MARINA – Karl Waller came to Marina when he was about ten years old and remembers riding his bike in the area where his new business now stands. That was in the early 1970s when his dad was in the Army at Ford Ord. Now, nearly 50 years later, Waller is back and the proud owner and operator of The Brass Tap craft beer bar, part of the Promenade at the Dunes.
Waller, along with his wife and sister, are co-owners of the new venture joining a family of nearly 50 sites in 16 states. The Brass Tap Marina will have its soft opening on Monday and will follow up with its grand opening, June 6.
Waller went to Patton Elementary School as a youngster, which would years later become Marina High School. He remembers the Patton Park area where his family lived and CDEC Hill where his father worked, and the red brick building that once served as the first commissary at the Army post that still stands near his new business.
Waller said the buildings that were removed from CDEC Hill, the area above the Dunes shopping center at the top of 2nd Avenue, more than a year ago, may have erased part of his memories. But the recollection of the sports arena where he once played basketball still stands out, mostly because that is where he and his current wife first met.
“My wife is also from here,” said Waller. “I met my wife in high school so we’re both graduates of Seaside High. We’ve been married 7 years. We kinda went our separate ways then reconnected later in life.”
He said his sister and his wife remained lifelong friends, and now they are all part owners of The Brass Tap. “It’s truly a family-owned franchise,” Waller said with a wide grin.
After he graduated from high school, Waller went away to Whittier College in Southern California, came back for a year and attended Monterey Peninsula College, then left again for So Cal to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree in marketing from California State University Dominguez Hills.
Waller worked for Frito-Lay, ICI Pharmaceuticals and Amway Corporation where he spent the bulk of his career, his last role as an executive responsible for manufacturing and logistics.
“Over the years I’d come back two or three times a year” to visit his family, he said.
Waller’s dad retired after 22 years of service to his country, and his parents bought a house in Marina. “They didn’t want to live anywhere else.”
After both parents had passed away, the house was left to the two siblings sometime in 2022.
Waller said the idea to invest in The Brass Tap franchise was seemingly laid out before him.
In the summer of 2020, the Wallers were living in Texas. The pandemic had hit and a local newspaper published an article about a couple that had just started a business that was struggling and was rallying the community to come out and support them.
“So we went in to take a look around and thought, ‘oh this is a really nice concept.’” said Waller.
He said he filed the experience away, and then two weeks later he and his wife came to visit his dad in Marina. It’s a Friday night and Waller had been driving around thinking how much Marina had changed especially the old Fort Ord section.
“I wanted to go out to dinner and have some drinks and I was like … I can’t believe after all these years, I’d been gone almost 40 years, that there still was no place in Marina to go have drinks, good food and entertainment … you still have to go to Monterey,” said Waller. “So we ended up staying home that Friday night.”
Within two weeks those two events occurred and he found out that place they visited in Texas was a franchise so he called up the franchise, and went to a discovery day, said Waller. He was sold on the concept The Brass Tap presents “because it has the best combination of food, drinking and entertainment.”
He said he had already envisioned putting his business in the Promenade at the Dunes because it had the look and feel of what the one in Texas had, and The Brass Tap’s franchise group did their demographic study and had arrived at the same conclusion, validating Waller’s idea of where to stake his business.
Waller said his vision is bigger than Marina, which he acknowledged is a great location and growing.
“But I really think we’ve created something special that people from all over the entire Monterey Bay will come see,” said Waller.
The Brass Tap Marina is located at 99 General Stilwell Dr., in Marina, in front and to the north of the Cinemark Century theater. It is a large, inviting bar and restaurant venue with indoor, patio and outdoor seating, along with a lawn games area. The Promenade at the Dunes location is next to the Dunes shopping center that already attracts Marina residents, along with people from the Monterey Peninsula and Salinas region, as well as students and faculty from CSU Monterey Bay, about a half-mile away.
Waller said he has completed hiring his staff, filling 42 full-time and part-time positions, with a contingent of workers who are 70% Marina residents.
“I am 62, I retired early at 57,” said Waller. “When we went to The Brass Tap in Highland Village, Texas, I was still searching for what I wanted to do.”
Waller said he feels that this was too good an opportunity to pass up, and that it has evolved in a short space of time.
“It’s evolved now to helping the community, helping people get jobs,” said Waller. Obviously we want it to be profitable, but it’s evolved to where I just want to help other people so I’ve got other family members, other friends, that have come to work for me.”
Waller said he looks back at his life and the way he benefited from the military, its activities, joining the Boy Scouts, playing on basketball teams, riding motocross and going to the youth center “where my wife and I met for the first time. It was three blocks from here (The Brass Tap location), that I do remember, but I want to be known as a successful business person that gave back to the community.”
