The Ocean Beach Pier and the Walking on Water Cafe are both permanently closed. The pier is in the decade-long process of being replaced.

Chuck Fisher and wife Shannon, who took over the lease in 1993 of the then-Ocean Beach Pier Cafe, which first opened in July 1966, have removed the cafe’s equipment and furniture. Most of it will be auctioned off soon at Ocean Beach Antique Mall at 4926 Newport Ave. Ultimately, the items will be sold to the highest bidder, with the profits benefiting Latter Reign Ministries.

“I loved it (walking the Ocean Beach Pier for the last time),” Fisher told San Diego broadcast media recently. “This last trip I loved just as much as I did the first time I walked it some 30 years ago. I donated most of the items that had any nostalgic value. I wanted to keep it local. I could have sold it all on eBay. But I ended up deciding to donate it to a nonprofit here in OB, and they work for the homeless.”

Victoria Freeman of OB Antique Mall said they were glad to help Fisher out. “What we’re hoping is this gives a good push to the community, letting them know we do want our pier rebuilt, that it’s the only pier we have – and we need that back,” she said.

Freeman noted how the Fishers got involved with OB Pier is a colorful story. “He and his wife came down to OB in 1993 with an ice cream shop, then an arcade, and they were instruments in improving OB,” she said. “Then they were told by someone who works for Parks & Recreation that the OB Pier Cafe was about to be shut down by the City.”

Pointing out that the cafe back then was a “very rough fisherman’s bar,” Freeman noted the police were being called there regularly and the City was about to take the lease away from the owner. “[The lease] was presented to Chuck and his wife even though they never had any restaurant experience,” she said. “They decided to tackle it, were going to try and improve OB. They wanted to make the pier a family community place again. And that’s exactly what they did.”

Freeman said OB Antique Mall is allowing Fisher to display his items for sale in their front window before the auction, which will take place on Wednesday, Dec. 11 from 4-8 p.m. She added some of the items for sale have endured a lot of weathering from exposure to the elements. “They sat on the pier for a year or more and some of them are in pretty rough shape,” she said.

Freeman added pier cafe sales items including a large photo board with customer’s photos, a bartop table, dining table, and chairs, a giant wood floor hatch cover, menus, plus the cafe sign over the door and the original 20-foot-long sign for the bait shop attached to the restaurant. “He (Fisher) wants to sell as much as possible,” she said.

For several weeks, Fiore Garippo, founder of the nonprofit Latter Reign Ministries, helped Fisher haul all of the items from his cafe to a storage shed before being auctioned off. He noted the upcoming pier auction at OB Antique Mall is “a positive not a negative thing” adding Fisher is “fulfilling his purpose serving the people.”

Garippo added he and Fisher met three years ago at the OB Farmers Market where Fisher sells pizza on Wednesdays. Fisher came to him several weeks ago knowing of Garippo’s expertise and experience brokering restaurant equipment and reselling items at Kobey’s Swap Meet.

“Right now [Fisher’s] stuff, everything from tables, chairs and stools, to artifacts, is in storage and we have permission to bring them down there to fill up the front of OB Antique Mall and we’re doing that,” said Garippo.

Garippo’s looking forward to the auction and seeing “The passion that people have for the memory of that pier cafe.” On a more personal note, Garippo will be excited to see what we can do to raise funds for the ministry.

“I made a deal with the OB Antique Mall to give them a commission for their efforts,” added Garippo pointing out, “It’s overwhelming, this opportunity (cafe auction) to serve the people. It’s a win-win situation for everybody.”