20 Dec Big Daddy Ross’s Cafe to Close Sunday, Later Relocate

Ross Dahmouh is the eponymous owner of Big Daddy Ross’s Cafe in Bay Point but not for much longer; the café closes Sunday.

Story and photos by Joe Porrello

When Berber Algerian Ross Dahmouh moved from Paris to California in 2000, his uncle’s restaurant in Bay Point that opened two years prior sometimes had around just seven customers per day. After Dahmouh worked there for about a year, he was handed the keys to a struggling business and transformed it into a community hotspot that now can draw 700 patrons in a day — the one-of-a-kind Big Daddy Ross’s Cafe.

But that success wasn’t enough.

About six months ago, Dahmouh says he was informed by his landlord that he might want to look for a new location because the property was becoming difficult to keep insured. Then, he got a Halloween fright much worse than any scary costume — an Oct. 31 eviction notice demanding he be out before the new year.

“They never told me I would be evicted,” said Dahmouh. “It’s sad because I feel like I grew up here; I built this from nothing and am really attached to this place.”

 

Originally planning to shut the doors for good on Dec. 15, Dahmouh says he pushed the closing until Dec. 22 to give his employees an extra paycheck before the holidays.

“After Christmas, we’ll come back here on the 26th, and everything will disappear,” he said, referring to tables, chairs, and decor.

But it will reappear elsewhere.

The staff and menu — plus a few more dishes — will all remain at his new location in downtown Pittsburg at 690 Railroad Ave. The future locale is under construction and set to be finished by the end of January, but Dahmouh says he does not yet have even a rough opening date.

 

With the move, Bay Point will lose what Dahmouh says is the area’s only traditional breakfast spot.

But Big Daddy Ross’s Cafe is anything but traditional, located down a long and pothole-filled gravel road in the middle of the docks at the McAvoy Yacht Harbor — the only business there sans a bait and tackle store and boat repair shop.

 

“It’s not like a normal restaurant with people just happening to come in after walking or driving by; you have to come here specifically,” said Dahmouh. “If you’ve never heard of this place, it’s hard to find it.”

 

Palpable nautical vibes as well as quirkiness inside and out, along with a blue-collar atmosphere, make for a remote and comforting experience unlikely to be replicated.

“People come here because they love the other customers and staff, the food, the atmosphere and the area,” Dahmouh said.

 

He said the hardest part of the situation was when he gave the news of relocating to family, employees and regular patrons. Some are intertwined, as his brother works in the kitchen and his cousin waits tables.

“When I told my daughter two weeks ago, she walked away; she couldn’t even look at my face,” Dahmouh said. “I saw a 75-year-old man cry when I told him, and so did other customers.”

Customer Mike Coniglio says growing up down the street and previously having had a boat at the dock, he has been coming to Big Daddy Ross’s Cafe since it opened 26 years ago.

 

“I was going through tough times, and I didn’t have anywhere to go half the time, so I would come here and sleep in the corner before they woke me up and served me my food,” he said. 

Because Coniglio sat at the same booth nearly every visit, Dahmouh is giving him the table he ate at so many times upon the cafe’s closing.

“All of my friends and family… visitors from out of town, I always brought them here,” said Coniglio. “My kids grew up here.”

On Dec. 7, he and six others were honoring a late family member who frequented the restaurant — a tradition they have kept up every month for five years.

Planning on continuing to support the restaurant upon its move, the main thing Coniglio said he’s taking away from the Bay Point location? “Friendship.”

 

Longtime patrons and Pittsburg residents Carol and Frank Whitehead said they have felt like family at Big Daddy Ross’s Cafe ever since their first visit there together about 20 years ago.

“We just grew more and more close over time. For us it’s like waking up and going to the kitchen… the love runs deep here,” said Frank Whitehead. “The owner and manager, we’ve shared each other’s heartbreak and success — the loss of family and births of children or grandchildren.”

He noted Dahmouh going above and beyond by persuading the harbormaster to allow a separate dock to be built for frequent cafe customers like himself who arrive by water.

 

“Out of this whole marina, they have one new dock, and that was for us,” said Whitehead. “Since he’s moving to downtown Pittsburg, I told (Dahmouh) he’s going to have to figure out how to put a dock on a railroad, so I can bring my boat,” he quipped.

Surprised by the news upon what turned out to be his last visit to Big Daddy Ross’s Bay Point location, 26-year cafe patron Marty Whetham says he too had a boat at the Marina before moving out of the area. 

Now, he visits the restaurant with his wife every time they are in the Bay Area. 

“As far as I’m concerned, this is the best breakfast place in the county — I can’t imagine it going away,” said Whetham. 

The challenge of starting a business in a new location is something Dahmouh said he looks forward to.

 

“If we made it here — and you see we’re in the middle of nowhere — we can make it anywhere,” he said. “I’m happy because I think we did a wonderful thing here for the community.”