Post #500917 by abstractiki on Sat, Dec 26, 2009 7:18 PM

Ok, hear is some info I recently uncovered from Lodi News Sentinel reports:

The last owner of the Islander was Dick Degrande. Degrande was Italian and was born on November 7, 1931 in San Francisco. He was raised in North Beach and later moved to Stockton where he worked in the restaurant business for over 20 years. He owned and operated the historical Cosmopolitan Restaurant (open since 1919) in Lodi for a long time. In March of 1980 he closed the Cosmopolitan and took over the Stockton Islander. There he changed the name to Dick Degrande’s Surf and Turf Islander and operated it until going out of business on New years day 1983. Legend has it that he had a big blow out New Year’s Eve party before closing. He then returned to San Francisco and worked at Joe’s Restaurant until his passing on July 30th 2003. He had two sons, Gary and Ron and was an avid 49er/Giants fan. He was loved by many.

Here is an open letter to the citizens of Lodi announcing his closing of the Cosmopolitan and his new venture with the Stockton Islander. This was originally published in the Lodi News Sentinel.