When Will the East Beach Cafe Open Again in Santa Barbara
Francisco Aguilera was 14 years old when he set off from Durango, United mexican states, eventually catastrophe up in Santa Barbara, where he took a job as a dishwasher at the Due east Embankment Grill.
For the next 33 years, Aguilera worked at the seaside restaurant on the first floor of the Cabrillo Pavilion Bathhouse, graduating to melt and managing director, and finally to owner and addressee. He still arrives every morning at the crack of dawn to open the doors past 6 a.thousand. He has never missed a twenty-four hour period. Over the decades he has gotten to know his regular customers and their kids who'd skip direct from the ocean to his counter, asking for ice foam. At present grown, those kids bring their own children and grandchildren to the eating place, one of the terminal places in Santa Barbara with $5 hamburgers and a bathing-suit-welcome dress lawmaking.
Last Thursday, sitting in his tiny office perched above the Great Pacific Ice Foam Company that he owns next to Char Westward, which he besides owns, Aguilera looked out toward the E Embankment Grill a mile down the coast. "Information technology breaks my heart," he said. In December his charter ends, and the city will shut the public bathhouse building for a massive $15 million renovation of its upstairs upshot space, offices, gym, and restaurant. Aguilera had hoped to reopen his grill when the work was completed, but charter negotiations with the urban center failed. "I did my best," he said, throwing up his hands. "But I'm out."
Last September, the Santa Barbara City Quango voted to requite Aguilera first cleft at resecuring a lease before the concession was opened to public proposals. The decision was made against the recommendation of Parks and Recreation Department Managing director Jill Zachary, who argued simultaneous bids would requite the urban center the best bargain. Whoever operated the bathhouse'southward eating place would be required to open for dinner, provide a total bar, and generate much-needed revenue for her department, which had been recently forced to cut public youth and sports programs. A Urban center Council chamber jam-packed with Aguilera'south customers, all lobbying to allow him to retain the lease, withal, persuaded the councilmembers. "When yous spend 33 years in one spot," said Aguilera, "yous make a lot of friends."
In his proposal, Aguilera outlined a program to transform the East Beach Grill from a coincidental breakfast and lunch articulation into an upscale eating place. He would rebuild his dining room and kitchen at a toll of $1.five million and and then await the two years of construction earlier the building could reopen. The lease was the sticking indicate. Aguilera said the city wants a guaranteed $400,000, more than twice what he pays now. He believes it would be impossible for anyone to afford that, fifty-fifty with the more upscale offerings. "It's just bad business concern," he said.
Since 2008, when Aguilera bought the East Beach Grill from his mentor and boss John Williams, he's doubled his profits by increasing them a few per centum points every year. The same goes for Char Due west and the water ice cream parlor. "Dull and steady" he learned from Williams, who likewise advised him to save his extra cash, so now he is completely debt complimentary. Financially, said Aguilera, he'll be fine without the grill. Information technology's the way he'due south losing it that upsets him.
His dealings with Zachary take felt especially ungracious, Aguilera said, pointing to her short, final email stating his proposal had been rejected. Their personal interactions — or lack thereof — stand in stark contrast to the skilful working relations he currently enjoys with the urban center'due south waterfront section. Aguilera empathizes with the metropolis. "They take bills and employees to pay," he said. "Simply," he went on, "I feel similar I'm getting kicked out after so many years of working hard and paying hire. My life is in that place." Worse, Aguilera worries well-nigh his 24 employees, who currently have 401(k) plans and a turn a profit share of the visitor simply will shortly be out of a job.
For her part, Zachary said the urban center wants to return the bathhouse — originally built in 1926 by millionaire philanthropist David Gray of Ford Motor fame — to its former glory while at the same time "providing a restaurant that'south enjoyed by everyone." Though she denies the metropolis wants to replace the grill with a "high-end" business organization, the city did give prospective operators a packet of interior photographs suggesting what the renovated restaurant might look similar — the photos were all of hip, high-course, loftier-ceiling eateries, such as the Santa Barbara Public Market.
Operating a edifice the size of the bathhouse with all its programs and services isn't cheap, Zachary explained. Her department was hitting hard during the recession, from which it is even so trying to recover. Revenue from the edifice's restaurant, outcome spaces, and other turn a profit-making ventures must pay the overhead, or the money is taken from the city's General Fund. "I'd rather subsidize something else," said Zachary, such every bit costless city programs for low-income families. "Nosotros'd like the building to be self-sustaining," she said.
Currently, the bathhouse costs $740,000 a year to run. Revenue is approximately $770,000 a year, with the restaurant providing around 20 percent of that. The city hopes to increase overall acquirement by 30 per centum with the upgrade, which will create new multipurpose rooms, make improve use of dead infinite, add modern technology, and extend operating hours. Correct now, many of the amenities are decidedly shabby without the chichi. "The 90 years are taking their toll," said Zachary. "We accept no funds to reinvest in the infrastructure, and the edifice is falling apart."
As for determining the futurity of the restaurant, "Information technology has not been easy for anyone involved," said Zachary. The metropolis has been upward-front with Aguilera from the start, she said, and took pains to publicly admit their good working relations. That longstanding positive dynamic fabricated deliberations especially tough. "I thought information technology best to separate the business concern function of the negotiations from our mean solar day-to-day operations considering we did not know whether we would develop a mutually benign agreement," said Zachary, who admitted she could understand his feelings about the email. The direction she was given by the Urban center Council after it turned Aguilera down was "to be straightforward."
Aguilera's legion of friends and customers will be sad to see him become. Filmmaker John Klein is ane of them. He's frequented the grill for near 40 years. "Where else in this town do cultures and generations and economic classes mix then easily, and then happily?" he asked. Klein called the metropolis'due south willingness to lose Aguilera as symptomatic of a waning diversity. "There are certain things, certain people that continue this metropolis together," he said. "Francisco is one of them."
Before Aguilera leaves the grill in December, he asked customers to swing by for one last stack of blueberry pancakes. In the meantime, he will go on his daily routine of opening the restaurant in the morning. "I'one thousand not going to await back," said Aguilera. "I'k going to look forward and move on."
Source: https://www.independent.com/2017/06/15/goodbye-east-beach-grill/
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