As a publisher of human-interest publications for more than two decades, I am always inspired by the merchants and community members we profile. This issue is no exception. In these pages, we meet the backbone of Anaheim—the many hardworking individuals who make the area a thriving place to live and work.
In our cover story on page 4, meet Chance Hardy, founder of Hardy Windows, and his dedicated staff, including his brother Casey. Chance’s passion for becoming an entrepreneur began in childhood. Today, his company, which services residences and businesses throughout Orange County, is awardwinning and nationally recognized.
We also spend some time in this issue with the folks at the Anaheim Hills Crown Ace Hardware. On page 5, read how the store’s General Manager Jonny Morphis and his crew go above and beyond to ensure that customers leave the store ready to tackle any project.
If you enjoy dining out, the team at Latte De Ristorante (pg. 7) is delighted to ensure that you are well fed for breakfast, lunch and dinner. The store’s Owner Marty Kakar brings decades of restaurateurial experience to the popular restaurant. And for your furry family members, Athena Yap (pg. 6) has you covered. The owner of Jackboy’s Dog Bakery offers up yummy, nutritious dog treats sure to make your pet yip.
The City of Anaheim is well-known for being a tourist destination filled with attractions. On pages 11-12, read all about Anaheim Beautiful and Visit Anaheim. These longstanding organizations are dedicated to spreading the word about the city’s numerous amenities.
As we head into the fall season, I wish you and yours many wonderful memories.
Sincerely, Mike Escobedo
Cain , Anaheim Hills Community Council
Santa Ana Canyon Rd
Sometimes history comes calling soon after it is made, while in other instances, the truth remains buried until a discovery is made. Such is the case with Marshal Charles F. Lehman, the first Anaheim law enforcement officer to die in the line of duty.
Thanks to a Lehman descendant in 1987, the modern era Anaheim Police Department became made aware of the Marshal’s untimely demise. The year was 1872, and it was the Wild West here in Anaheim.
On the evening of July 21, 1872, Lehman, who had assumed the office of Marshal two months prior, was called to a disturbance at the rear of the Anaheim Brewery on Center St., located west of Los Angeles St. Constable David Davies and William Horton, a stranger from out of town, were arguing over the winnings of a card game.
Things got rough when Horton
grabbed the money and tried to run. Davies attempted to stop him, and the two came to blows. Then the situation became especially explosive when Horton grabbed Davies’ gun and beat him over the head with it. At that point, Marshal Lehman was called in to break up the fight.
By the time Lehman arrived, a gunfight had broken out between Davies and Horton in the street. Lehman was caught in the crossfire and shot, then rushed to a local residence where a doctor was summoned to attend to him. He remained in critical condition for two days until passing away at the age of 44 on July 23 at 7:30 pm.
Horton ran away when Lehman was shot, but a crowd chased him down and put him in jail.
The July 27 The Southern California newspaper article, “Killing of Charles F. Lehman,”
reported: “A dark and bloody tragedy has stained the fair name of our usually quiet town. A man has been killed—an officer—shot down in the faithful discharge of his duty, in endeavoring to preserve the public peace. A citizen, a husband and a father has been hurried out of existence, as the result (in the most charitable view we can take of it) of the disreputable quarrel of two men over the game of cards.”
Horton was an escaped convict from Nevada. Those who witnessed the event said he shot Lehman, but the Marshal insisted until his death that it was Davies who shot him. However, according to a newspaper account at the time, “a feud between the Marshal and Constable is said to have existed for some time.” Witnesses testified that Horton killed the Marshal, and he was sentenced for the crime. Davies was acquitted during the
trial and resumed serving Anaheim as a law enforcement officer for many years.
The death of Lehman could have been lost in history if not for a call by the great grandson of Marshal Lehman in January 1987 to Mary Foss, secretary to former Anaheim Police Chief Jimmie Kennedy. The grandson asked if Chief Kennedy and the Anaheim
Police Department would like to recognize the Marshal, or if the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department should.
Chief Kennedy directed police historians Randy Gaston and Rick Martinez to conduct research on the historical event. They found the story was true about that fateful night in Anaheim’s Old Wild West.
On April 24, 2013, the Anaheim Police Department, thanks to the efforts and funding of the Anaheim Police Association, dedicated a local monument to Marshal Lehman and two other officers killed in the line of duty. The memorial is in front of the Anaheim Police Headquarters at 425 South Harbor Blvd. •
What started as a small family
When Chance Hardy was a teenager, he was determined to open his own window installation business, following in his father’s footsteps and working in the trade he and his three brothers were passionate about. He later opened Placentia-based Hardy Windows, and the store has now become an award-winning, nationally recognized enterprise.
“I never fathomed that it would get to this point that I’d be able to grow the business to where it is today,” says Chance. “It’s a great feeling, but I haven’t forgotten the blood, sweat and tears it took to get to this point.”
After completing an apprenticeship and working for wellknown window glazing companies, Chance used his experience and spent his evenings going door to door, offering neighbors a chance to switch their current windows to new vinyl ones.
“I started out securing one customer a week, and then it completely grew from there,” he says. “I had to quit my job and started up Hardy Windows fulltime. I’m humbled to see how far we’ve come.”
Chance was steadily growing the business but had to completely restructure everything in 2001 when an ATV accident left him paralyzed. He went through months of physical therapy and surgeries. As soon as he was ready, he hopped right back into action at Hardy Windows, this time behind the desk instead of on the scene.
“I was relearning how to live life from a wheelchair, but at the same time, the phone was still ringing, and we kept on selling windows,” says Chance. “I had to rely on others to help me with the business, which turned out to be a blessing.”
Where others would give up, Chance doubled down and took the opportunity to help Hardy Windows flourish. He had to expand his team to cover the physical labor he was now unable to do, which also allowed him to bring in more customers and break into different areas of the industry.
“At first, it was scary, and I was worried about not having control of all facets of my business,” says Chance. “But I have trustworthy people working for me, and we’ve been incredibly successful at what we do.”
Now, Hardy Windows has more than 180 employees and five divisions of the company: residential, renovations, commercial, millworks and the Placentia storefront, which holds the title of Orange County’s largest window and door showroom.
Chance and his team offer window and door installations across residential and commercial buildings in Orange County. His crew has also traveled across the country for projects, going as far as Tennessee and spending months building out the windows for large complexes.
Although Chance is humbled by how much Hardy Windows has
grown, his brother Casey Hardy says that Chance always had an entrepreneurial mindset.
“Since he was little, Chance has been incredibly determined and disciplined,” says Casey. “If he didn’t make a window company, it would’ve been another business.”
Casey now runs the residential department and joins the ranks of one of the many employees who have stayed with Hardy Windows for decades. Bill Rucker, Commercial Sales Manager, has been at the company for almost 20 years and says that Chance has created an incredible workplace culture.
“Chance leads by example, and it shows in his work and how dedicated he i s,” says Rucker. “Everybody’s success is our success, and even though we’ve grown, it feels like a familyoriented company.”
The customer who walked into a Crown Ace Hardware store in late 2015 had an unusual request for Jonny Morphis.
The high school teen approached Morphis for help with building a lawn water filtration system for a science fair project. After purchasing PVC pipes, lawn seed, pebbles and other materials, the student worked with Morphis for weeks to complete the project.
“He didn’t just win the local science fair, he came in second in a national fair,” Morphis says. “I was so proud that I was able to be a small part of what he was building.”
This is just one example of how employees of the family-owned and operated chain go above and beyond the customer service seen in larger stores. Crown Ace Hardware includes 21 stores across Southern and Northern California, Arizona and Hawaii. One of the stores is in Anaheim Hills.
“Crown Ace is committed to being known for service and convenience, and this is where we really strive to separate ourselves from almost any other store in any industry out there today,” says Mark Schulein, owner.
The Schulein family got its start in the Ace Hardware business in 1974 when Jeff Schulein, Mark Schulein’s father, acquired the building that houses the Corona Del Mar location. When the owners decided to retire a year later, Jeff Schulein bought the business.
Within the next five years, he purchased two more locations in Newport Beach, followed by the Anaheim Hills location. From the beginning, the stores were a family environment, with Mark Schulein’s grandmother working as a bookkeeper and employees staying on for years or even decades.
Mark Schulein grew up working in surf shops and gained extensive retail experience through high school. After college, he spent some time pursuing his fields of study in marine science and the arts, but eventually joined the family business. Working with family isn’t always easy, but he credits his father with giving him the knowledge he uses today.
Customers come to the Anaheim Hills and other stores for home maintenance and improvement projects, getting one-on-one support from the moment they walk in the door. It’s a formula that has not only generated generations of loyal customers, but employees as well.
Morphis, an Anaheim native, started at Crown Ace Hardware in 2007 and has been with the Anaheim Hills location since 2019.
“We only have 14 employees at the (Anaheim Hills) store but altogether we have more than 86 years of experience at Crown Hardware,” Morphis says.
Employees are so dedicated to helping customers complete their projects that they sometimes venture outside the store to assist. If the store doesn’t carry a specific product, it’s not unusual for employees to go to another store to obtain it for them. And sometimes employees will help with items that aren’t found in hardware stores. Morphis says he once helped a grandmother who needed help with purchasing a skateboard for her grandson. Morphis went to a local skate shop, found a quality board and brought it back to Ace for her.
From homemade dog treats to authentic Italian cuisine, these two local businesses know what it takes to keep their customers fed and happy. Whether that means crafting customized dog-friendly birthday cakes to celebrate a pup’s birthday or staying open from 6 am to 10 pm, Jackboy’s Dog Bakery and Latte Da Ristorante have mastered their trades.
they share their business journeys and what they have in store for the rest of 2022.
If you drop in at Jackboy’s Dog Bakery, you’ll find the shelves aren’t filled with typical treats like croissants and muffins. Instead, the shop offers baked goods exclusively for dogs and has made a name for itself as a premier dog bakery since 2007.
Owner Athena Yap first developed the concept when baking for her dog, Jackboy.
“When I pulled the first batch of treats out of the oven, Jackboy knew it was for him,” she says. “I wanted to share that experience of baking and making your pets happy.”
Yap reached out to a local grocery store and started offering a baking mix for customers to purchase, but quickly got feedback that the end product was great, however, the shoppers wanted the instant gratification of immediately giving their dog a treat they bought.
The business grew from there, and soon Yap was baking everything from small cookies to bulk batches of cakes. Once it was clear there was a market need for her products, Yap opened a retail store and pitched her treats to other grocery stores.
“In the first year of selling the treats, we sold our products wholesale to Gelson’s Markets, Albertsons and pet supply stores in the area,” she says. “We got a commercial building to make everything and started selling out in stores.”
The bakery’s most popular item is the birthday cake, a peanut butter and cheddar cheese-flavored cake topped with bone-shaped roasted peanut and honey cookies. Other canine favorites include artisan cookies with elegant and dog-themed decorations.
“We handcraft and hand make all of our bakery items, but it’s all about promoting a healthy lifestyle
for our animals,” says Yap. “We don’t use preservatives, artificial colors, or flavoring so that we make healthy and wholesome treats. We don’t compromise on anything and even make our sprinkles in-house.”
Jackboy’s has expanded beyond just treats, and Yap says the protective mentality feeds into every product her store offers. Customers can also order toys, supplements and dental chew toys.
“We see ourselves as caretakers of making sure we shield our customers from bad products,” says Athena. “We meticulously vet every product we offer and even research how the company treats its employees.”
As autumn kicks into high gear, the team at Jackboy’s is gearing up for “Holwoween,” where customers can purchase festive Halloween treats like candy corn and ghost-shaped cookies or a party mix with pumpkin and carob flavored squares.
“We also have an annual costume contest where we’ll have dogs come in wearing adorable costumes, and we'll choose a winner,” says Jackboy’s Supervisor Cayley Lopez. “Holidays are the best at the shop because we get to come out with new cookie designs and decorate the shop.”
430 South Anaheim Hills Rd., Suite G / 877-513-3162 www. JackboyDogBakery .com
Jackboy’s Dog Bakery Owner Athena Yap shares an array of her shop’s most popular
If you’ve stopped by Latte Da Ristorante since its opening in 2004, you might know it as a classic breakfast spot. But over the past few years, Owner Marty Kakar has remodeled and transformed the eatery to reach a new audience. Every evening, Latte Da serves traditional Italian food, complementing its breakfast and lunch cafe options.
Before the pandemic hit, Kakar realized he wanted to improve the cafe and bring a new stream of customers to his business. “We felt like there wasn’t a proper Italian restaurant for neighbors in the area,” he says. “So we decided to become that, and the response has been great.”
Kakar is no stranger to the food industry. He purchased his first cafe right after graduating college and has gone on to open various other restaurants and cafes since then. He also operates Delizie Ristorante & Bar, an Italian restaurant in Mission Viejo.
“We decided to bring the
Delizie menu to Latte Da and serve our great Italian food to Anaheim Hills,” says Kakar. “We’ve been so busy now, and we’re able to meet even more customers.”
Latte Da Ristorante waiter Jorge Rodriguez (left) poses with Chef Fabian Sotello (center) and Owner Marty Kakar. The restaurant has welcomed Anaheim Hills residents for almost 20 years, and the service goes beyond authentic Italian food. The team frequently hosts community fundraisers to support local high schools and soccer teams.
On the menu, you will find familiar dishes like lasagna, fettuccine Alfredo and chicken parmesan, as well as more traditional Italian meals, including spaghetti amatriciana, a spicy tomato sauce-based pasta dish with bacon and caramelized onions.
“We buy many of our ingredients, including our fresh cheese, directly from Italy,” says Kakar.
“Everything else is made from scratch, including our house bread, so it’s fresh and made specifically for that day.”
Kakar is proud of the authentic and natural food he serves to customers, but his passion lies in the distinctive service culture he has created at Latte Da.
“Our restaurant is family
oriented, and most of our employees have been here for years,” he says. “So we give our customers a special experience they can’t get anywhere else and make them feel comfortable and welcomed.”
Larry Dodrill, who has been dining at Latte Da for more than three years, says the restaurant became a staple for him because of the attention to detail in both the service and the cuisine.
“I can tell a great restaurant by the staff, and a few of Latte Da’s employees have been here for more than 20 years,” he says. “That, in itself, tells you something.”
Latte Da’s original concept of a complete breakfast cafe and an Italian dinner restaurant is another big draw for customers who have now become regulars.
“I’ve never seen a restaurant that provides a combination of great breakfast and lunch and fine evening dining,” says Dodrill. “This is the perfect combination for a dining experience.”
Anaheim Beautiful is a community organization dedicated to organizing citywide events. From humble beginnings, it began in 1970 as a women’s gardening club. The organization evolved into giving home tours of historical houses throughout the city and now hosts a plethora of events throughout the year.
“Anaheim Beautiful is dedicated to ensuring that our community thrive s,” says Lori Dinwiddie, President of Anaheim Beautiful. To accomplish this goal, the organization focuses on fostering sponsorships to help with a variety of projects.
One past sponsorship from Anaheim Brewery funded the repainting and upkeep of homes owned by the elderly. Other recurring events include the Mrs. Anaheim Beautiful Pageant, which will crown this year’s winner with a scholarship on October 9, several tree planting events in local parks each spring and winter and a program to help people maintain and dispose of flags properly.
Throughout the year, Anaheim Beautiful organizes multiple home decorating competitions. These include patriotic themes of July 4th and Memorial Day, to an autumn themed contest that ties in with the Anaheim Fall Parade.
Then, as the year moves on, the annual Holiday Lights Contest becomes the focus. This competition began in 2009 and steadily grew until a surge of interest in 2020 made it their largest event.
“Our Holiday Lights Program has really morphed into a larger participation program,” Dinwiddie says. “The pandemic really gave us a kick in the pants. The holiday lights became really special when everyone was looking for uplifting activities.”
Anaheim Beautiful organizes the Holiday Lights event with Anaheim Public Utilities and the City Council. Winners are voted on by a panel of judges and participants are placed on an interactive map that allows sightseers to see participants and winners, past and present.
“The City Council sponsors each district for awards,” Dinwiddie says. “All of the districts are allowed and anyone can participate.”
Winners are treated to a reception afterward where they are recognized by the City Council for their efforts. During the reception, they are gifted an edible snow globe cookie with the likeness of their home on it, a sign stating what category and year the house won and a one-of-akind, hand-painted ornament to commemorate their win.
For those of you living next to a home that pulls out all the stops every year, not to worry. You still have a chance. “You can only win once every five years,” Dinwiddie says.
To participate in this year’s competition, or to join Anaheim Beautiful, please reach out to them on their Facebook page. Ask for Norma Kurtz. As of publication time, the categories for the 2022 competition have not been set.
A Wells Fargo building sits on the corner of Orangewood and State College Blvd. Outside are two signs. One reads, “Visit Anaheim,” while the other announces, “Anaheim Chamber of Commerce.” Clearly, they are separate signs, but there is common confusion between the two.
“A lot of people think of Visit Anaheim as just another Chamber of Commerce,” says Jay Burress, President and CEO of Visit Anaheim. “The Chamber has their mission to create a positive business environment, and they do that in many ways that we don’t do. Visit Anaheim takes advantage of that business environment and helps make it stronger by bringing in the business. We want people to come in and visit, have a great experience and go home to tell people how great it was.”
Visit Anaheim began when the Anaheim Convention Center opened. The organization is in charge of booking the conventions. The Convention Center can be booked as far as 10 years out, bringing in large events such as D23 and N.A.M.M. They also make packages for smaller events and sporting events.
“Once we get an interested party, we sell them on the destination, and then we put all the puzzle pieces together,” Burress says. “We find the package that works with the hotels and the convention center space and reach an agreement with the client.”
From there, the planning is turned over to the convention services department. They provide transportation to and from the hotels to the convention center or other locations, depending on what the client wants.
One of Visit Anaheim’s biggest challenges is selling people on areas of Anaheim outside of Disneyland.
“We try to take a different angle, and that’s the hook for a lot of people,” Burress says. “We want to showcase other things they can do while they’re here that they probably don’t know about. My staff makes fun of me because I say, ‘There’s a place just outside of Disneyland called Anaheim. It’s time they discovered it.’”
Visit Anaheim is funded by the tourism improvement district’s transient occupancy tax, which is a tax levied on hotel stays. This means that the organization is solely funded by tourists, rather than taxing locals. The moneys are used to fill Anaheim’s general fund, which pays for public services, utilities and first responders. Without this fund, Anaheim would be a much more expensive place to live.
“At the end of the day, we’re here to work behind-the-scenes to make the lives of local citizens better,” Burress says. “The end goal is to increase the revenue coming into the city to improve the vitality of neighborhoods and the lives of citizens.
Visit Anaheim 2099 South State College Blvd., #600 / 714-765-2800
www. VisitAnaheim .org
A store-bought tomato is no match for one picked fresh off the vine from your own garden on a warm summer evening.
It doesn’t take much to grow a tomato plant. Cherry tomatoes do great in a pot on your patio. But if you’re looking to take it up a notch—say a Brandywine heirloom tomato that can reach up to 9 feet tall—you’re going to need more space. A lot more.
Here in Anaheim Hills, backyard space can come at a premium. But right here in our community, a vast hillside on Monte Vista Road is bearing abundant produce for dozens of Anaheim Hills residents.
Tucked behind Anaheim Fire Station 10 and overlooking Sycamore Park, the East Anaheim Community Garden has buzzed with activity from first-timers to seasoned master gardeners since opening in 2012.
The community garden is a labor of love for our community. For many it’s part therapy, hobby and nature sanctuary. I’m one of them. I rent a plot at the garden and grow tomatoes, zucchini, carrots and other produce. I’ve long been a backyard gardener and love being part of our Anaheim Hills community garden.
Each time I dig my hands into the soil, I get a feeling of being grounded and connected to the land. Growing fruits and vegetables with my neighbors has brought incredible joy and camaraderie from good old-fashioned hard work. I imagine it is similar to what
Anaheim’s founders and earliest residents must have experienced as early pioneers living off the land.
More than 70 plots are for rent at the East Anaheim Community Garden. Each one comes with a requirement of year-round planting, plot maintenance and a commitment of eight volunteer hours each year. There are five different plot sizes for rent from $70 to $225 per year. The garden is popular, so there’s a waitlist. But adding your name now puts you in line come year’s end when plots become available.
Together as a community, Anaheim residents have been able to sustain and evolve the community garden into a true local amenity and joy. The garden is home to a monarch butterfly waystation with favorable plants, nectar and shelter for the endangered species. Fruit trees at the garden are kept up and responsibly harvested by members. There are also wildflowers covering a slope, and an area showcasing drought tolerant plants donated by Anaheim Fire & Rescue.
The garden has benefited from Eagle Scout projects over the years with a composting bin, pergola and accessibility features. And several Boy Scout troops have toured the garden.
In the words of British horticulturist Monty Don, “A garden is not a place. It’s a journey.” That is what the East Anaheim Community Garden is to its members.
“She became a lifelong customer after that,” he says.
More stores are on the way with a South Lake Tahoe location purchased in July, a Southern California location opening in December and another in early 2023.
For Schulein, it’s an exciting future for life as an entrepreneur.
“I love people, and we are in a great position to serve our team members and our community,” he says. “This has gotten more challenging over the years, yet in my eyes, more important. We know our niche, we know our customers, and we know our local communities and are passionate about being the best place to work and shop.”
Ace Hardware Anaheim Hills
East Santa Ana Canyon Rd.
714-998-5282
After a long, hot, and hopefully productive summer, it’s time for the fall garden clean up. This time of year requires the most labor, as there are a lot of dead or dying vines, leaves, bushes and other leftover plant material you may have.
Throw out the tomato vines and compost everything else. Tomatoes are susceptible to many diseases, and the pathogens responsible for those diseases are not easily killed. They can overwinter in the soil, which is why you hear about rotating your tomato crops to different sections of the garden each year. And the diseases they carry can stand up to the decaying process in a compost pile. No need to risk spreading disease, so put them in the green waste bin.
Once your garden is cleaned up, refresh your soil by digging in a generous helping of compost and then raking it flat. Toss on the top of the soil several handfuls of organic dry fertilizer. Use something in the 4-6-3 range designed for fruits and vegetables, then gently rake it in.
Keep in mind when I say “garden” that I’m referring to anywhere you plant. This includes pots, containers of all types and sizes, raised beds, or any place where you grow your bounty.
Once you’ve completed your cleanup, now you’re ready to grow cool-season crops. These
include lettuce (there are hundreds of varieties available from seed), kale, Swiss chard, snow peas, carrots, spinach and beets, to name a few. There are several other cool-season choices, so for a complete list go to the Monthly Garden Guide listed on our Master Gardeners of Orange County website (noted at the end of this article) for information on what to plant and when. Remember, your best chance for a successful garden and harvest is to make sure you grow the right plant at the right time.
If you’re planning on growing your own transplants, start the seeds in small pots or used 6-pack containers and allow approximately four weeks prior to when you want them ready to go into the ground. Plants such as carrots, beets or other root type crops are best sown directly into the garden. Of course, all these
plants can be direct seeded, however my preference is to grow from transplants, whether growing them yourself or buying them ready to go.
If you can, make sure to plant cauliflower, Brussels sprouts and broccoli no later than the first two weeks of October. Unlike other cool-season crops, which are best planted November through February, these plants grow large and very leafy before the heads start to show and mature. Taking advantage of the last warm days of early fall gets them off to a great start. The great thing about cool-season crops is they are easy to grow and can be very productive. And as you will see in our next article, most of these plants can be grown a second time.
FUN FACT : Although the word vegetable is used to describe most plants we eat, a summer garden is mostly fruits and a cool-season garden consists mostly of vegetables. A fruit is defined as edible flesh, surrounding a seed(s), born of a flower. Run that fact by your friends and family and they’ll be impressed.
For help with any garden, landscape or pest problem, contact our Master Gardener hotline at UCCEOCMGhotline@ucanr.edu and check out our website at www. MGOrange .ucanr.edu for scientifically researched, peerreviewed information. It is a great tool for gardeners at any level.
Now go get gardening! •
Orange County
Brian Hale is an Anaheim Hills resident and has been a University of California Cooperative Extension Master Gardener in Orange County since 1999. Over the years, he has been involved with many aspects of the Master Gardener program. Currently, he spends most of his time with the Propagation Team and is a member of the Speakers Bureau. This includes doing presentations for private and public venues.
