La Vida remains focused on supporting community
My name is Rich Garrahan. I’m a managing member of La Vida Hospitality and the founder of Crooked Hammock Brewery. I am a resident of Lewes, my kids go to school in the Cape district and I previously sat on the board of the Lewes Chamber of Commerce. Most importantly for the context of this letter, I love the Cape Henlopen State Park and my community.
Last year, along with my business partners Josh Grapski and Mitch Rosenfeld, both residents of Sussex County, La Vida Hospitality answered a request from our state Division of Parks and Recreation to propose ideas to improve concessions and add a restaurant at Cape Henlopen State Park. We saw this as an opportunity to help our state park, to use our expertise to add value to the park we love, and to bring a new experience to the park. We are passionate about hospitality. The opportunity to provide hospitality in a setting as unique as Cape Henlopen sounded like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Through our experience in building the Big Chill Beach Club in Delaware Seashore State Park, we learned that if we were to be awarded the opportunity to build in Cape Henlopen, there would be environmental experts guiding us and partnering with us through every step of the construction process. We knew firsthand that our parks department and DNREC, our state’s environmental experts, would be steadfast and thorough in their work and advisory. Their role is critical to the process, as we are not environmental experts. We would be focused on our area of expertise, which is providing hospitality, making memories and creating fun environments.
Though it is now very clear that many people in our local community are not in favor of the Division of Parks and Recreation’s idea of adding a restaurant amenity at Cape Henlopen, and we have withdrawn our bid to build the restaurant, I think it is important to clarify that we at La Vida Hospitality have acted solely as a good steward in response to the Division of Parks and Recreation’s request, and only acted in a responsible and creative manor to the challenge with which we were presented. We are not a corporate conglomerate working to rezone and develop conserved land. We have been active supporters of the state park for more than 17 years. We have always been advocates for preserving and improving Cape Henlopen, and we will continue to be active supporters of Delaware state parks.
Through La Vida Hospitality and our family of brands – Crooked Hammock, Big Chill and Taco Reho – our team of hospitality professionals has made countless contributions to the Lewes community. We host fundraising events for our schools, local sports teams and many other local organizations; we serve dinner to the Cape basketball and football teams before every home game; we partner with the high school in a program that helps students with special needs develop work skills; we donate our space to the Historic Lewes Farmers Market to host its Wednesday market; we sponsor beach cleanups; we support local musicians and the Rehoboth Beach Film Society; and we partner and support the Friends of Cape Henlopen State Park, 4H, Toys for Tots, CHEF, Children’s Beach House, the Lewes library, our first responders and many other nonprofit organizations.
This year, we were awarded an outstanding business award from the Center for the Inland Bays, and recognized as a Community Champion by the Cape Henlopen School District. I’m proud that Crooked Hammock has grown into the unique space we had always envisioned, a true open-door community center for residents of Lewes to gather.
I am not sharing these actions and accolades to boast about our goodwill. I am sharing them in defense of the more than 1,000 employees of La Vida Hospitality and its managed businesses, my partners and myself as we have come under attack by some of the same community members that we have worked hard to support and serve. The threats that came our way during the opposition to the idea of a restaurant are scary. Our families rely on the health of our businesses for a paycheck each week. My businesses and my team rely on this community’s continued support to survive.
Many of the opponents of the restaurant project were open to communicating with us. They listened to our point of view, and we were able to listen to their point of view. We were able to hear each other and have a healthy conversation. We respect their opinion, and were influenced by their opinion. We are thankful they took the time to talk with us.
Some community members chose to perpetuate lies about our intentions, slander, ridicule and defame us for our initiative. These actions were hurtful and disheartening. I think we are too strong of a community to accept this type of behavior. I hope that in the future, for the sake of the Cape Henlopen State Park, our community will collectively listen, seek facts and contribute solutions before acting solely in opposition to creative ideas.
On behalf of all of my team and my community, I ask that you continue to see La Vida Hospitality, Big Chill Beach Club, Big Chill Cantina, Crooked Hammock and Taco Reho as the active community partners and positive contributors we have always strived to be. We remain focused and committed to supporting and aiding our community partners whenever possible.
My team and I look forward to focusing again on doing what we do best – delivering great hospitality. Happy holidays!
