New Era Restaurant: The American dream was the driving force behind this Route 30 eatery

During his senior year of high school, New Oxford athlete Alen Ahmetovic found a photo of him featured in the Hanover Evening Sun.

It was a significant moment for the Bosnian immigrant, though one detail from the image is still engraved in his memory today: his worn-out cleats, held together with a few pieces of tape, so overworn that his feet were exposed.

“I know the community noticed it – the people, my coaches, parents saw it – but nobody ever treated me differently. They never made me feel less,” Ahmetovic said.

To this day, it’s something he looks at for motivation.

“When I’m having a bad day, I find that picture and I go look at it to show me how far we’ve come,” he said.

Spending his teenage years in Hanover, after immigrating from Bosnia in 2003, Ahmetovic was a popular guy, and excelled as an athlete. His drive and determination were rooted in seeing his parents’ work ethic when they came to the U.S in 2000, following the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, during the '90s.

From Bosnia to Germany, Switzerland and Hanover

When the war started, his family first fled to Germany, where they lived for five years. Despite the official end of the war, they were sent back to Bosnia, despite not having any place to live. Ahmetovic remembers that moment like it was yesterday. It was the night before a soccer match he looked forward to playing in when the German police, he said, came to their door and informed his family they were being deported back to Sarajevo.

“We had to leave everything behind in Germany,” he said.

Upon returning to Bosnia, Ahmetovic found many towns and homes, including his own, were burned down. A year later, through another attempt to seek refuge, they moved to Switzerland. There, they applied for an opportunity to go the United States.

“Someway, somehow, we were chosen."

'They all thought I was insane, but I had this feeling'

In 2000, the Ahmetovic family arrived in Washington, D.C. and were picked up by members of St. David’s Church in Hanover. “We had no idea where we were or where we were going.”

For their first year in Hanover, the church sponsored his family with a home, car, food and jobs for his parents.

“They took us on, they knew nothing about us, but they’ve helped us through absolutely everything,” Ahmetovic said.

A star football player in school, Ahmetovic decided on a whim to try out for basketball. Not knowing whether he’d make the team, he was determined.

Before he knew it, he was playing Division II basketball at Millersville University.

Leaving his comfort zone for a new opportunity seemed like a metaphor for the move he would make later in life: leaving behind sales to run a restaurant with little to no cooking experience.

After graduating in 2010, Ahmetovic worked in sales for two years before starting New Era Transportation from his home basement.

Knowing nothing about trucks, aside from the fact that his father had driven one for a living, Ahmetovic without having a CDL license himself, handled the buying, planning and meticulous monitoring of vehicle maintenance and deliveries.

“I loved the sales part of it,” he said. “It was always a challenge, and sports taught me that I was never the best at anything, but I was always the hardest working,” he said.

Shortly after starting the business, he met his wife Fahreta while on a trip to Bosnia with his parents.

In 2018, while looking for lots to house his trucks, Ahmetovic came across O’Brien’s Paradise Cove, a family-owned restaurant and bar on Route 30 in Abbottstown.

While meeting the owner, Fred O’Brien, he was unexpectedly offered a chance to take over the restaurant.

“I went home and told my family; we’re buying a restaurant,” he said. “They all thought I was insane, but I had this feeling.”

The next day, a deal was made and the two shook on it.

New Era Restaurant Bar and Motel

One month later, Ahmetovic and Fahreta, were learning to navigate their new roles as restaurant owners.

Ahmetovic learned to cook from the previous owner while continuing to dispatch trucks in a small office, formerly located in what is now the kitchen walk-in refrigerator.

"He (Fred) taught me a lot, everything that he knew," he said. "I was like a sponge for the first two years, listening and not questioning a single thing he asked."

The two sold their house in Hanover and moved their family of six to a small, 2-bedroom home on the property. His parents lived in one room, and he, Fahreta, and their two children lived in the second. For a short time, they even lived in motel rooms connected to the restaurant.

Following the previous owner’s retirement, the restaurant underwent a full remodel that included renovations to the interior and exterior complete with the addition of an outdoor tiki bar and 13 connecting motel units.

The restaurant serves classic American burgers, steak dinners and seafood, as well as Balkan fare including cevapi, Balkan-style sausages, stuffed cabbage rolls, gyro sandwiches, and pljeskavica, grilled beef and lamb served in a Balkan-style flatbread.

For Ahmetovic, the wheels never stop spinning, and his mind is always filled with new ideas or projects. When he has slow moments, he often thinks back to how hard his parents worked to provide for their family and hopes to instill these values in his three children Lejla, Aldina and Aidin.

"With all the sacrifices that we made, my parents made, and I made, it's finally paying off," he said.

This article originally appeared on York Daily Record: New Era Restaurant: The American dream was the driving force behind this Route 30 eatery