|
Restaurant LuLu makes its exodus from Village |
|
|
Friday, 24 April 2009 |
By Stacey Powells
Mammoth Times Staff Writer
 photos by stacey powells Out-of-work employees from Restaurant LuLu gather for one last shot in front of what used to be the bar. From Todd Yamanaka, Jerry Han, Karla Kelly, Casey McMahon and James Honey.
So Manager Karla Kelly was devastated but not surprised when it closed recently.
“The owner had to make a last minute decision,” Kelly said.
Kelly said that Wu tried to negotiate with the landlords, but to no avail.
“They were not willing to work with us at all and they reneged on their agreement to make the Village the center of town. We had to shut our doors.”
Many of the employees were there late Wednesday afternoon, April 15, tearing down the bar and moving things into a U-Haul.
“I’m very sad,” said patron Debby Christiana. “I always had wonderful meals there and had a wonderful time.”
Wu also owns Restaurant LuLu in San Francisco, which was carrying the under-performing Mammoth Lakes location. But the sinking economy has affected her Bay Area restaurant, as well, and she could no longer cover what she considered exorbitant rent demanded by the Village owners.
“She stayed open as long as she could even though she lost a lot of money,” said Assistant General Manager Jerry Han, who has been with Restaurant LuLu from day one. “Rowena loved Mammoth. She invested in this community and it didn’t work out the way she had hoped. She was tired of fighting with the owners [CNL/Intrawest]. It cost a lot of money to keep this restaurant open and they refused to work with her.”
Han said at least 40 people lost their jobs and that does not include the vendors who lost their accounts with the restaurant.
“We might have stuck it out longer if the landlord worked with the owners on this,” Han continued. “The owners see what’s going on, but they obviously don’t care. A lot of the promises they sold to us never came to fruition, but we were never one to complain. We wanted to be good tenants, but Intrawest made it impossible to stay.”
“That restaurant was a key anchor in the Village and the loss of LuLu is terrible. The Village now has hit a complete low,” said former Village art gallery owner Tony Barrett. It’s reprehensible and I can’t believe they [CNL/Intrawest] allowed this to happen.” |
|
Last Updated ( Thursday, 30 April 2009 )
|
