SAN DIEGO (KGTV) – A San Diego local opens up his own restaurant after learning and honing his craft in the hospitality industry.
"My biggest thing is like my last name and my family and where I come from,” Darrien Oliver, the owner of The Mesa Bar & Grill, said.
Oliver played football at Helix High School, then college ball in Nebraska, and later traded the gridiron for the hospitality industry.
"He had been a general manager in different places, and I always wanted him to have his own place, so I told him I said it would be nice if you had your own place,” Valerie Oliver, Darrien's mother, said.
He landed on a location at 62nd Street and El Cajon in the College Area.
"This place just happened to be open, remembered it as Effin's, been here a couple of times. It was a staple in San Diego, in this area, for so long. So, I just wanted to revitalize it,” Darrien Oliver said.
His place, The Mesa Bar & Grill, opened its doors this past weekend.
"For us to establish a new business, a black-owned business in San Diego, is huge, and my hope is that someone will see, or a few people will see that he did it. He had a dream and (he can) inspire them to do the same thing,” Valerie Oliver said.
Oliver tells me he got that support with a packed house on opening weekend.
"We keep harping on, being, you know, one of the very few black-owned businesses, man, because I think it's a big deal. It's not enough of us doing this stuff and not enough of us getting enough support,” Darrien Oliver said.
It was an important weekend in more ways than one.
"But to be able to capitalize on Martin Luther King Junior weekend, you know, it's black-owned. It just says a lot, and I'm totally blessed,” Darrien Oliver said.
Blessed to have his own business with his family right beside him.
"I didn't just dream it, like I put in the work, I wanted to do everything that it took to get here. And that's my biggest thing, right, is don't just have a dream, like, you got to work for it,” Darrien Oliver said.
