 "Photo: Courtesy of Maralyn DiPiazza")
The room was lightly dimmed and people were setting up an event DiPiazza's on Sunday night. Some impaired Cal State Long Beach students sat in the corner and munched on pizza with the owner's wife, which was a weekly ritual. Mark DiPiazza, the owner of the restaurant and venue, sat down to discuss what his job entails and why music is such an influential part of his life and business.
D49ER: What inspired the creation of DiPiazza's in 1952?
MARK DIPIAZZA: My dad started it in 1952 as a restaurant.
D49ER: How did you get into the business?
MD: I got in it in 1984 with my wife. We were just looking for a place to open a little breakfast place and because I didn't have a whole lot of money to open a restaurant, my dad and I put our money together, got a loan and restarted DiPiazza's on Ocean Boulevard in Long Beach. We opened together for three years. I've had four restaurants. This is my fourth.
D49ER: What other restaurants do you own?
MD: Well, I had DiPiazza's from '84-'94 on Ocean Boulevard across from Yankeedoodle's and then I had Frenchie's Restaurant on Anaheim Street close to Ximeno for a couple of years. I sold [the old DiPiazza's] to Frenchie because the Java Lanes Bowling Alley asked me to do all their food. I agreed to do that as long as I got this room they had, which was a banquet room they used for bowling meetings. I turned that into a fine dining restaurant, but it didn't really work as well as I expected because it was right next to the bar and it was very loud.
I turned it into the Lava Lounge and started a music venue there and reapplied the music atmosphere they used to have years ago. It was very successful there. I had bands like Weezer and some other really big acts.
This place we're at now was called the Captain's Quarters and they asked me to do the booking here. It was a little too small so I told the owner to sell it to me and he eventually sold it to me.
Java Lanes was a little upset that I was doing two venues at the same time, so I left there and just concentrated on this. I've been [at DiPiazza's] for 10 years ever since.
D49ER: What inspired you to have music incorporated into your restaurant?
MD: I saw the potential at Java Lanes for a concert venue and being in the restaurant business for my whole life, I really wanted to incorporate bands.
D49ER: How do you try to accommodate your prices for college students?
MD: We don't really want to do specials on alcohol because we're not trying to get people drunk, but we're like a mini House of Blues with inexpensive prices. Our pints are $3 compared to L.A. prices at similar venues. Our prices for food are very inexpensive, so we pretty much keep the prices down. We are going to come out with a special for beer and a slice of pizza within the next coming weeks.
D49ER: Who's the biggest band that has played at DiPiazza's and have any bands gotten their start at your venue before hitting it big?
MD: The Heartbreakers have played here without Tom Petty and David Cook from American Idol has played here as well. Right now the biggest draw was Tribal Seeds from San Diego. We sold out in an hour and a half and had a line around the block.
D49ER: Have the budget cuts affected your business at all?
MARK DIPIAZZA: No, they haven't. It's because with people having less money, they look for somewhere to release the problems of not being able to go out and this is a very inexpensive place to go and hear live music.
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