<br />
valentinospizza.net<br />
Hawthorne<br />
Continental Gourmet<br />
Market<br />
12921 S. Prairie Ave.<br />
(310) 676-5444<br />
continentalgourmetmarket.com<br />
Hermosa <strong>Beach</strong><br />
The Bottle Inn Ristorante<br />
26 22nd Street<br />
(310) 376-9595<br />
bottleinnhermosa.com<br />
Dining Directory cont. on page 38<br />
1<br />
2<br />
3<br />
36 Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> magazine • <strong>October</strong> 13, <strong>2016</strong>
Traditional Italian Charm Since 1977<br />
Catering Private Parties Patio Seating<br />
Your Gourmet Neighborhood<br />
Restaurant for 39 Years!<br />
Fine Cuisine www.Broginos.com Fine Spirits<br />
2423 Artesia Blvd. Redondo <strong>Beach</strong> (310) 370-4827<br />
<strong>October</strong> 13, <strong>2016</strong> • Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> magazine 37
S O U T H B AY<br />
DININGGUIDE<br />
6<br />
Buona Vita Trattoria<br />
439 Pier Ave.<br />
(310) 379-7626<br />
buonavita.com<br />
7<br />
8<br />
The Comedy & Magic<br />
Club<br />
1018 Hermosa Ave.<br />
(310) 372-1193<br />
comedyandmagicclub.com<br />
Greenbelt<br />
36 Pier Ave.<br />
(310) 798-6585<br />
greenbelthermosa.com<br />
4<br />
5<br />
9<br />
Hennessey’s<br />
9 Pier Ave.<br />
(310) 372-5759<br />
hennesseystavern.com<br />
10<br />
Hermosa Mexican<br />
Cuisine<br />
824 Hermosa Ave.<br />
(310) 937-5606<br />
6 7<br />
8<br />
11<br />
Hook & Plow<br />
425 Pier Ave.<br />
(310) 937-5909<br />
thehookandplow.com<br />
12<br />
Hooked Poke’ Market<br />
25 Pier Ave.<br />
(424) 383-1783<br />
hookedpokemarket.com<br />
13<br />
Mediterraneo<br />
73 Pier Ave.<br />
(310) 318-2666<br />
themedhb.com<br />
9<br />
10<br />
14<br />
Paisano’s Pizza<br />
1132 Hermosa Ave.<br />
(310) 376-9883<br />
paisanospizzahb.com<br />
15<br />
16<br />
17<br />
Round Table Pizza<br />
2701 Pacific Coast Hwy.<br />
(310) 379-9277<br />
Roundtablepizza.com<br />
The Source Cafe<br />
509 Pier Ave.<br />
(310) 318-1600<br />
thesourcecafehb.com<br />
Lomita<br />
Continental Gourmet<br />
Market<br />
25600 Narbonne Ave.<br />
(310) 530-3213<br />
continentalgourmetmarket.com<br />
11 12<br />
13<br />
Dining Directory cont. on page 42<br />
14 15 16<br />
38 Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> magazine • <strong>October</strong> 13, <strong>2016</strong>
SEASONAL FEATURES<br />
Cioppino, Kabocha Squash,<br />
Churrasco Steak, Homemade Pasta,<br />
Roasted Organic Mary’s Chicken & more!<br />
SAT & SUN BRUNCH<br />
NFL SUNDAY TICKET<br />
“Bold and contemporary, the ingredients top shelf”<br />
HAPPY HOUR Mon-Fri 4pm-7pm<br />
bites $5<br />
chicken wings, kale caesar (add chicken $2), meatball<br />
marinara sliders, mushroom flatbread,<br />
margherita flatbread, truffle fries, hummus<br />
drinks 1/2 off<br />
draughts and bottled beer, select wines<br />
by the glass, mango bellini & sangria<br />
16 Craft Beers Homemade Sangria Peach & Pomegranate Bellinis<br />
Farmer’s Market Vegetables Catering Grass-fed Beef Outdoor Dining<br />
Open 7 Days A Week Mon-Fri 11am-11pm, Sat-Sun 10am-11pm (Brunch)<br />
36 Pier Avenue Hermosa <strong>Beach</strong> (310)798-6585 www.greenbelthb.com<br />
<strong>October</strong> 13, <strong>2016</strong> • Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> magazine 39
THE BOTTLE INN RIVIERA<br />
See you soon in the Lunada Bay Plaza!<br />
P.V.E.’s own “Hidden Gem”<br />
Upscale Dining in a Casual Setting<br />
New Happy Hour & Early Bird Menus<br />
FEATURING FLAVORED MARTINIS!<br />
• New Menu with Burrata<br />
(molten mozzarella)<br />
• Happy Hour Everyday 4-6pm<br />
• Outdoor Heated Patio & Ocean View<br />
Join Us for<br />
“Tipsy Tuesdays”<br />
6-7:30pm<br />
“Wednesday Gigs”<br />
6-8:30pm<br />
www.bottleinnriviera.com<br />
1700 S. Catalina Ave. Redondo <strong>Beach</strong> (310) 543-6800<br />
Huge Selection of Fresh Fish, Handmade Pastas &<br />
Prime Cut Steaks<br />
Private Room for Holiday & Corporate Parties!<br />
Open Tues-Sun at 4pm<br />
Live Music on Weekends & Craft Beer on Tap<br />
(310) 750-6877 www.facebook.com/pvgrill<br />
Salsa Verdes<br />
Authentic Fine Mexican Cuisine<br />
Ask About Our Fresh Daily Specials!<br />
Let Us Cater Mexican Flavor To Your<br />
Home & Office!<br />
Open Tues-Sun at 4pm<br />
(424) 206-9456<br />
2325 Palos Verdes Drive West<br />
Palos Verdes Estates, CA<br />
40 Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> magazine • <strong>October</strong> 13, <strong>2016</strong>
Green Bay<br />
Packers<br />
Headquarters!<br />
NFL<br />
Sunday<br />
Ticket<br />
The Bull Pen - Steaks, Prime Rib and<br />
FAMOUS Bull Pen Burgers<br />
Family-owned & operated since 1948<br />
LIVE Entertainment Wed-Sat<br />
Open 7 Days A Week<br />
Lunch & Dinner Mon-Sun<br />
Breakfast Sat-Sun<br />
314 Avenue I Redondo <strong>Beach</strong><br />
www.TheBullPenRedondo.com<br />
(310) 375-7797<br />
<strong>October</strong> 13, <strong>2016</strong> • Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> magazine 41
S O U T H B AY<br />
DININGGUIDE<br />
18<br />
Long <strong>Beach</strong><br />
Cafe Sevilla<br />
140 Pine Ave<br />
(562) 495-1111<br />
cafesevilla.com<br />
19<br />
Manhattan <strong>Beach</strong><br />
Brewco<br />
124 Manhattan <strong>Beach</strong> Blvd.<br />
(310) 798-2744<br />
brewcomb.com<br />
17<br />
18<br />
20<br />
Hennessey’s<br />
313 Manhattan <strong>Beach</strong> Blvd.<br />
(310) 546-4813<br />
hennesseystavern.com<br />
21<br />
22<br />
23<br />
24<br />
25<br />
26<br />
27<br />
28<br />
29<br />
Old Venice<br />
1001 Manhattan Ave.<br />
(310) 376-0242<br />
oldveniceonline.com<br />
Rock’N Fish<br />
120 Manhattan <strong>Beach</strong> Blvd.<br />
(310) 379-9900<br />
rocknfishmb.com<br />
The Strand House<br />
117 Manhattan <strong>Beach</strong> Blvd.<br />
(310) 545-7470<br />
thestrandhousemb.com<br />
Valentino’s Pizza<br />
975 Aviation Blvd.<br />
(310) 318-5959<br />
valentinospizza.net<br />
Zinc at Shade Hotel<br />
1221 N. Valley Dr.<br />
(310) 546-4995<br />
shadehotel.com<br />
Palos Verdes Estates<br />
PV Grill<br />
2325 PV Drive West<br />
(310) 750-6877<br />
Salsa Verdes<br />
2325 PV Drive West<br />
(424) 206-9456<br />
salsaverdes.com<br />
Redondo <strong>Beach</strong><br />
Barney’s Beanery<br />
100 Fisherman’s Wharf,<br />
Redondo <strong>Beach</strong> Pier<br />
(424) 275-4820<br />
barneysbeanery.com<br />
The Bottle Inn Riviera<br />
1700 S. Catalina Ave.<br />
(310) 543-6800<br />
bottleinnriviera.com<br />
19 20<br />
21<br />
22<br />
23<br />
24 25<br />
26<br />
Dining Directory cont. on page 46<br />
27 28 29<br />
42 Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> magazine • <strong>October</strong> 13, <strong>2016</strong>
Hermosa Mexican Cuisine<br />
Family owned and operated, Hermosa Mexican Cuisine serves<br />
“real” Mexican food! With a menu full of delicious choices, including<br />
delicious Breakfast Bowls, this restaurant also caters and offers pickup.<br />
Serving the BEST Breakfast Burritos all day! Open 7 days. Open<br />
Sun-Mon 9am-2pm, Tues-Sat 9am-9pm.<br />
Located just north of 8th Street.<br />
We’re waiting for you to visit us – Come on by!<br />
824 Hermosa Ave Hermosa <strong>Beach</strong> (310) 937-5606<br />
Barney’s Beanery<br />
Here at Barney’s we've got our full newspaper-sized menu available as well as 40 beers<br />
on draft. Daily and weekend specials and a great Happy Hour Mon - Fri, 4pm to 7pm.<br />
ALL DAY Happy Hour on Monday! We offer free wifi and always have the TV's tuned<br />
to numerous sporting events, in case you want to settle in for a long lunch or dinner.<br />
Either way, we are here for you so come on in and enjoy!<br />
100 Fisherman’s Wharf, Suite H, on the Redondo <strong>Beach</strong> Pier.<br />
(424) 275-4820 www.barneysbeanery.com<br />
1001 Manhattan Ave. • Downtown Manhattan <strong>Beach</strong><br />
Reservations Recommended • (310) 376-0242<br />
www.oldveniceonline.com<br />
<strong>October</strong> 13, <strong>2016</strong> • Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> magazine 43
Catch the World Series<br />
at our place or<br />
yours.<br />
Large Arcade<br />
with Tickest & Prizes<br />
TV’s<br />
Delicious Pizzas<br />
Tasty Beer & Wine<br />
We Cater!<br />
Family Owned & Operated Since 1993<br />
2701 PCH<br />
Hermosa <strong>Beach</strong><br />
310-379-9277<br />
www.RoundTablePizza.com<br />
44 Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> magazine • <strong>October</strong> 13, <strong>2016</strong>
From Our Family to Yours…<br />
Family Owned and Operated…<br />
Over 60 Years of the<br />
Largest Finest Seafood<br />
Selection on the West Coast<br />
Live Crab, Lobster, Shellfish, Urchin - Fresh Fish - Poke’ - Ceviche<br />
Smoked Fish - Cajun Shrimp - Oyster Bar with over 20 Varieties - Craft Beer on Tap<br />
Steamed - Grilled - Fried<br />
Dine in at our Casual Outdoor Ocean-View Patio or Take Out<br />
EXPERIENCE THE FLAVORS OF FRESH SEAFOOD!<br />
100-130 International Boardwalk Redondo <strong>Beach</strong><br />
www.qualityseafood.net (310) 374-2382<br />
<strong>October</strong> 13, <strong>2016</strong> • Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> magazine 45
S O U T H B AY<br />
DININGGUIDE<br />
30<br />
31<br />
32<br />
33<br />
34<br />
35<br />
36<br />
37<br />
Brogino’s<br />
2423 Artesia Blvd.<br />
(310) 370-4827<br />
broginos.com<br />
The Bull Pen<br />
314 Ave. I<br />
(310) 375-7797<br />
bullpenredondo.com<br />
Hennessey’s<br />
1712 S. Catalina Ave.<br />
(310) 316-0262<br />
hennesseystavern.com<br />
H.T. Grill<br />
1701 S. Catalina Ave.<br />
(310) 791-4849<br />
htgrill.com<br />
Kirari West Bake Shop<br />
707 N. PCH<br />
(310) 376-5313<br />
kirariwest.com<br />
Quality Seafood<br />
130 International Boardwalk<br />
(310) 374-2382<br />
qualityseafood.net<br />
R10 Social House<br />
179 N. Harbor Dr.<br />
(310) 798-2500<br />
r/10socialhouse.com<br />
Ragin’ Cajun Cafe<br />
525 S. PCH<br />
(310) 540-7403<br />
ragincajuncaferb.com<br />
38<br />
39<br />
40<br />
41<br />
42<br />
43<br />
Rebel Republic<br />
Social House<br />
1710 S. Catalina Ave.<br />
(424) 352-2600<br />
rebelrepublicsocialhouse.com<br />
Sea Level<br />
Restaurant/Lounge<br />
655 N. Harbor Drive<br />
(310) 921-8950<br />
shadehotel.com<br />
Ws China Bistro<br />
1410 S. PCH<br />
(310) 792-1600<br />
wschinabistro.com<br />
Torrance<br />
Frida Mexican Cuisine at<br />
Del Amo Fashion Center<br />
21438 Hawthorne Blvd.<br />
(310) 371-0666<br />
fridadelamo.com<br />
Ise-Shima at the Miyako<br />
Hybrid Hotel<br />
21381 South Western Avenue<br />
(310) 320-6700<br />
www.ise-shima.us<br />
Steinhaus Restaurant &<br />
Beerhall at Alpine Village<br />
833 West Torrance Blvd.<br />
(310)-327-4384<br />
www.alpinevillagecenter.com<br />
30<br />
32<br />
34<br />
31<br />
33<br />
35<br />
36<br />
37 38 39<br />
40 41 42 43<br />
46 Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> magazine • <strong>October</strong> 13, <strong>2016</strong>
<strong>October</strong> 13, <strong>2016</strong> • Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> magazine 47
each business<br />
RAM LEGENDS HONORED<br />
At Shade Redondo opening<br />
L<br />
os Angeles Rams legends Isiah Robertson,<br />
Ron Brown, LeRoy Irvin and Mike Kisslan<br />
were the guests of honor at a VIP Watch<br />
Party for the Sunday, Oct. 2 Rams versus the Arizona<br />
Cardinals game in Glendale, Arizona. The occasion<br />
was a grand opening fundraiser for the<br />
Shade Hotel Redondo <strong>Beach</strong>. The party was held<br />
in the hotel’s 9,034 square foot event center overlooking<br />
King Harbor. Proceeds benefited the Los<br />
Angeles Rams Foundation. “We always opens a<br />
business with a charity event,” said hotel owner<br />
Mike Zislis. “I think this might be my best work<br />
yet,” the hotel and restaurant owner said.<br />
1<br />
Photos by David Mendez 2<br />
1. Redondo <strong>Beach</strong> Councilman Bill Brand<br />
and Shade Hotel Redondo <strong>Beach</strong> owner<br />
Mike Zislis.<br />
2. Natalie Stanisich, Andrew “Stan”<br />
Stanisich, Megan Haldeman and Kristen<br />
Walker.<br />
3. Kim Allen with a T-shirt signed by L.A.<br />
Rams legends in attendance.<br />
4. Mickey Marraffino, Arnette Travis and<br />
LaDonna Barrett.<br />
5. Tara and John Bucci.<br />
6. Real estate agents Enrique Coello and Lisa<br />
Moulet.<br />
7. Jeff Ginsburg and Craig Funabashi.<br />
8. Retired LA Rams greats Isiah Robertson,<br />
Ron Brown and LeRoy Irvin with Mike Kisslan.<br />
9. Skye Taten, Christine Lowry, Joan Irvine,<br />
Kim Allen and Melissa Ginsburg.<br />
4<br />
6<br />
3<br />
5<br />
7<br />
8<br />
9<br />
48 Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> magazine • <strong>October</strong> 13, <strong>2016</strong>
<strong>October</strong> 13, <strong>2016</strong> • Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> magazine 49
each charity<br />
SWITZER CELEBRATES<br />
50th anniversary<br />
F<br />
or half a century, Switzer Learning Center has offered<br />
schooling for approximately 100 students annually<br />
with emotional and behavioral difficulties.<br />
Last month, the South Bay Community expressed its appreciation<br />
for the center with a fundraiser featuring food<br />
and wine tastings and ballroom dancing. Outdoors on the<br />
center’s Torrance campus. Switzer multidisciplinary staff<br />
offers instruction to children with dyslexia, attention<br />
deficit, hyperactivity and autism. For more information<br />
visit SwitzerCenter.org.<br />
PHOTOS BY KEVIN CODY<br />
1<br />
2<br />
1. Assemblyman David Hadley and wife Suzanne.<br />
2. Liz Harsch and husband Lee Hudspeth.<br />
3. Dan Ogi and wife Michele Bischoff DDS.<br />
4. Susie and Mike McKinney.<br />
5. Rick Dickert, Ronnie and Tracey Meistrell, Christy<br />
Darling and Jamie Meistrell.<br />
6. Switzer director Rebecca Foo and Congressman<br />
Ted Lieu.<br />
7. Sherry Kramer, Soni Beutler, Ian Kramer and<br />
Jonathan Beutler.<br />
8. Switzer Center principal Len Hernandez.<br />
3 4<br />
5<br />
6<br />
7<br />
8<br />
50 Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> magazine • <strong>October</strong> 13, <strong>2016</strong>
<strong>October</strong> 13, <strong>2016</strong> • Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> magazine 51
Simply the Best<br />
fuhgeddaboudit<br />
www.paisanospizzahb.com<br />
Hermosa <strong>Beach</strong>, CA<br />
52 Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> magazine • <strong>October</strong> 13, <strong>2016</strong>
<strong>October</strong> 13, <strong>2016</strong> • Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> magazine 53
Vivaha<br />
by Mark McDermott
Sanam amd Neil’s parents praying for the couple’s matrimony. From left to right, Sanam, Malvika, Atul, Philomina, Raju, and Neil. Photo by Lin & Jirsa<br />
Neil and Sanam Chhabria begin a new life toget her by following four centuries of<br />
tradition wit h a t hree day celebration<br />
Sanam and Neil Chhabria were married August<br />
20 in a traditional Hindu wedding, or<br />
Vivaha, that was the culmination of three<br />
days of elaborate rituals. Festivities began Thursday<br />
with an eight-hour ceremony in which the<br />
bride was painted with intricate henna designs at<br />
the groom’s family home in Palos Verdes Estates<br />
and ended Saturday with an exuberantly colorful<br />
wedding at the Hyatt Regency Resort in Huntington<br />
<strong>Beach</strong>.<br />
But the newlywed’s love story began, with considerably<br />
less grandeur, on December 18, 2010,<br />
at Big Mike’s Philly Steaks & Subs sandwich shop<br />
in Hermosa <strong>Beach</strong>.<br />
Neil, the son of local real estate icon Raju<br />
Chhabria and his wife Philomina, had invited his<br />
UC San Diego college friend, Diva, to a hip hop<br />
show he was promoting at a nearby Hermosa<br />
nightclub. His brother, Anand, was performing.<br />
His friend brought a few cousins, including<br />
Sanam, the daughter of Atul and Malvika Madhav<br />
of El Segundo. Diva called to meet before the<br />
show, and Neil asked the girls to join him at Big<br />
Mike’s, famed for its massive Philly cheesesteak<br />
sandwiches.<br />
Neil was in mid-cheesesteak when they arrived.<br />
He was immediately struck by Sanam.<br />
“I wasn’t expecting to really meet anyone, but<br />
Diva was bringing these two cousins and she<br />
called me. ‘Okay, cool, whatever — meet me at<br />
Big Mike’s so I can walk you into the show and<br />
you don’t have to pay cover,’” he recalled. “They<br />
show up at Big Mike’s and I’m chowing down on<br />
a sandwich. Then I saw Sanam, and got a chance<br />
to take in her beauty….It’s really corny and I feel<br />
weird saying it...They say the eyes are the windows<br />
to the soul, and I looked at her eyes and I<br />
could tell she’s a really good person. I don’t know<br />
how else to explain it other than I liked what I<br />
saw, and not just physically.”<br />
Sanam, a lifelong vegetarian, was less impressed.<br />
“I’m like, ‘Ew, what are you eating?’” Sanam remembered.<br />
“I remember him just going at it, and<br />
the sandwich was just so much meat. I was thinking,<br />
‘Oh god, this guy is like a serious carnivore.’”<br />
“She was repulsed,” Neil remembered.<br />
At the show, Neil kept his distance. “I think he<br />
wanted to see what kind of girl I was, what I was<br />
about,” Sanam said.<br />
But he couldn’t help but watch Sanam, who<br />
was 20 at the time, a student in radiologic science<br />
at Cal State Northridge. He liked everything<br />
about the way she carried herself.<br />
“I pretty much fell in love that night,” he said.<br />
The next morning, Sanam checked her Facebook<br />
to find a friend request from Neil. She accepted,<br />
and they chatted online; he asked for her<br />
phone number and she gave it to him. She realized<br />
from the outset his interest was romantic.<br />
“When someone sends you a smiley face, you<br />
know what it’s about,” she said.<br />
She thought Neil was a nice guy, but Sanam<br />
was so focused on school that she wasn’t even<br />
considering dating. In fact, she’d never dated; her<br />
priority was education and she didn’t want distractions.<br />
But Neil sweetly persisted, gently asking<br />
her out again and again over the next few<br />
months.<br />
The couple’s mutual love for the Los Angeles<br />
Lakers helped pave the way. He’d asked her out<br />
for Valentine’s Day, but she told him she thought<br />
it was a silly holiday. Instead, a few days later that<br />
February, Sanam agreed to go with Neil and a<br />
group of friends to festivities surrounding the<br />
NBA All Star Game, which was at the Staples<br />
Center that year. Over the course of the evening,<br />
she realized how much she really liked Neil.<br />
“I think he’s a very confident person, which I<br />
think is a really attractive trait,” she said. “He’s<br />
like that just generally in life, very confident, and<br />
<strong>October</strong> 13, <strong>2016</strong> • Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> magazine 55
that’s actually one of my faults. I’m not always<br />
confident in myself, and Neil is, always, and very<br />
positive. That’s why so many of his friends love<br />
him so much — he’s a very hard worker, always<br />
working, so he doesn’t have a lot of free time, so<br />
when he does come around his friends get very<br />
excited. That’s how you can tell he’s a good person.”<br />
After that night, the couple never looked back.<br />
They dated for the next five years, and it became<br />
increasingly clear they’d spend their lives together.<br />
Neil is a self-declared non-romantic.<br />
Sanam accepted this, but had one condition.<br />
“I am notorious for not being romantic,” he<br />
said. “Her one request was, ‘I know you are not<br />
romantic, but when you propose to me, you better<br />
be romantic.’ I was like, ‘Oh, man, I thought I<br />
was off the hook with her.’”<br />
Neil’s family goes to Hawaii every other year<br />
for his mother’s birthday. Sanam had never been<br />
able to go, because her parents, being very traditional,<br />
were not comfortable with her staying<br />
overnight. But last year, Neil had already asked<br />
Sanam’s father for his daughter’s hand and won<br />
approval. Her father also agreed to allow her to<br />
go to Hawaii, where Neil intended to propose.<br />
But as the trip approached, he realized he wanted<br />
to do it locally, so both families could be near. So<br />
Neil planned a pre-trip dinner out on August 16.<br />
His mother had designed a new fire pit at their<br />
home in PVE, and Neil had it fully decked out —<br />
everything was covered in rose petals and candlelit<br />
and a photographer was hidden nearby. He<br />
said he wanted to drop by his parents’ home before<br />
dinner. They arrived, and nobody was home;<br />
pretending to look for his family, Neil led Sanam<br />
to the back yard. As she approached the fire pit,<br />
he dropped to one knee.<br />
“I was so blown away about the way he did it,”<br />
she said. “The amount of flowers...I mean, I was<br />
just very stunned. I think the first thing I said<br />
was, ‘Oh my God, you are romantic.’ He’s like,<br />
‘Thank you!’”<br />
A year of planning led up to one of the grandest<br />
weddings the Peninsula has witnessed. Festivities<br />
began two weeks before the date with a dance<br />
party at A Spice Affair in Beverly Hills for Neil<br />
and Sanam and their friends.<br />
“It was an opportunity for Sanam and I to let<br />
loose and have a good time before we had to<br />
smarten up and host 600 people,” Neil said.<br />
Official festivities began the Thursday morning<br />
before the wedding, with special prayer ceremonies<br />
hosted seperately by each family. That<br />
night, the Chhabrias hosted a traditional gathering,<br />
called a Mehndi, in which an artist draws designs<br />
on the bride-to-be’s skin. Sanam thought<br />
this would take a few hours. As it turned out, it<br />
began at 1:30 p.m. and wasn’t completed until<br />
after 8 p.m. But as she sat, at first impatiently,<br />
she began to see the beauty of the occasion, and<br />
its purpose. She couldn’t move her arms, so<br />
everybody, including her groom, had to wait on<br />
her hand and foot the entire time.<br />
“It was cool to be queen for a day,” she said.<br />
“She looked like Jasmine from Aladdin that<br />
night,” Neil said. “It was one of the most incredible<br />
things you’ve ever seen.”<br />
Friday night a traditional Hindu dance was<br />
held at the Norris Pavilion in Rolling Hills Estates.<br />
“That was a traditional Indian folk dance, and<br />
since I’m Gujarati — It’s called a Garba, from<br />
Sanam prepares for her wedding.<br />
56 Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> magazine • <strong>October</strong> 13, <strong>2016</strong>
Gujarat state, where my people are from,” Sanam said. “It was really fun.<br />
A lot of people had a good time.”<br />
Sanam and her mother and cousins, in fact, went back to Gujarat last<br />
year on a shopping trip for wedding clothes for themselves and other members<br />
of the wedding party. “We went with four empty suitcases and came<br />
back with them all full,” she said.<br />
The wedding occurred Saturday at 10 a.m. and the reception was at 6<br />
p.m. in the ballroom of the Huntington <strong>Beach</strong> Hyatt. The wedding was<br />
performed in Sanskrit by Mahesh Bhatt, a renowned Hindu wedding<br />
priest, who took care to explain much of the ritual in a way that made it<br />
understandable to everyone present.<br />
“Our priest was a hit,” Sanam said. “He was so refreshing. He had so<br />
much wisdom.”<br />
The ceremony included 15 stages, beginning with Barat Swagat, in which<br />
Neil and his family were welcomed to the ceremony site by Sanam’s family,<br />
and ending hours later with Kanya Viday, when the bride and groom<br />
left their “Mandap,” the four pillar canopy at center stage (the pillars represent<br />
the four parents). There were nine bridesmaids and nine groomsmen.<br />
The bride’s brothers, Sahaj and Shakeel, gave her away.<br />
Neil, months later, is still dazzled by the experience, and by his new wife.<br />
“Number one, she is smart,” Neil said. “She’s got a good head on her<br />
shoulders and works hard. She handles her business and she’s somebody<br />
I can have an intelligent conversation with. I just enjoy being around her.<br />
And besides being smart and capable, she is the most loyal person in my<br />
life.”<br />
The future is bright for the young couple. Neil, 29, works with his father<br />
at their newly established Chhabria Real Estate Group, which was founded<br />
this year after the family spent the last two decades with Shorewood Realty.<br />
Sanam, 26, works for UCLA Health as a radiologic technologist. She’s also<br />
obtaining her real estate licence and helps with the family business on<br />
weekends.<br />
“I like my career but we can’t predict the future. I’m a part of Neil’s family<br />
now,” she said. “Of course we’ll do what’s best for the family.”<br />
In fact, an essential underlying theme the couple’s wedding rituals emphasized<br />
that the marriage was about more than the union of Neil and<br />
Sanam, but also between their families for generations to come.<br />
Sanam said one day recently her parents, who have felt somewhat bittersweet<br />
emotions since the wedding, stopped by her and her husband’s<br />
home in Hermosa <strong>Beach</strong>.<br />
“They were very happy, of course, but a bit sad,” Sanam said. “I’m leaving<br />
home, of course. When they came over the other day, they told me,<br />
‘When you have kids, you’ll understand.’ This is a big accomplishment, as<br />
a parent — to have your kid finish education, earn a degree, get a good career,<br />
then get married. You’ve accomplished your job as a parent.” B<br />
Sanam’s bridal Mehndi. Photo by Peter Nguyen<br />
Wedding planner: Ajita Chopra<br />
Floral & decor: Sadhna’s floral studio<br />
Bridal makeup & hair:<br />
Drea V. Makeup and Roseanna Ortega<br />
Proposal photographer: Dearly Beloved Photography<br />
Pre-wedding event photographer:<br />
Peter Nyguyen Photography<br />
Wedding & reception photographer<br />
and videographer: Lin & Jirsa Photography<br />
DJ and lighting: 3D Sounds<br />
A decorative rickshaw was present at Friday night’s Garba Sangeet, a<br />
Gujarati wedding dance. Guests were photographed in the rickshaw to make<br />
them feel like they were in India, in keeping with the traditional theme.<br />
Photo by Peter Nguyen
A lifesaving family tradition<br />
Mel Solberg rings the Taplin Bell a record 18 times after his LA County-Southern team captured the title in 2015. Photo by Ray Vidal<br />
Father and daughter lifeguards Mel and Jenna Solberg<br />
celebrate championships in <strong>2016</strong><br />
by Randy Angel<br />
Standing in the tower on the Manhattan <strong>Beach</strong> Pier, lifeguard Mel Solberg<br />
watched as a winter storm created waves so large that even<br />
surfers stayed out of the water.<br />
The date was Feb, 18, 1996 -- a day the 52-year-old Solberg recalls as the<br />
most memorable in his career as a lifeguard.<br />
“It was the biggest surf I have ever seen in Manhattan <strong>Beach</strong>,” Solberg<br />
said. “Waves were breaking past the end of the pier, reforming and breaking<br />
again.<br />
Although no one had been in the water that morning, in the afternoon<br />
Solberg noticed two girls standing on a sand bar not far from shore. Suddenly,<br />
a wave knocked them off and out to sea.<br />
Without a wetsuit, Solberg sprinted into the 56-degree water while partner<br />
Phil Topar called for a rescue boat from the King Harbor.<br />
“I thought both had drowned,” Solberg said of the Vietnamese sisters ages<br />
13 and 16. “I grabbed one of the girls and gave her my float but the other<br />
was submerged. I saw strands of hair floating on the water so I pulled her<br />
up.”<br />
She was unconscious and not breathing. His CPR brought her back to life<br />
and she made a full recovery after spending two weeks in the hospital.<br />
“The following day Phil and I met at the pool to swim.” Solberg said. “Recalling<br />
the rescue from the previous day, I said ‘That is why we workout<br />
and train.”<br />
Solberg’s heroics earned him the Medal of Valor in 1996. But the story<br />
with the happy ending does not end there. Fifteen years to the day, Solberg<br />
received a Facebook message from the girl he brought back from the dead.<br />
“She had been trying to locate me and was living in Southern California,”<br />
Solberg said. “We became friends and I even spoke at her wedding.”<br />
The story is one of many told and retold within the lifeguard community,<br />
which considers itself a family and includes many blood relatives.<br />
Along with Solberg, O’Donnell, Murphy, Fink, Makuta, Inscore and Gallas<br />
are just a few of the names of South Bay families not only in the lifesaving<br />
profession, but have enjoyed success in lifeguard competitions.<br />
The Solbergs, of Torrance, celebrated championships in <strong>2016</strong> beginning<br />
at the International Surf Festival in Hermosa <strong>Beach</strong> when Mel improved<br />
on his record number of Taplin Bell victories with number 18, as a member<br />
of the LA County-Southern team. One week later, Jenna was the overall<br />
point champion for women at the United States Lifesaving Association<br />
(USLA) National Championships held in Manhattan <strong>Beach</strong>.<br />
58 Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> magazine • <strong>October</strong> 13, <strong>2016</strong>
“The Taplin is such a team sport.<br />
You can have the best swimmer in<br />
the world but if the rest of the<br />
team members don’t pull their<br />
weight, it doesn’t matter,” Mel said<br />
of the competition that ends with<br />
each member of the winning team<br />
ringing the bell once for each year<br />
they have won. “I’ve been blessed<br />
to be a member of some great<br />
teams. It took me four years to<br />
make the team at Zuma, which<br />
was a dynasty in the 1980s. I won<br />
my first six Taplin Bell victories at<br />
Zuma. I really enjoy hearing athletes<br />
ring the bell for the first time<br />
because I remember what that<br />
meant to me.”<br />
Mel has also competed in the<br />
Nationals for close to 30 years.<br />
Rowing is his strongest event. He<br />
also represented the USA at the<br />
1990 Lifesaving World Championships<br />
in Hamburg, Germany<br />
with fellow South Bay lifeguard<br />
Tom Fink.<br />
“Legendary lifeguard John Baker<br />
was very instrumental in my becoming<br />
a competitor,” Mel said.<br />
“He was 50 years old when, needing<br />
someone to row with, I asked<br />
him to be my partner. Baker was<br />
tied with another guard at 12 Taplin<br />
wins. We won it all giving him<br />
a record at the time of 13 victories.<br />
I was so excited to get my name on<br />
the bell with John Baker.”<br />
While Mel has enjoyed years of<br />
success in competition, a moment<br />
dear to his heart came at the 2015<br />
Surf Festival when he and Jenna<br />
became the first father and daughter<br />
to be on the winning Bud<br />
Stevenson Intracrew Relay team.<br />
Jenna’s first competition as a lifeguard<br />
came during the 2013 USLA<br />
National Championship in Manhattan<br />
<strong>Beach</strong> and she admitted<br />
winning the <strong>2016</strong> women’s title<br />
came as a surprise.<br />
“It just seemed to happen and I<br />
was taken back by the outcome,<br />
doing much better than I expected,”<br />
the 21-year old said.<br />
“When I realized I was close to the<br />
top in points, I tried hard to stay at<br />
that level for the remainder of the<br />
events. Every second and every<br />
point counted so it was a new motivation<br />
for me.”<br />
Jenna’s favorite event is the twoperson<br />
board rescue. The swimmer<br />
goes out to the flagline and<br />
waves to the paddler on shore,<br />
who takes off for the rescue. Then<br />
both teammates paddle in together,<br />
on the same board.<br />
Her victory in the American Iron<br />
Woman competition – deemed her<br />
toughest event – sealed her victory<br />
Jenna Solberg and father Mel continue the tradition of lifeguard families, while making their marks in national and<br />
international competition. Photo by Ray Vidal<br />
for most points.<br />
Her accomplishment earned her<br />
one of 18 spots on the USLA National<br />
team that competed at the<br />
Lifesaving World Championships in<br />
The Netherlands in September.<br />
The USA finished 11th with New<br />
Zealand, Australia and France taking<br />
the top three spots.<br />
“We finished 5th in ocean events<br />
which was one of our better finishes,”<br />
Solberg said. “We had so<br />
many different personalities but our<br />
team meshed well. The pool competition<br />
was new to me but it was a<br />
great learning experience. In beach<br />
events, there was one day when I<br />
didn’t do so well, yet another day I<br />
met all my goals. I left learning new<br />
things while experiencing the ups<br />
and downs of elite competition.”<br />
Jenna said she always knew she<br />
wanted to become a lifeguard. She<br />
and her younger sisters Jillian, 19, a<br />
sophomore at UCLA and Anneliese,<br />
17, a senior at Chadwick High<br />
School, spent much of their youth<br />
on the beach hanging out at lifeguard<br />
towers and watching their<br />
father compete.<br />
Mel grew up with an aquatics<br />
background, swimming and playing<br />
water polo for Thousand Oak<br />
High School. He swam at Ventura<br />
College and the University of<br />
Wyoming.<br />
“I majored in Criminal Law and<br />
received my pre-law degree but<br />
my friends who were the happiest<br />
<strong>October</strong> 13, <strong>2016</strong> • Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> magazine 59
Jenna Solberg won the women’s overall point title at the <strong>2016</strong> USLA National Championships in Manhattan <strong>Beach</strong>. Photo by Desiree Solberg<br />
were pilots, lifeguards or firefighters,” Solberg said. “I knew I’d come back<br />
to California. I applied for State and was in the top two percent of candidates<br />
but didn’t get hired. I took the LA County test and was hired. The<br />
minimum wage was $1.95 at the time and I could make $8.77 being a lifeguard<br />
so I told myself I’m going to work on the beach.”<br />
Solberg stressed the importance of water safety to his daughters at an<br />
early age, enrolling them in the Junior Lifeguard program.<br />
“The program has grown expedentially the last few years but only a small<br />
percentage actually become good enough to pass the lifeguard test,” Solberg<br />
stated. “When my girls were young, I told them they could not go to the<br />
beach by themselves until they had a minimum of two years in the Junior<br />
Guards.”<br />
Solberg feels the best part of being a lifeguard is making rescues, knowing<br />
that person would not make it home without his assistance.<br />
“There’s no way to realize how many times we rescue people each year,”<br />
Solberg added. “The worst part of the job is that you can’t prevent everything<br />
from happening. It’s a terrible feeling when CPR doesn’t work.”<br />
Solberg credits lifeguards such as Baker, Topar, Gary Crum, Jake Jacobsen<br />
and water polo coach Craig Rond with being major influences in his career.<br />
He also feels his involvement in competition has made him a better lifeguard.<br />
“Like fire service, lifeguards never know, or feel they know, everything,”<br />
Solberg said. “You can learn something everyday. I’ve learned a lot during<br />
domestic and international competition. Lifeguards in each area have different<br />
perspectives, rescue tools used and conditions.”<br />
Solberg said he is unsure about the impact of Global Warming. Jenna<br />
feels there have been more rescues in the last few years due to warmer<br />
water temperatures bringing more people into the water.<br />
“The last couple of years it seems we’ve had more riptides and we see<br />
more sea life coming back,” said Mel, who said Torrance <strong>Beach</strong> is his favorite<br />
location. “Santa Monica Bay is cleaner than it’s been in years. There<br />
are more sting rays, which are food for white sharks. Sharks have always<br />
been there. It’s just that more are being sighted, thanks to better visibility<br />
in the water, more standup paddleboarders and waterproof cameras.<br />
“The beach, ocean and marine environment is like no other. It’s a great<br />
job to have,” Mel said. “I can retire in three years but will probably work<br />
longer. If I stay healthy, I can compete in Nationals for the next 20-30 years.<br />
It keeps me inspired to stay fit.”<br />
Jenna has a ways to go to match her father’s longevity as a lifeguard. Her<br />
focus now is on finishing her senior year at UC Santa Barbara, where she<br />
is majoring in Sociology and is a member of the Gaucho’s water polo team.<br />
Jenna had a stellar water polo career at Chadwick High School, where<br />
she was twice named All-CIF and Prep League MVP. Named the school’s<br />
Female Athlete of the Year in 2013, Jenna set school records for most goals<br />
scored in one game and most career goals.<br />
She helped Huntington <strong>Beach</strong> Water Polo Club win a silver medal at the<br />
2012 USA Water Polo Junior Olympics, earning second team All-American<br />
honors.<br />
“The school itself was a perfect fit,” Jenna said of her decision to attend<br />
UCSB. “When I was in high school, one of my water polo coaches told me<br />
not to pick a school based on water polo because there was no way to predict<br />
things like an injury or coaching changes. UCSB provides an opportunity<br />
for me to do everything I want to do.”<br />
Jenna began her athletic as a soccer player but when she was 13, after attending<br />
a charity event held by Chance for Children, she decided to make<br />
the full-time switch to water polo.<br />
“My dad was urging me to become more involved with water sports if I<br />
wanted to be a lifeguard,” Solberg recalled. “Water polo was the best way<br />
for me to play in college.”<br />
Although Jenna said this will be her final year playing water polo, she is<br />
excited about her team’s chances of winning back-to-back Big West Conference<br />
titles.<br />
“We are coming off a big season, becoming the first UCSB team to win a<br />
conference title in women’s water polo,” Jenna said. “My first day back to<br />
60 Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> magazine • <strong>October</strong> 13, <strong>2016</strong>
school after returning from Holland, I was<br />
asked to give a speech at a pep rally. It was<br />
so impromptu and I was really on the spot.”<br />
Jenna said it was a dream come true<br />
when she passed the lifeguard test.<br />
“The toughest part of being a lifeguard is<br />
knowing there is a good chance that a rescue<br />
or situation won’t go your way,” said<br />
Jenna, who has spent the last two summer<br />
at Manhattan <strong>Beach</strong> and El Porto. “The<br />
ocean is a beast. You can’t control it. You<br />
can only anticipate what to do in certain situations.”<br />
“My favorite part is closing up the tower<br />
each evening, walking down the ramp and<br />
looking at the ocean knowing everyone<br />
went home that day.”<br />
Her most memorable day came over<br />
Labor Day weekend in 2014 when she and<br />
another female lifeguard were working at<br />
Dockweiler State <strong>Beach</strong>.<br />
“It was constant lifeguarding all day<br />
long,” Solberg recalled. “We were so busy<br />
that when I got home, I sat on the couch<br />
and told my dad about my day. He asked if<br />
I was tired and I said, ‘Yes.’ He replied, ‘But<br />
it’s a good kind of tired.’ I couldn’t stop<br />
smiling the rest of the night knowing I did<br />
my best and that a lifeguard can learn something<br />
from every rescue.”<br />
Jenna said her biggest lifeguarding influence<br />
has been her dad, who taught her from<br />
day one. She also has received inspiration<br />
from watching Tandis Morgan compete and<br />
close family friend Mike O’Donnell.<br />
An accomplished lifeguard and competitor,<br />
O’Donnell is the father of three daughters<br />
Kelsey, Erin and Colleen who have all<br />
followed in his footsteps as lifeguards.<br />
A few years older than the Solberg girls,<br />
the three O’Donnell sisters would watch the<br />
Solberg siblings when they were young.<br />
“Our families are so close. Kelsey and I<br />
are best of friends now,” Jenna said. “She<br />
was on the 2014 USLA team that competed<br />
in the World Championships in France. She<br />
told me what to expect and how to handle<br />
the competition and the total experience of<br />
my trip this summer.”<br />
After graduation, Jenna plans to move to<br />
Australia to train in lifesaving for one school<br />
year before returning to pursue a career in<br />
Environmental Humanities.<br />
“Growing up at the ocean, how can you<br />
not be concerned about the environment?”<br />
Jenna remarked “The Refugio oil spill (in<br />
May 2015) had such an impact on me.”<br />
Although Jenna has no plans to coach<br />
water polo or Junior Guards in the future,<br />
she does have some advice for kids who<br />
want to become lifeguards.<br />
“Just go to the beach as often as you can,”<br />
Solberg said. “Not just to train or workout<br />
but to appreciate all you can find and the<br />
adventures it holds. The more you love the<br />
beach, the more you’ll find joy in competing<br />
and working as a lifeguard.” B<br />
Mel Solberg and daughter Jenna at their place of work.<br />
Photo by Ray Vidal<br />
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<strong>October</strong> 13, <strong>2016</strong> • Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> magazine 61
T<br />
he prestigious International Academy of Trial<br />
Lawyers limits itself to only 500 active members<br />
worldwide. AgnewBrusavich, a South<br />
Bay law firm widely acknowledged for excellence<br />
in catastrophic injury and wrongful death<br />
cases, now boasts two of those 500.<br />
Candidates are nominated for the Academy<br />
without their knowledge, by existing members,<br />
and subjected to a year-long vetting process<br />
with judges and attorneys, including those they<br />
have been against in court. The process is focused<br />
on ethics, civility and excellence in jury trials.<br />
A candidate is admitted only on a vote of the<br />
full active membership, which is limited to 500.<br />
Members reaching age 70 become emeritus<br />
fellows.<br />
AgnewBrusavich partner Bruce Brusavich was<br />
recently admitted into the Academy, joining his<br />
partner Gerry Agnew, who was admitted several<br />
years ago.<br />
"Bruce and I are extremely proud - as members<br />
of the same small firm - to be fellows in this<br />
prestigious organization,” said Agnew.<br />
The partners’ list of honors – by peers, prestigious<br />
publications and rating services – are too<br />
extensive to list in this space. But that’s not<br />
enough for Agnew and Brusavich, who continue<br />
to vigorously pursue justice for injured victims,<br />
and to force businesses and government agencies<br />
to make changes that protect public safety.<br />
AgnewBrusavich<br />
Small firm adds to its worldwide prestige<br />
At the time of this interview, Brusavich was reviewing<br />
a traffic engineer's report in a case that<br />
will force officials to redesign a major highspeed<br />
intersection in Newport <strong>Beach</strong>, where bicyclist<br />
Debra Deem died in a traffic accident.<br />
Brusavich said the poorly designed intersection<br />
forced Deem, who was riding northbound<br />
on PCH, to cross what amounts to a freeway onramp<br />
to continue onto Newport Coast Drive.<br />
“Debra was an accomplished bicycle rider,<br />
who had recently retired early as a successful litigator<br />
with a large Orange County law firm to<br />
take a job as executive director of a battered<br />
women's shelter,” Brusavich said.<br />
He negotiated a large monetary settlement<br />
and, in a result important to Deem’s husband<br />
Paul, a commitment by officials to work with<br />
traffic engineers to make the intersection safer<br />
for cyclists.<br />
Advocacy for victims and families who have<br />
been injured in bicycle accidents has become<br />
a noted niche for the firm and its platform, Cal-<br />
BikeLaw.com. Agnew is a competitive velodrome<br />
cyclist and has won a number of state<br />
and national championships. Several successfully<br />
concluded cases for cyclists have also<br />
ended with much needed repairs and safety<br />
improvements on public roads.<br />
“We are very proud of those accomplishments,”<br />
Agnew said.<br />
The firm also represents victims of injury and<br />
wrongful death in all other types of vehicular accidents,<br />
medical malpractice, elder abuse and<br />
defective products.<br />
Agnew recently concluded a serious injury<br />
case for a cyclist injured in Palos Verdes, and is<br />
preparing for trial on a wrongful death elder<br />
abuse case.<br />
The attorneys were waiting to conclude settlement<br />
proceedings in the case of a teenage<br />
girl who they said was badly injured when she<br />
stepped into an unguarded elevator shaft and<br />
fell three stories at a defunct construction site.<br />
Brusavich said the site had become an attractive<br />
nuisance that drew visitors into danger.<br />
The attorneys also represent several patients<br />
of a now-closed Long <strong>Beach</strong> hospital that was<br />
caught in a large billing fraud scheme involving<br />
unnecessary spinal surgeries.<br />
New additions to the firm are two talented<br />
women attorneys, Puneet K. Toor and veteran<br />
litigator Terry Schneier.<br />
AgnewBrusavich’s extensive community involvement<br />
includes a 23-year old scholarship<br />
program that has helped more than 540 students<br />
with college expenses. Recent recipients<br />
included members of cycling clubs sponsored<br />
by AgnewBrusavich.<br />
SPONSORED CONTENT<br />
AGNEWBRUSAVICH | 20355 Hawthorne Boulevard, Torrance, CA 90503 | (310) 793-1400 | ab@agnewbrusavich.com<br />
62 Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> magazine • <strong>October</strong> 13, <strong>2016</strong>
B<br />
Baker, Burton & Lundy, P.C.<br />
Hermosa’s giant-killing law firm had its roots in friendship and the European mumps<br />
Kent Burton, Clint Wilson, Christine Daniels, Evan Koch, Teresa Klinkner, Brad Baker, Albro Lundy<br />
aker, Burton & Lundy, the small law firm with a big reputation and<br />
billions of dollars won for its clients, is celebrating its 40th birthday<br />
by expanding its storefront along Hermosa’s iconic Pier Avenue,<br />
where they are the oldest owner-occupied business.<br />
“We are so blessed with this location and this business,” partner Albro<br />
Lundy said. “There’s some magic going on, how it has all worked out.”<br />
The decorated law firm is preparing for its third expansion along the<br />
avenue, adding offices and a roof deck with a “lifeguard tower-esque”<br />
design. And the attorneys are continuing to vigorously protect their<br />
clients’ assets and security, and to fight for people unjustly harmed.<br />
A Partnership Begins<br />
The whole operation had its beginnings in a law school friendship and<br />
a truly evil case of the European mumps.<br />
The law school friends were Brad Baker and Kent Burton, who saw<br />
more of each other on the UCLA sports fields than in its law library. They<br />
each passed the bar, and Baker took off traveling to celebrate, while<br />
Burton started looking for a job.<br />
“While Brad was in Europe he got a really bad case of the mumps,<br />
and he thought he might die. He made a deal with some higher force<br />
that if he lived” he would be sure to work at a virtuous job, Burton said.<br />
“An elderly European woman nursed him back to health, and he<br />
came back and volunteered for Venice Legal Aid,” Burton said.<br />
Burton went to work for a large firm in Century City, where he was immediately<br />
sent to work major cases in the looming courthouses of downtown<br />
L.A.<br />
“I was getting my ass kicked. I didn’t know where to park. I didn’t<br />
know how to address the judge,” he said.<br />
“There’s this no man’s land between the attorneys’ table and the<br />
bench, and I didn’t know that,” Burton said. “I had some papers I<br />
wanted the judge to see and I started to just walk up to him, and the<br />
bailiff jumped up with his hand on his weapon. I was like a deer in the<br />
headlights.”<br />
Back from Europe, Baker decided to open his own office, so Burton<br />
eagerly signed on as a partner, and the two hung their shingle in a modest<br />
office in Venice in 1976.<br />
Hearing they could buy a building in Hermosa <strong>Beach</strong> cheaper than<br />
renting in Venice, they moved into the 515 Pier Avenue storefront previously<br />
occupied by Ray’s TV in 1980. Later in 1994, Lundy left a Beverly<br />
Hills law firm to join BB&L and became the third partner.<br />
Legal Victories<br />
Among its highlights, BB&L won $4 billion for California consumers by<br />
leading a high-powered legal assault on energy companies accused<br />
of illegal actions, which artificially raised the price of natural gas, contributing<br />
to the energy crisis of 2000 and 2001.<br />
In addition to high-profile victories, the attorneys have at times spent<br />
hundreds of thousands of dollars to battle cases that promised no profit,<br />
prompted by compassion for harmed victims and the desire to see justice<br />
done.<br />
Growing as a Firm<br />
Meanwhile, the old Ray’s TV storefront has been gussied up, and the<br />
BB&L offices continue to expand along Pier Avenue as more attorneys<br />
join the firm, which has become a Hermosa <strong>Beach</strong> institution. Burton devotes<br />
himself to real estate and business transaction law with attorneys<br />
Clint Wilson and Teresa Klinkner.<br />
Baker, along with bilingual attorney Christine Daniels, focuses on estate<br />
planning, probate and trust litigation, and has argued twice before<br />
the U.S. Supreme Court. Lundy is an expert personal injury attorney who<br />
has won an affirmative verdict from the state Supreme Court and works<br />
with Evan Koch, recognized as a Rising Star attorney by Superlawyers.<br />
“Sometimes it seems like all of Hermosa is our client,” Lundy said. “We<br />
are here. We’ve always been here. We always will be here.”<br />
BAKER, BURTON & LUNDY | 515 Pier Avenue, Hermosa <strong>Beach</strong> | (310) 376-9893 | www.bakerburtonlundy.com<br />
SPONSORED CONTENT<br />
<strong>October</strong> 13, <strong>2016</strong> • Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> magazine 63
Lenze Kamerrer Moss, PLC<br />
Tight-knit partnership protects the unjustly harmed<br />
Jennifer Lenze and her partners of Lenze Kamerrer Moss, PLC have<br />
created a firm over the last year that displays high-level litigation<br />
skills and zealous dedication to their clients. LKM specializes in<br />
complex pharmaceutical mass tort drug and device litigation, as well<br />
as personal injury and employment law cases, striving to defend the<br />
rights of injured individuals.<br />
With three women at the helm including Laurie Kamerrer and<br />
Jaime Moss, LKM has a passion for cases that impact women’s<br />
health, such as a current case involving Essure, a permanent birth<br />
control device inserted into the fallopian tubes of a woman. The<br />
complaints filed by LKM on behalf of their injured clients include allegations<br />
of migration of the device, which can lead to the perforation<br />
of a woman’s uterus or fallopian tubes.<br />
LKM is also involved in litigation of talcum powder, linked to ovarian<br />
cancer in women, the blood thinner Xarelto, linked to internal bleeding,<br />
the diabetes medication Invokana, linked to ketoacidosis, and<br />
Bair Hugger, a warming blanket used during surgery, linked to surgical<br />
site infections.<br />
LKM aims to hold manufacturers accountable for the harms they<br />
cause and at best, help bring about changes in labeling to provide<br />
sufficient warning of associated risks. These cases can go on for years<br />
and involve hundreds or even thousands of clients across the country.<br />
Lenze said dedication, persistence, and a high level of organization<br />
are important in<br />
mass tort litigation.<br />
The partners<br />
at LKM have<br />
learned first-hand<br />
over the last two<br />
years about persistence,<br />
having<br />
come together<br />
through tragedy.<br />
In 2014 Lenze’s<br />
significant other, Paul Sizemore, was killed in a rafting accident on<br />
their trip to Aspen, Colorado. Shortly thereafter she became practice<br />
administrator of his firm, the Sizemore Law Firm, and with the help of<br />
Paul’s lawyers, Laurie and Jaime, held the firm together and transitioned<br />
to their new venture to continue the work Paul was so passionate<br />
about.<br />
LKM’S personal injury practice includes slip and falls, car accident<br />
and product liability cases. Employment cases include wage and<br />
hour violations, harassment, discrimination, and wrongful termination.<br />
“We are definitely a team,” Lenze said. “That is really important to<br />
us. We’ve all been through a lot together and it has created a firm of<br />
people committed to each other and to the work we do for our<br />
clients.”<br />
SPONSORED CONTENT<br />
Lenze Kamerrer Moss, PLC | 1300 Highland Ave. Suite 207 Manhattan <strong>Beach</strong>, CA 90266 | (310) 322-8800 | lkmlawfirm.com<br />
B<br />
BETI TSAI BERGMAN<br />
BUILDS PROBATE POWERHOUSE WITH PENINSULA LAW<br />
eti Tsai Bergman started Peninsula Law with the idea of creating a law<br />
firm that does one thing and one thing well, and that is probate law.<br />
Bergman believes that you can’t be good at any one thing if you try to<br />
do a little of everything. With that vision and her laser focus on probate law,<br />
Bergman built Peninsula Law into a probate powerhouse. Peninsula Law represents<br />
fiduciaries, beneficiaries, and families who need help planning, administering<br />
and settling estates. Peninsula Law embraces resolution of conflict<br />
and embraces trial when necessary. Peninsula then wins because it firmly believes<br />
in bringing out the truth. There are no smoke and mirrors. Peninsula Law<br />
does not ignore or hide the facts. Peninsula Law builds winning cases based<br />
on excellent legal analysis, strategic thinking, and masterful persuasion. Families<br />
come first and Peninsula Law vigorously pursues the wishes left by testators<br />
or trustors.<br />
Peninsula Law also minimizes long and protracted litigation or administration<br />
of an estate because it follows the same motto as Nike: “Just Do It.” The<br />
drive and goal on each case is to reach a quick resolution. Of course there is<br />
no controlling the court’s calendar, but anything that is within the control of<br />
Peninsula Law is addressed and handled with speed. Putting a task on the<br />
back burner is considered blasphemy within the firm.<br />
Another key element that has factored into the success of Peninsula Law is<br />
listening to clients and hearing what they have to say. Families are often perplexed<br />
after the death of a loved one and do not know what should be done<br />
or what needs to be done. If you add a contentious family member who<br />
comes forward to contest a will or trust, or who distrusts the person in charge,<br />
then you have an emotional struggle added to the confusion. Often the dissension<br />
can be quelled by educating the family members<br />
about how an estate<br />
needs to be administered<br />
after a death.<br />
Clients have consistently<br />
been satisfied<br />
by Peninsula Law’s<br />
approach to its<br />
clients. The testimonials<br />
posted on Peninsula<br />
Law’s website<br />
attest to this.<br />
With such ethics,<br />
Peninsula Law has<br />
earned a reputation of<br />
being one of the top-notch probate law firms in the South Bay.<br />
Legal secretary Thomas Allard, attorney Joshua Watts,<br />
attorney Beti Tsai Bergman, paralegal Hanbee Oh.<br />
Beti Tsai Bergman is certified in estate planning, trust, and probate law by<br />
the California Board of Legal Specialization and has earned an advocate<br />
designation from the National Institute of Trial Advocacy. Before earning her<br />
J.D. at UC Davis School of Law, Bergman earned a B.S. in applied mathematics<br />
from UCLA and an M.S. in applied mathematics with concentrations in<br />
partial differential equations and probability and statistics from CSULB.<br />
Bergman sustains active involvement in the community. She is a Probate Co-<br />
Chair of the Trust & Estates Section of the South Bay Bar Association, a past<br />
president of the Southern California Chinese Lawyers’ Association, and is longstanding<br />
board member and officer of the Asian Pacific American Women<br />
Lawyers’ Alliance. You can contact Peninsula Law for a consultation by calling<br />
424-247-1196.<br />
Peninsula Law | 3655 Torrance Blvd., 3rd Flr., Torrance, CA 90503 | 424-247-1196 | www.peninsulalaw.org<br />
SPONSORED CONTENT<br />
64 Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> magazine • <strong>October</strong> 13, <strong>2016</strong>
*Certified Family Law Specialist by the State Bar of California Board of Legal Specialization **Certified Trusts & Estates Specialist by the State Bar of California<br />
+Chosen <strong>2016</strong> Super Lawyer ++Chosen to 2015, <strong>2016</strong> and 2017 editions of Best Lawyers in America©<br />
he founding partners, Chris Moore, Sharon<br />
Bryan and Becky Schroff, routinely earn<br />
Trecognition by their peers and by high-profile<br />
rating services and publications. But they practice<br />
their specialties of family law and estate<br />
planning as a people business, with sensitivity to<br />
the uniqueness of each client’s case.<br />
Moore, Bryan, Schroff & Inoue has been<br />
named one of the Best Law Firms by U.S. News &<br />
World Report and by Best Lawyers continuously<br />
since 2010, and received a Metropolitan Tier 1<br />
ranking in Family Law by U.S. News & World Report.<br />
The firm’s partners are certified specialists in<br />
their practice areas, and Chris, Sharon and<br />
Becky have been named Southern California<br />
Super Lawyers for many years running. They<br />
enjoy the highest rating for legal ability and ethical<br />
standards by the peer-reviewed service Martindale-Hubbell.<br />
Moore, Bryan, Schroff & Inoue<br />
Combining accomplishment with sensitivity to clients<br />
Bryan and Schroff have been selected by their<br />
peers to The Best Lawyers in America since 2015,<br />
and Moore since 2008. In 2015 Moore’s peers<br />
dubbed him the Los Angeles Family Law Lawyer<br />
of the Year. “To me that really is a significant<br />
honor. I was flabbergasted to receive it, because<br />
the lawyers who got it the year before<br />
and the year after me are two of the very best<br />
lawyers in Los Angeles County,” he said. “I’m<br />
humbled to be included.” Moore is a certified<br />
specialist in both family law and in trust and estate<br />
law.<br />
Bryan uses her expertise and sensitivity to her<br />
clients’ advantage, beginning with their initial<br />
meeting, listening carefully to what they really<br />
want regarding property, custody, the family<br />
home and the legal process. “Because so many<br />
clients ask about the process, I prepared a<br />
process map, really a flow chart, showing the<br />
various required and possible steps in the divorce<br />
process from filing the petition to the final judgment,”<br />
she said.<br />
“People facing divorce are typically scared.<br />
This is true whether or not they are the financially<br />
advantaged spouse, whether or not they are the<br />
custodial parent and whether or not they<br />
wanted the divorce or were shocked when<br />
being served with a petition,” she said.<br />
“I tell them the waters are going to be choppy<br />
at first...but the waters will calm down, and we<br />
will address issues in a reasonable manner.”<br />
Bryan said she is able to reach a settlement for<br />
her clients, avoiding a trial, in 95 to 99 percent of<br />
her cases.<br />
“I am an experienced litigator, but I am also a<br />
good negotiator,” she said. “My colleagues<br />
know that I am going to be reasonable, but also<br />
be tenacious in defending my client’s rights and<br />
positions.”<br />
Moore credits Bryan with “great instincts” that<br />
allow her to handle especially difficult and emotional<br />
custody cases.<br />
Both Bryan and Moore are trained in collaborative<br />
divorce, which aims to reach a settlement<br />
with the help of lawyers and neutral experts if<br />
necessary, and Moore is trained in mediation,<br />
and a founding member of the original collaborative<br />
law group in the South Bay.<br />
“Although parties are often deeply conflicted,”<br />
says Bryan, it’s very important to hire well<br />
established, well respected attorneys, because<br />
two good attorneys can and will settle a family<br />
law case.<br />
Schroff, who specializes in trusts and estates,<br />
uses her legal expertise to assist individuals and<br />
families make a plan, so they are comfortable<br />
“that things will be taken care of after they are<br />
gone”. In addition to estate planning, she handles<br />
trust administration, probates, conservatorships,<br />
guardianships and trust litigation.<br />
A lawyer must understand her client’s needs<br />
and wishes, and understand the law to craft a<br />
good estate plan. Clients who have lost a loved<br />
one are often overwhelmed by the responsibilities<br />
of being a trustee or an executor, “We can<br />
guide them through the process, take care of<br />
the legal requirements, and give them some relief<br />
as they go through a very difficult time,”<br />
Schroff said.<br />
SPONSORED CONTENT<br />
MOORE BRYAN SCHROFF & INOUE | 21515 Hawthorne Boulevard, Suite 490, Torrance | (310) 540-8855 | mbsllp.com<br />
<strong>October</strong> 13, <strong>2016</strong> • Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> magazine 65
Rombro & Associates<br />
Human touch on the scales of justice.<br />
Attorney Roger Rombro holds the<br />
highest possible rating from the<br />
peer-reviewed Martindale-<br />
Hubbell Law Directory for a 40-year<br />
practice, which now focuses principally<br />
upon family law.<br />
Along the way, he retained a human<br />
touch that makes him the best lawyer<br />
he can be.<br />
“Spouses tend to be hurt in the initial<br />
stages of their separation. They tend to<br />
feel that they have failed, irrespective<br />
of whether they’re the spouse that initiates<br />
the separation. Each spouse has<br />
a huge sense of disappointment with<br />
their partner which slowly evolves into<br />
resentment and anger.<br />
Not surprisingly, each of them goes<br />
through a morning period recognizing<br />
that they have suffered a death in<br />
their family,”he said.<br />
“And there can be lots of reactive<br />
things going on. One side does something,<br />
to which the other side wants to<br />
react,” Rombro said.<br />
“Part of my job is to help people to understand<br />
their own feelings. I become<br />
both their advocate and their counselor.<br />
The counselor part of me wants<br />
to help them to see that they are<br />
going in a direction that is not in their<br />
best interest,”he said.<br />
“To a large extent, the lawyer must<br />
often do what a therapist would be<br />
doing,”Rombro said.<br />
“I try to keep the conflicts down as<br />
much as possible. Otherwise, people<br />
tend to spend huge amounts of<br />
money, draining themselves both financially<br />
and emotionally; and this is<br />
particularly true in custody disputes<br />
where people become so angry, that<br />
they fail to realize that they are hurting<br />
their children, rather than just their<br />
spouse,”he said.<br />
Rombro is certified by the State Bar as<br />
a specialist in family law, and he has<br />
recently been<br />
appointed to the State Bar Family Law<br />
Executive Committee.<br />
Before he went into civil practice, he<br />
served in the Los Angeles County District<br />
Attorney’s office, prosecuting<br />
everything from DUI to homicide in<br />
thousands of cases before state and<br />
federal courts.<br />
“I think our criminal justice system is the<br />
fairest in the history of mankind,” he<br />
said. “We go out of our way to protect<br />
the rights of the accused, and we also<br />
try prevent the suffering of victims, and<br />
to protect society.”<br />
Rombro and wife Joanna have three<br />
children and two grandchildren.<br />
SPONSORED CONTENT<br />
ROMBRO & ASSOCIATES |3405 N. Sepulveda Blvd., Manhattan <strong>Beach</strong> | (310) 545-1900 | rombrolaw.com<br />
66 Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> magazine • <strong>October</strong> 13, <strong>2016</strong>
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<strong>October</strong> 13, <strong>2016</strong> • Easy Reader / <strong>Beach</strong> magazine 67