Owner of German restaurant to sell business to help teen with brain tumor

BRITTANY MATHIS BRITTANY MATHIS Image 1 of / 5 Caption Close Owner of German restaurant to sell business to help teen with brain tumor 1 / 5 Back to Gallery

MONTGOMERY - Restaurateur Michael De Beyer wants to sell his fine-dining German restaurant, but at the right price, and all for a good cause.

A 19-year-old employee of De Beyer’s has been diagnosed with a ping-pong size tumor in her brain, he said. And in December, when doctors first made their diagnosis, De Beyer’s jack-of-all-trades hostess, waitress, bus-girl and kitchen aide didn’t have health insurance, he said.

De Beyer said he is willing to help any way he can, even if that includes selling the only German restaurant owned by an actual German in the Houston region, as he describes his Montgomery restaurant of 15 years, the Kaiserhof Restaurant and Wunderbar.

“I’m not able to just sit by and let it happen,” De Beyer said. “I couldn’t live with myself; I would never be happy just earning money from my restaurant knowing that she needs help.”

Brittany Mathis and her mother Barbara (who works at Kaiserhof as a restaurant manager and at the Wunderbar as bar manager) told De Beyer that a neurosurgeon confirmed from an examination of Brittany and her ensuing Magnetic Resonance Imaging test and CAT scan results in late December (after Brittany had spent three days in a regional hospital’s intensive care unit complaining of headaches, blurred vision, dizziness and blood clots in the back of her legs and in her hands — and with heart rate and blood pressure levels that seemed to rise and fall like a bad roller-coaster ride, she said) that Brittany had a tumor on the left side of her skull that manifested as a rash on the upper-outside part of the side of her face.

“She couldn’t get rid of the headaches, or eat, or hold anything down,” Barbara Mathis said.

Three days after hospital emergency room doctors had reviewed a battery of medical tests, and confirmed their grave concern for Brittany (and especially after learning that Brittany’s late father, John Mathis, had died in 2000 from the same type of medical issue, at the age of 33) she was urged to see a specialist.

Brittany and her mother sought out the emergency room doctor’s recommended specialist, who after examining her medical litany of tests said he couldn’t help her, Brittany and Barbara Mathis said.

“He was just very rude, and after he looked at the MRI and CAT scan, he said it wouldn’t effect me for a few years,” Brittany said. “He said there was nothing he could do, and I was thinking it was because I didn’t have any health insurance, that’s why he wouldn’t help me.”

Seeking a second opinion, Brittany and her mother called the office of another recommended specialist associated with a different hospital in the region, and despite repeated calls and numerous messages with office staff, she hasn’t received one telephone call back, Brittany said. Again, she and her mother believe it is because Brittany doesn’t have health insurance.

The 19-year-old Mathis has yet to follow the federal mandate requiring she register for the Affordable Care Act, she said.

De Beyer, who has become a close family friend of the Mathis’ (and who also employs her 20-year-old sister Kay as a waitress) through their work together at his restaurant, said he is concerned, and that time is of the essence.

Kaiserhaus Restaurant and Wunderbar are located off Texas 105 on Commerce-Row Drive on a 1.5-acre corner lot in a 6,000-square-foot building, De Beyer said.

“I have listed my restaurant for several years and recently turned down an (owner-financed) offer for $1.3 million,” he said. “But now I want to auction it off at a reserve price (or minimum bid — 50 percent of the actual value) and anything above that will go to help Brittany.”

Brittany’s father John had a tumor in the back of his skull, she said, which caused him to have a brain aneurysm.

“Michael (De Beyer) has been a real blessing to our family,” Brittany said. “And he’s just always been there whenever we’ve needed anything.”