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Two local restaurants - one a long-time favorite and another a struggling newcomer - closed their doors over the holidays.

Cattleman's Bar and Grill on Steuber Road just off Highway 58 closed Dec. 29, according to co-owner Deborah Reese. Reese and Cattleman's co-owner Teresa Peralta said they had leased the 8,000-square-foot establishment to José Escalante a year ago, and he was not able to make a go of it.

Qué Pasa, located in the new strip mall at the corner of Valley Boulevard and Tucker Road, closed the week before Christmas.

Cattleman's owners downsize

Reese and Peralta bought Cattleman's six years ago after the restaurant had been closed for five years. The restaurant was built in 1992 by Terry Titan, who built what was then the Travelodge and is now La Quinta Inn.

Cattleman's is just a breezeway away from La Quinta Inn, and guests appreciated not having to drive to a restaurant.

Kim Villaverde, front desk clerk at La Quinta Inn, said, “We have a lot of regulars who stay here because they love Cattleman's. The construction crews like the bar. It's kind of a shame.”

Villaverde said now they send guests to other restaurants in town.

“The business just wasn't there for him [tenant Escalante],” Reese said.

The two women had successful years and “awesome customers” while they owned it - the restaurant and bar were popular with motel patrons, and the karaoke and bands brought in trade from all over the area - but it got to be too much. They lived it and breathed it, she said.

“We were tired and overwhelmed,” Reese said. “It's a big place and a lot of responsibility. We opened a mom-and-pop type shop.”

The two opened the Coyote Café in California City, where, Reese said, business is good.

They would like to lease or sell the Cattleman's property, Reese said, and “We are open to a lease option on it.”

‘Not enough people’

Qué Pasa owner Baldo Cisneros, of Bakersfield, said they were busy for the first eight months, but then customer traffic dropped off quite a bit. He said it was the bad economy.

“We just didn't have enough people coming into the restaurant,” Cisneros said.
Cisneros said his restaurant did not make enough money to pay the mitigation fees imposed by the city.

City Manager Greg Garrett said that under the mitigation fee payment deal negotiated with the restaurant when it opened in July, 2007, Qué Pasa was to pay $119,000 over a period of several years, and “They paid it down to $89,000.”

Because Cisneros, who owns other restaurants in Bakersfield and Kernville, declared personal bankruptcy, the remainder of the mitigation fees was canceled out, Garrett said.

He said that when a new tenant takes over the vacated Qué Pasa space, the city would “start back at zero” in the collection of mitigation fees. The city will bill the new tenant the full $119,000.

“When someone else comes along with a potential restaurant,” Garrett said, “they would have to start fresh at the beginning.”

Garrett said the developer, Ennis Properties of Porterville, had been close to paying the remainder of the Qué Pasa fees, but the deal fell out when the restaurant's tenancy seemed shaky.

The amount that Qué Pasa owed the city, Garrett said, “is the last of the outstanding mitigation fees. The city is not interested in any more payment plans. When someone comes along to fill that space, they will have to pay the mitigation fees to occupy the building.”

Garrett said the city “is in discussions with someone to occupy that spot.”

Don Perico’s open

Rumors that Don Perico's Mexican Restaurant on Tucker Road is ready to close are false, according to manager José Guevara.

“We're not closing,” he told the Tehachapi News Friday.