After 7 years at Masa, Manny is leaving (boo!)

We’re hoping to catch a moment with one of our favorite Masa servers tonight as we take the family out for a pre-Thanksgiving meal. We’re  saying goodbye to awesome Masa server Manny Ramirez because he’s leaving the Echo Park restaurant after seven years – for good! But also for good reasons.

Manny has been working at Masa since the beginning, so he became a friendly face and great conversation while we did the laundromat-Masa night every couple of weeks. In the latest Masa newsletter, he explains his reasons for leaving: “I’m ready to do some of that traveling so many of you have told to do while I’m still young.” After Thanksgiving, he’ll be hitting up the Southern States, including Alabama, and crossing the border to Mexico for a holiday with the family. Then he’ll be shipped off – literally – since he joined the U.S. Navy.

It’s kind of sad saying goodbye to Manny, an end of an era. But we know owners Rhonda and Rob will especially miss him. As they wrote in the newsletter: “In 2004 when we opened the doors to Masa, our ‘second’ home in Echo Park, Manny came with us and charmed you with his vast trivia knowledge, endearing smile and incomprehensible politeness! We realize there comes a time in every family when the kids will leave the nest. As ‘parents’ we couldn’t be prouder of our Manny now, and all that he has yet to accomplish in the future.”

Good luck, Manny! You will be missed. Thanks for making this little pocket of Los Angeles feel like an intimate and great neighborhood!