Alex Jara worked at Happy Dog in Gilroy before moving to Glory
Days
Morgan Hill – Former Gilroy resident and Happy Dog chef Alex Jara died after being partially ejected from a 1984 Corvette he was riding in during an accident on Watsonville Road.
Jara, 34, recently moved to Morgan Hill from Gilroy and was the executive chef at Glory Days restaurant in downtown Morgan Hill.
“He touched a lot of people, with his food, with his caring nature,” Glory Days co-owner Debra Creighton said Wednesday evening. “He had a big heart. He would give you the shirt off his back if you needed it. And he was just wonderful to my sons.”
Jara was a passenger in the vehicle driven by Watsonville resident Osbaldo Esquivel, III, 33. Esquivel apparently lost of control of the vehicle as it was traveling eastbound on Watsonville Road west of Watsonville Court at a unknown rate of speed and slammed into a tree at 12:38am Wednesday, according to a California Highway Patrol incident report. Public Information Officers at the CHP were unavailable for comment Wednesday. Neither men were wearing their seatbelts.
Jara was pronounced dead at the scene. Esquivel suffered major injuries in the accident and was flown to Valley Medical Center in San Jose. His condition was unknown Wednesday. Esquivel was arrested for driving under the influence, according to the CHP report.
A sign outside Glory Days told patrons of the tragedy. Creighton said the restaurant was closed Wednesday and was not sure if it would be open for business today.
“It’s just too fresh, we’re not sure,” she said. “I know we want to close it for the (funeral) services, and a lot of our staff are saying we should open it tomorrow, that that is what he would want us to do.”
Funeral arrangements have not been finalized.
Recently a featured chef in The Dispatch, Jara trained at the Culinary Institute in San Francisco, Creighton said, and had worked at several places, including the Happy Dog in Gilroy and Shadowbrook in Capitola before coming to Glory Days when it opened in April.
“We built our staff together,” Creighton said. “He was a friend first, though. We as a staff are almost as close as his family. We built great relationships. His girlfriend is our manager, Lalani Ponce, born and raised in Morgan Hill, and they have a 3-month-old son, Diego.”
Customers also will miss Jara, Creighton said.
“When I drove up to the restaurant, I found … a customer and a good friend, sitting there crying,” she said. “Alex built relationships with the customers, he cared about people.”
