Meet Michael Kachoeff of The 6740 in Whittier

Today we’d like to introduce you to Michael Kachoeff.

Michael, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I am proud to say that when my grandparents came to the United States from Armenia and Mexico, they migrated to East LA, where both of my parents were born in the 1920s. My father went to Roosevelt HS and my mother went to Garfield HS. They were hard working folks doing their best to give my brother and me what they thought kids were supposed to enjoy. Dad took my brother and me to Dodger games often; he hated baseball, we loved it.

He would sit there through all 9+ innings, never complaining about it, while we ate it up. He would also take us to Rose Bowl and USC football games. They bought us records and dropped us off at concerts. When I was 15 and my brother (Buddy Zapata, a musician and instructor at East LA College) was 13, mom bought us tickets to see Led Zeppelin and Queen. From there the love of music germinated — it was all about music after that. Every weekend we’d see any number of bands around LA, like Top Jimmy & the Rhythm Pigs, The Minutemen,The Blasters, The Plugz, The Plimsouls, The James Harman Band, Los Lobos, the list goes on and on.

At 16, my first job was at the Jack in the Box in Montebello on Beverly and Montebello Blvd. When I graduated from Whittier HS I worked at least 2 jobs at all times and put myself through Cal State Long Beach; back in the 80s a person could do that. I worked at Wherehouse Records stores, selling vinyl and also doing volunteer work. At one point, I worked at a Brian Eno art installation in Santa Monica, which led to an internship and then a job in Eno’s Opal Records Hollywood office.

My time at Opal was pretty great. Later I worked at SST Records. After that, I did a short stint as a substitute teacher (a job I hated) and then I connected with a retail clothing store in Uptown Whittier called Sub Culture, owned by Dave Byrd.

In 1995, I opened Uncle Frank’s Cigar Store in Uptown Whittier. After about a year, the signs were there that business was heading in the wrong direction. At the same time my old Sub Culture boss and friend Dave Byrd had joined with another friend Audi Socarras, who owned a coffee house called Beans. They were both closing their businesses and opening up a pub/coffee/clothing store hybrid around the corner. After many meetings we three formed a business partnership. There was only one pub (John Greenleaf’s) in Whittier at that time and we thought we would give it a shot too.

As three guys who ran small businesses, we put our money together and opened The 6740. We used credit cards, sold our possessions, hit up friends and scraped together an initial investment. We opened our doors in July 1997 as a restaurant/pub/coffee house/cigar store.

In the past 20 years, we’ve climbed mountains, lived, dug ditches, gotten sick, gotten healthy, been through hell, and gone to heaven. Dave Byrd died a couple of years ago and we miss him every day. We’ve smiled, cried, laughed, smiled with heavy hearts and cried with joy. Over time, we’ve ditched coffee, teas, Italian sodas, salmon, bruschetta, and steaks. What we do sell passionately is the best craft beer via 25 taps and 25+ bottles and cans. Today we feature a menu I’m proud of, and we’ve also added some awesome vegetarian and vegan options. We are ever-evolving, ever-loving, and never static.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Life is full of struggles, that’s how we learn and grow. The key is recognizing every struggle as a temporary lesson. We all start to learn as children to identify with our struggles and pains as part of our personal story, myself included. When we start to identify all the obstacles and challenges that unfold in front of us as opportunities to solve a puzzle or learn something new, then that dark storm can be converted into fluffy clouds which pass to blue skies.

Somewhere along the way I recognized that things I thought were disastrous events or catastrophes eventually ALWAYS end up just being nothing but a memory of the past. No, things have not been easy. Just like everyone on the planet, I’ve dealt with business failure, health issues (I was born with hemophilia), and the pain of losing people I’ve loved the most.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with The 6740 – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
A lot of people call The ’40 an institution. We opened 20 years ago and have survived and thrived as a business – I see that as a huge accomplishment. THE 6740 is a restaurant/pub built on hustle & heart and a true connection to community through food, drink, music and art.

Even though we specialize in the best-of-the-best local micro-brewery and global craft beers, our food is a huge focus too. Our intention has always been to make it far better than ordinary ‘pub grub’ which was so predominate in 1997 when we started. We focus on our own unique recipes (created mostly by Audi) and most of our items are housemade from scratch every day. About four years ago we started adding vegetarian & vegan options. We feature our own homemade Vegan Menudo on the weekends and Whittier has definitely approved of our variation, which is built from a family recipe.

Since Day 2 we’ve featured rotating art on our walls and done our best to support local artists. THE 6740 Art Dept. is the name of our art collective, managed by Leo Gallegos. There is music filling our space at all times. There are televisions on the walls too but don’t expect to listen to ‘the game’ because you’re just as apt to see curling as you are football or the Clippers or Lakers. We like showing old movies, kung fu movies, or Looney Tunes while listening to, say, some mix of The Mar-Keys, X, Hot 8 Brass Band, Big Joe Turner, Public Enemy, Prince, Prince Far I , Starcrawler, Wanda Jackson, John Coltrane, King Tuff, King Tubby, Albert King or The Stooges.

We specialize in attracting wonderful people who grace us with their presence. We are family, we are community. Our community reaches far beyond our street or zip code – we’d like to think that we reach far outside of the Los Angeles area with the hopes of making this planet a friendlier, kinder, all inclusive ‘6740’ kinda place.

You can view our menu and our always changing live beer list at www.the6740.com

We have a motto: If you like it, we Love it!

So, what’s next? Any big plans?
To paraphrase Coach John Wooden, our plan is to make every moment a masterpiece and give everyone an opportunity to shine. Without doing that today, you may not give yourself the opportunity or the tools to have a good, happy or successful next week or the upcoming years.

We’ll continue to keep our menu and the beer list fresh. We’re always on the lookout for new opportunities in Whittier and beyond.

Bottom line is we look forward to expanding our tribe and keeping them well fed, well watered, and well loved from the inside out. Thanks Voyage LA!

Contact Info:

• Address: THE 6740
  6740 Greenleaf Avenue (Uptown Whittier)
  Whittier, CA 90601
• Website: the6740.com
• Email: [email protected]
• Phone: 562 698 6740
• Instagram: @the6740 & @the6740artproject
• Facebook: The6740 & The6740 artdept.
• Twitter: @the6740

Image Credit:
Bethany Gilbertson

Getting in touch: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.