Home @ 21 May 2007 04:14 pm by Christina Waters
You know the ones I mean. Locations in which well-meaning, hard-working entrepreneurs keep trying to set up a restaurant business, and which keep resisting any success. Locations whose ill-fated feng shui, or abyssmal karma, bodes against every effort to achieve something like success. There are many such culinary Bermuda Triangles in every town, and the Santa Cruz area is no exception. Here - with input from many readers - is a short list of retail revolving doors. Places that just plain don’t work, no matter how creative the make-over.
1) The very top cursed location is the corner of Ocean and Soquel. What is it about this place? Surely this could be a prime location for something? I mean every hungry, thirsty tourist aiming for the beach has to pass by here, right? Yet over and over - nothing works. Maybe it’s the tiny parking lot, or the fact that it’s just a little bit too far from downtown. This one got the most votes of all! Former Rock ‘n’ Tacos, Maui Maui, something pancake house, something vegetarian, somebody’s bakery & café.
According to Larry Pearson, Players’ Pizza was the last successful restaurant at that site, owned by Terry & Cathy Hutson who closed it down and moved to the Sierra foothills 10 years.. . . Where’s the al qaeda when we need them? Just blow up this building and put it out of its misery.
2) Then there the former Manoff’s, on Water Street that re-re-opened a few minutes ago as another taqueria, after the demise of Puerto Escondido Taqueria. Way too tiny and (it has to be said) ugly. After many years of serving great burgers, Manoff’s went the way of Castagnola’s and the Santa Cruz Hotel. Then it was the Turkey Shack, then Mike’s Soul Food (or was it the other way around?), then some other burger joint, then a taqueria, and now yet another taqueria.
3) Several readers felt that the Art Center dining rooms of former, incomparable India Joze have become another cursed location. First as the ill-fated Mediterranean cafeteria known as Azur, and then Red Lantern, and then another asian something, and now Center Street Grill. Curse or not, the place might just have struck gold again. We’ll see. The big issue here is the sheer size of the facility. I think it would work much better as two separate stores - maybe one would be a white tablecloth restaurant, and next door a quick, deli cafe version of the restaurant’s top specialties. This kind of thing is done a lot in Europe - and at Chez Panisse, with the high-end upstairs, cafe downstairs. Just a thought.
4) Joseph Schultz (of India Joze fame) reminds me that Sash Mill Café (known today as Bruno’s BBQ) is another famously cursed non-place. It has been many things, including the short-lived Kuta Beach Grill, and then Scotty’s Cafe, after the heyday when Nancy and Bill Raney ran the café part as an annex to the Sash Mill Cinema (then managed by Nickelodeon owner Jim Schwenterley). Many subsequent owners kept the name, but rarely repeated the schmoozy, cozy atmosphere the Raney’s gave the place.
Here are a few more favorites. The Hooked on Fish, Auntie Mame’s location in the Camp Evers strip in Scotts Valley. . . . The sushi place at corner of Mission & Bay – formerly Lola’s, formerly Marcello’s, formerly a bank. Probably shouldda stayed a bank.. . . anything on E. Cliff except Star Bene seems to drift into the fog. . .
. . . . the former Seafood Mama, former Ostrich Grill upstairs at 820 Bay Avenue in Capitola. . . . And every single restaurant that’s ever tried to make something work at the summit of Highway 17!. . . . Let’s not forget the twilight zone located in the crotch of Graham Hill, Ocean Street and Highway 17. Once upon a time it’s been almost everything. The Colonial Inn, El Azteca, Anastasia’s, Bea’s Country Kitchen, Live Soup – all at 1602 Ocean. Now it’s a car lot, proving that humans ARE capable of finally getting the point.
Got any more?
I agree about the cursed locations. I’d be curious to hear from someone in the restaurant biz on how to turn them around. On the east side, two formerly bad locations have become very successful–Charlie Hong Kong took over that sausage place that never seemed to be open (that I can recall), and Engfer’s Pizza Works is a rocking place now. That location used to be home to a deli and wood-fired pizza place that never (I mean never) seemed to have anyone in it except one or two employees. I started thinking it was the front for some kind of drug operation, and my neighbors did too. (i.e. no one could figure out how they stayed opened with 0 customers). Anyway, I’m wondering if someone “in the know” can figure out how to turn those cursed locations around…
and what about the “Cheese Factory” site at 17th and Portola. Great location but since it left at least two restaurants have come and gone, the most recent Sunny Cove, which seemed nice enough. Place has been empty for a long time now. Guess the Aloha Grill across the street took the business for that corner.
Don’t agree that E. Cliff is a restaurant twilight zone except for Star Bene. Have you been to Nuevo? In the old Black’d Beach spot. I have really enjoyed their food and the people are so very hospitable. They make some unusual things, like the breakfast thing that’s a flatbread with strawberry jam topped with scrambled eggs with bacon and dried apricots, and a little melted cheese. I know, it sounds like the dog’s dinnner but it’s my favorite thing there. And other items there are good and just a little different. I recommend it.
Dee - your comment about that guilty pleasure you like at Nuevo is proof that you’ll eat anything. And I have to admit I have not found much to like at Nuevo. Ditto the old Black’s Beach. But I could always give it another try…..and I LOVE Star Bene.
Thank you for sharing ! C.