Inside Java Man, there's a lightly stained table next to the big white-trimmed window. Patrick Mescall and Brian Eldridge pointed it out to Easy Reader and Mescall said, "All our hopes and dreams are at that table." In 2017 the two partners held their first meeting about buying the Redondo Beach pub that became Paddy O'Brien's at Java Man, Eldridge told the Daily Breeze. Since Oct. 5, 2026, they've owned the coffeehouse along with Ocean Diner on Aviation Boulevard.
Asked how they're learning the businesses, Eldridge told the Daily Breeze that the longtime employees "are teaching us for the next six months, so we can understand it because they understand it way more than we do." So right now, the people behind the counter are the ones running the place, and the owners are the ones learning.
A sale arranged around the people behind the counter
Rick Hankus founded both businesses, and Tim Biggs, his husband, co-owned them. Hankus died in November 2025. Biggs told the Daily Breeze that before Hankus's death the couple had been thinking about selling so they could retire, and that they'd already talked with Mescall and Eldridge. Biggs said their priorities were clear:
"We ideally wanted to sell them both to the same person at the same time, keeping the name and the brand, because that's what obviously Rick worked for so hard for 40 years to establish, primarily keeping the staff."
That priority makes sense once you look at how long the crews have been there. In its November 2025 tribute, Easy Reader listed staff whose tenure at Java Man rivals the shop's own history:
- Nick "Don't Call Me A Barrista" Herrera: 27 years at Java Man
- Daniel "Fast Hands" Nava: 27 years at Java Man
- Jesus "Chuey" Garcia: 19 years at Java Man
- Martin Rodriquez, Jose Rodriquez and Jame Avila: Ocean Diner crew for more than two decades
Ocean Diner's kitchen goes back even further. Hankus bought Granny's Diner on Aviation Boulevard in 1986 with a friend's backing and renamed it Ocean Diner. He kept the chef, Emigdio Nunez, who was still cooking there when Easy Reader published its tribute. That means the diner has had the same chef for longer than it has carried its current name.
Biggs told Easy Reader in October that Mescall and Eldridge "wanted to maintain the staff and status quo." Mescall described the crew as the advantage that comes with the purchase: "Everyone's got a great thing to offer here, but no one's got a better team than we do." He credits that team to Hankus.
The only thing older than the crew is the building
At 157 Pier Ave., Java Man operates out of a little red beach cottage built in 1929. The Daily Breeze's 2019 story on the cottage turning 90 reported that it held a plant store, a travel agency, a temp agency and several retail shops before Hankus opened Java Man there in 1992. The same story describes an older man who stopped by, said he had once lived in the cottage, and pointed out the sink that's still there.
None of those earlier tenants stayed long. Java Man has been there 34 years, and it marked its 30th anniversary in March 2022. Mescall is clear that he isn't planning a remodel. "This is an ambiance you could never recreate," he told Easy Reader. "I love this building. I've spent a lot of time in this building. It is not shiny, you're not sitting in the Taj Mahal and everyone knows that."
The shop's current setting on upper Pier Avenue has its own backstory. Easy Reader reported that Hankus considered 2010 his hardest year, when the city removed street parking on upper Pier Avenue for a redesign. The work was supposed to last a few months and took nearly a year. Hankus later said the project ended up helping Java Man, because the redesign added a parkette where customers could sit in the sun with their coffee.
Ocean Diner, at 959 Aviation Blvd., has its own fixed character. Biggs told Easy Reader that Hankus loved big bands and Broadway musicals, so he played 1940s music and decorated with framed World War II front pages, old toasters and waffle irons. The menu has biscuits and gravy, meatloaf, Boston cream pie and oatmeal crème brûlée alongside the usual waffles, pancakes and omelets.
What the new owners have said might change
With the crew and the building staying put, any changes will be small, and the owners have described them that way. In the Oct. 21 story, published about two weeks after the handoff, Mescall told Easy Reader: "We don't want to scare anybody. It's only been a week, so we don't want to go in and make big changes. We will get as much feedback from [the team] as we can and then make small changes operationally."
According to that Oct. 21 story, these ideas are under discussion:
- Evening hours at Java Man. The owners have talked about keeping the coffeehouse open into the night.
- Local live music. Mescall named Mikey Jerome, a local performer who was in his wedding, and said Java Man is Jerome's "favorite place to play. So, if we can have him singing on a Tuesday night, we'll make that happen."
- Ocean Diner on Wednesdays. Easy Reader reported that the diner's Wednesday closures "will soon be a thing of the past." No start date has been announced.
Mescall also told the Daily Breeze they'll look for ways to make both places run more efficiently, but they won't "cut quality of life for the employees." Every item above is a plan the owners have described, so check with either business before you plan a Wednesday breakfast or an evening coffee around it.
South Bay Hospitality has a track record of taking over places with long histories. The Daily Breeze reported that Mescall and Eldridge met nearly 20 years ago bartending at Salt Creek Grille at The Point in El Segundo. Their group now runs Paddy O'Brien's and Eat at Joe's in Redondo Beach, Tiki Kai on Pier Plaza, The Hula Hula Room and The Bounty Room in Torrance, and The Sly Fox Irish Pub in Lawndale. "Eat At Joe's could have gone away, but you don't ever want things like that to go away," Mescall told Easy Reader. "When institutions start going away, everything starts to look the same."
The owner who sent the credit to his crew
Hankus's habits explain why the crew became the condition of the sale. Easy Reader reported that Java Man regularly wins its Best of the Beach coffee shop voting, and that Hankus usually turned down being photographed for the honor and pointed the credit to his staff. Plenty of longtime customers never knew he owned the place. They knew a well-dressed, soft-spoken man who brought out trays of morning glory muffins and sometimes worked the register, where he would randomly refuse to take people's money.
His public record in Hermosa was longer than he let on. According to the Daily Breeze, he served two years as president of the Hermosa Beach Chamber of Commerce starting in 1998, and the Chamber named him its Man of the Year in 2002. He donated part of his sales to AIDS Heartline of Redondo Beach and to the outreach program at St. Paul's United Methodist Church, and he took part in the Big Brothers program. Easy Reader reported that for more than a dozen years he ran the kitchen at the annual Mama Liz Thanksgiving Dinner at the Hermosa Kiwanis Club, where volunteers served turkey and pumpkin pie to 400 to 600 people. When the Chamber called about Man of the Year, he said in his acceptance speech, "I thought it was a mistake."
Biggs described what the new owners are inheriting as "the legacy that Rick put his heart into for the last 40 years." He told the Daily Breeze that the businesses are now serving a third generation of customers, with people who grew up coming in now bringing their own grandchildren. Mescall described his goal for his own children, ages five and seven, in the same terms: "We want to make sure that there's the Java Man we know when they start drinking hot chocolate."
November 19 is the first anniversary of Hankus's death. On Nov. 21 and 22, according to the City's calendar of events, Hermosa for the Holidays brings a Ferris wheel, a community concert and the tree lighting downtown, a short walk down Pier Avenue from the red cottage at 157 Pier Ave.
Theresa Bruno has been part of the South Bay since 1984 and has watched businesses like Java Man and Ocean Diner shape what Hermosa feels like to live in. If you own a home in Hermosa that has its own long history, Theresa can show you what it's worth today. Get Your Free Home Valuation.
