ABOUT US
So you are here to know "about us" - well, Susan and Tim Ober (hence the name "Ober Easy" - cute, eh?) are the owners of the diner. Formerly it was Christina's County Cafe, but we became the new owners on January 1, 2019 - so we've already had the pleasure of meeting so many of you already! (It's over a year!!)
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Questions we are always asked - Have you been in the restaurant business before? What did you do before buying the diner?
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Well, ironically, we met in 1980 at Bickford's restaurant in Dedham, MA (best breakfast place when we were growing up - we called it the "pancake house")! Tim was a cook and I was a bus person. Eh, it was a high school job for me, but Tim had a passion for cooking. So the short answer - no, we actually were not in the restaurant "business" before this venture. But we kind of started there, right?
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So what did you do? Interestingly enough - we are both computer science majors. I worked at AT&T Bell Labs for 18 years before moving on to a variety of other things, and Tim was there for 12 years before moving on to other companies in the computer security sector. In fact, Tim holds a number of patents in computer security area. Cool huh?! And he is currently the VP of Software Engineering at a company called Clear Ballot Group. But you will find him at the diner cooking on weekends and many late nights during the week baking all kinds of goodies for the display case.
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As I said, I moved on to new things after Bell Labs - I finally became a pseudo stay at home Mom, when my son entered Timberlane Middle School and my daughter was in 3rd grade at Atkinson Academy. So while not working full time, I instead became a non-stop volunteer with the Atkinson Academy PTA, Timberwolves Soccer Club and Atkinson Recreation. So I was surely was busy and met SO many people from the Timberlane area; some of the very best friends I still have today.
From these activities, I ventured on to be the Timberlane High School yearbook co-advisor for 4 years. And from that, I was recruited to be a school photographer at Geskus Photography, soon becoming the Pre-Production manager and I remained at the company for about 10 years.
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In May, 2018, some things in my life took a turn, and then... the opportunity for us to become owners of a diner presented itself.
We looked at a few other diners, but once we knew Christina's was available, we couldn't resist. To be honest, the selling point was and IS our staff at this wonderful place. Our servers and back of the house staff are incredible. Our regulars already know this (in fact, we became regulars before they knew we were purchasing the diner - just ask Sue).
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So, that's our story and how we got here. And we are so happy to be the owners of the Ober Easy Diner.
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So what's in the works? You have seen some changes already - in our menu, our signage (finally, we know), some new renovations, and we are in process of bringing in new software, from Toast, to manage the front and back of the houses much more efficiently. We continue to make this place our own, and ideally your "breakfast place" too.
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Folks, we are upfront and open people. We strive to do well in all that we do - but, please, if we do not meet your expectations, let us know and we will do our best to please you. Customer service is important to us and to all of our staff.
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So - now you know "about us". We look forward to seeing you and saying hello!
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Susan and Tim Ober