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End of beloved Basque restaurant hard for former owners(Bakersfield Californian, The (KRT) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Aug. 7--The Basque Cafe, formerly known as Maitia's Basque Cafe, a long-lived restaurant in Bakersfield famed for its garlic fried chicken, shut down just after Fourth of July weekend, "a casualty of the economy," its last owner said. "The corporation had to file bankruptcy," said Joy Stewart, 63, who bought the restaurant on Coffee Road in 2005 as an agent of James L. Stewart, Inc. to run it with sons Brian and Greg Riggins. "Starting in January, the rent increased," Stewart said. Other expenses also went up because of high gas prices. "Basically, in a nutshell, the economy got us," she said. "I feel terrible that it came to this. "The hope is that through the bankruptcy process, that other assets will be sold and that anybody that we owe any money to will be paid." The Basque Cafe's founding family also felt the loss. "It's real sad because we were real proud of our restaurant," said Susan Maitia, 64, speaking on behalf of her husband, former owner Frank Maitia Jr., 65, who has Parkinson's disease. Maitia, an eighth-grade teacher at Compton Junior High, said her husband sold the restaurant in response to an aggressive offer from Stewart and her sons, whom she feels didn't do enough to "nurture" the business. "They just didn't spend the time there that they should have. They cite that the economy was down and it is," she said. "The income went way down and we just couldn't sustain it. I tried for six months to do everything I could," Stewart said. "The people who bought it were not Basque. That's why they closed, because it takes hard work and many hours. Any restaurant is hard work," said Mayie Maitia, 79, Frank Jr.'s aunt. Mrs. Maitia co-founded Wool Growers Restaurant, a local Basque cuisine landmark, in 1954 with her husband, J.B. Maitia. "That's high-dollar rent out there (in Rosedale) as opposed to being out here on the east side where payments are more affordable," said Linda Elizalde-McCoy, co-owner of the Noriega Hotel on Sumner Avenue, another historical Bakersfield Basque restaurant. Although they don't own the property, she said, the Elizalde family has run the Noriega Hotel since 1931. THE BASQUE CAFE'S HISTORY Susan Maitia said her in-laws, Frank Sr. and Louise Maitia, founded the family business in Old Town Kern in 1946. "They purchased a little cafe on 21st Street," she said, in a building that is no longer there. "It was called The Basque Cafe. They stayed there for many, many years." She said her husband and father-in-law built the larger Maitia Basque Cafe on Union Avenue near 34th Street, and ran it from around 1981 to 1996. "It was too large and too tough to run. I had to scale down," Frank Maitia Jr. said. "We started the little (Basque Cafe) out on Coffee Road around 1997," his wife said. She said many of The Basque Cafe's staff stayed when her husband sold the business to Stewart. Some had worked there for decades. "This just hit them between the eyes," she said of the restaurant closure. "It's hard on them." She said her father-in-law died earlier this year. "Frank Sr. passed away April 10, on his birthday. He was 95, led a really wonderful life. This would have been really hard on him, I know," she said. "I'm glad he didn't have to witness it." To see more of The Bakersfield Californian, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.bakersfield.com. Copyright (c) 2008, The Bakersfield Californian Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. |