Vineyard Press

First it was The Whole Enchilada. Macaroni Grill followed suit. Now, Las Campanas and Pei Wei have recently closed their doors.

The loss of Las Campanas particularly hurts, because it was a locally-owned business. Duane Roberts, owner of Riverside’s Mission Inn, opened Las Campanas at the corner of Milliken and Foothill. The restaurant was modeled after the original Las Campanas at the Mission Inn.

Roberts spent a small fortune on the pristine structure, but ran into early glitches, including a shake-up of restaurant staff and a complete revamp of the high-priced menu. Las Campanas never quite recovered from its early missteps. But their food was excellent. The company decided the long road to profitability wasn’t worth the trouble. The losses were apparently insurmountable—in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Retail isn’t fairing much better. Furniture stores like Drexel Heritage are gone. Sharper Image and Bombay have disappeared from Victoria Gardens Mall. Mervyn’s has succumbed, and will officially be closed at year’s end. Rumors abound regarding the economic well being of Circuit City and Sports Chalet.

If you can spend a little money, then spend it in Rancho Cucamonga. Patronize local retailers and restaurants. When this downturn is over, heaven knows what the business landscape will look like out there. Here’s to better times ahead!

Comments (6)

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written by Don Schager, November 06, 2008

It's a shame the city has allowed so much to be built with no sustainable plans. Now we're gonna have to look at empty stores and restaurants for a long time thank to the overbuilding. It's ok to have open land, we don't need massive rental housing structures, distribution warehouses and every store conceivable in our city just to eventually sit there vacant.

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written by Susan Jones, November 07, 2008

I agree with Don Schager, Rancho is too built up. I enjoyed it much more twenty years ago when there was actual open space and real vineyards. Now they plant a few rows of grapes just so we won't forget what they looked like. Every piece of land does not have to have a building or house to be meaningful. Lets enjoy what little open land we have left. No more development!

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Loss of good restaurants
written by Lee Nelsen, November 08, 2008

All of the restaurants you mentioned were good and it is a shame to loose them. Oft times we forget them
and their locations were not enough to remind us. Poor marketing also went into the loss and high prices
did not help. Yes we need open space, but we also need the now forgotten restaurants and stores.

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written by Kimberly, November 10, 2008

There are enough resturants in this city to eat somewhere different everyday of the year. You'd never run out of places to eat. Its nice to have all the choices but please no more.

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written by Liza, November 10, 2008

I have to agree with the overbuilding. When we moved into the city some 15 yrs ago, there was a lot of open land and grapevines everywhere. Now I see all this construction with not enough business to sustain them. Instead of looking at open land, we now see "Out of Business" signs and closed down shops.

I wish the RC planning committee had slowed down the growth instead of allowing Foothill Blvd to be to overrun with new construction. I would have favored the open land over the vacant buildings. It's depressing to look at all the businesses that have closed and left.

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written by Valerie, November 11, 2008

You forgot to mention that 42nd St Bagel closed because of the economy. We miss that place.

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