Hats off to a familiar friend
The owners of a longtime burger joint in Ventura counts down to closure
By Michael Sullivan 01/14/2010
After more than 60 years in business, the Bell family, owners of Top Hat Burger Palace, are preparing to shut the walk-up windows of the iconic hot dog stand at 299 E. Main St. in Downtown Ventura. Top Hat has passed through three generations of Bells since it opened in 1947, to the current co-owner, Jack Bell, 36, who has been there for 18 years. An eviction notice, or “30-day notice to quit” for their monthly lease was posted on the property Jan. 4, which makes the closing date Feb. 3.
“I just got an eviction notice in the middle of the night, a mystery,” Jack said. “It’s a depressing thing.”
Jack said they were always current on their lease payments.
Bob, who has been a regular at the joint, ordering a double burger (mustard only) every day since the 1970s, agreed.
“I hate it,” he said.
While there has been much chatter online about Top Hat’s closure, only a few spoke at the Ventura City Council meeting Monday night to advocate keeping it open.
Jeff Lambert, Ventura’s community development director, said that while staff might be able to help the business owners relocate, if the property owner wants to terminate the lease, he or she is entitled to do so. The one problem, however, is the building’s significance in the city’s historical district.
“CEQA (California Environmental Quality Act) is pretty conservative on impacts on historical structures,” Lambert said.
“[The building] needs to be analyzed, although it is not a landmark and not a designated structure of any kind.
However, in the downtown historic survey, it was listed as a potential contributor to the downtown historic district.”
The property owners, Wright and Charles Watling, of Carpinteria, who formed the Downtown Ventura Properties III, LLC, have not filed any development plans for the property or the adjacent parking lot, and they backed out of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the city to help the Bells relocate the building to another site on Oak Street, according to Lambert. The MOU was agreed upon a year and a half ago.
Stephen Schafer of the San Buenaventura Conservancy said the historical significance of Top Hat is because of its place on Main Street and, if moved, would no longer make it eligible for the national register of historical places.
“What we (the conservancy) are doing is the ... heavy lifting,” Schafer said. “We panicked in 2004. But we aren’t doing that this time. We are doing a different approach.”
Schafer said that when the Top Hat was slated for closure in 2004, the conservancy was still in its infancy and wasn’t sure about the right way to go in handling the situation. But with 4,000 signatures for the “Save the Top Hat” petition, the impending doomsday died off and the Bells heard nothing more until the latest notice posted to the stand Jan. 4.
The conservancy will decide in the next week if it will nominate the Top Hat building for the national register, which would then make it eligible for the state register as well.
Dave Armstrong, president of the board of the Downtown Ventura Organization, feels this is a bad move by the property owners.
“We hope not to see another long-term vacant lot and building on Main Street,” he said. “It doesn’t do anybody any good.”
But the issues regarding the property go beyond Top Hat. Tom Mericle, transportation manager for the city of Ventura, said the property owners approached the city last month, trying to raise the month-by-month lease amount for the adjacent currently public parking lot from $1,850 to $5,500 a month. Mericle, after speaking with other local officials, declined the offer, stating it was too high a price to pay during a budgetary crisis. He has not yet heard back from the property owners.
Jack Bell will be planning a group photo at Top Hat at the end of the month. To participate, Jack recommends dropping by to find out the details.
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Comments
The obvious eviction at this time is to get them out before their supporters tie the land up with lawsuits. Shaffer is a sanctimonious twerp. He threw out the baby with the bathwater when he and his idiot "conservancy" pals filed a suit four years into a project on the north end of Ventura Avenue which would have netted the city 6o low income housing units and 200 new residences. As a direct result of Shaffer et al , the developer bailed and nothing got built.
Cafe Fiore has free rent on city property for its patio, and the land area is much larger than the footprint made by Top Hat. What's up with that, Rick Cole ?
There are already plans drawn up and approved by DRC for a new Top Hat on city property. What's next, Rick Cole ?