La Verne Restaurant Guide

When Waleed Saab announced he wanted to purchase a run-down, 100-year-old house on Foothill Boulevard and transform it into an elegant Mediterranean restaurant, the city thought he was crazy, he said. Several others had tried to operate restaurants out of the historic building at the corner of Moreno Avenue over the past few years. None of them succeeded.

"That didn't stop me, because I had a vision," said Saab, who now proudly owns Grapevine Restaurant, which has had a full house every night since it opened a month ago. His vision was to restore the former home -- said to have been moved to La Verne from the East Coast in the early 1900s -- fill it with ornate, handcrafted Oriental and Mediterranean furnishings and draw the masses with a unique Lebanese-influenced cuisine.

The 38-year-old native of Syria poured more than $1 million into the project, a risk he thinks will pay off. With room for 85 in the building's exquisitely decorated interior, and seating for 125 in the casual outdoor patio, Saab said his business has been overwhelmed, serving up to 500 people daily. Already the restaurant has built a considerable following, with some connoisseurs returning more than 20 times.

"For someone to come back every other day -- that says something about this place," he said. Saab moved to Kansas from Syria 17 years ago to attend Wichita State University. After transferring to Mt. SAC in Walnut in 1987, he struck up a highly successful food distribution company, which he continues to operate. The idea for starting a restaurant came to him when he saw the vacant building and its potential for a large patio seating area.

"Every time I go overseas, I'm always impressed with the patio seating and the way they set up the restaurants over there," he said. "And California has the best weather. We have more summer than any other country. So the whole idea started with the patio."