Cooking stops at Olga's Kitchen

BILL SPARKES/Acorn Newspapers LIKE FRIENDS-Tom Carlin, owner of Olga's Kitchen in Thousand Oaks, congratulates longtime customer Melissa Calcagno, who came to the restaurant as part of her 19th birthday party. Seated next to her is Denise Kromka. The restaurant closed yesterday after more than 19 years in Thousand Oaks. Diners have one less restaurant choice with the closing yesterday of Olga's Kitchen in Thousand Oaks.

Although business at the nearly 20-year-old eatery-the only Olga's franchise west of Illinois-had been good, owner Tom Carlin is ready to start a new chapter in his life.

"It's a huge amount of work to run a restaurant, especially one that's been around so long," he said. "It's just (time) for me to get on to a different life."

Carlin began running the family business in 1989, around the time his parents lost their business partner. Studying philosophy and marketing in college at the time, he had planned to help out with daily operations for a year, then return to school and eventually start his own business.

But Carlin never left.

He moved Olga's from The Oaks mall to the Center Oaks Plaza on Moorpark Road about 10 years ago, around the same time the Detroit-based corporate office offered to buy the restaurant. He wasn't interested. Since then, however, working seven days a week has taken its toll. Last year Carlin began tossing around the idea of leaving the food and beverage business to find new challenges.

"There's more to my life than working 10 to 12 hours a day," said the 40-year-old.

But since the corporation wasn't interested in buying and Carlin is contractually barred from selling it to anyone else, he was forced to close Olga's.

"The best thing-I'm leaving on a high note," said Carlin, who's single and has no children. "I'm leaving of my own accord."

But don't lament for Carlin. Olga's has meant its 35 employees, half of whom have worked with Carlin for a dozen years or more, must find new jobs.

"I can't believe it's not going to be here," said supervisor Dyanna Castillo, an 11-year employee.

Like her former boss, Castillo, who's been in the restaurant business for two decades, may embark on a new career.

"I can extend my horizons," she said.

Juan Sanroman, a 16-year employee, started working at Olga's right out of high school. He credits Carlin with teaching him all aspects of restaurant operations.

"Everything I learned, I learned from him," said Sanroman, the restaurant's other supervisor. "I owe him a lot."

Longtime customer Cindy Ladin will miss Olga's unique food items, such as the secretrecipe European sweet flatbread that's the menu cornerstone.

"I cannot even believe he's closing this down," said the Agoura resident. "It's very, very sad--I don't know what we're going to do."

When Carlin announced the restaurant would close, Ladin called her daughter who's away at college and had Carlin explain why he was doing so.

The only good thing to come out of the closing, Ladin said, was that her daughter, who visits infrequently, came home Saturday to eat at Olga's for one last time.