New owners same name different cuisine?

Joined
May 25, 2005
Messages
4,907
Location
USA
So a place not to far from me specialized in a more regional New Mexico and Santa Fe style cooking. The green chili was Hatch and green New Mexico chilies, unique and tasty. The owner grew up in New Mexico and had an amazing place. Same name but when I walked in for breakfast I noticed a Mexican restaurant vibe. Menudo, tacos al pastor etc. A family purchased the restaurant a few months back but left the name but it's Mexican now. It wasn't bad but really disappointing as I was expecting the usual. Anyone else had this happen? Usually a take over gets a new name etc.
 
Original Joe's has consisted of several restaurants, The first one in the SF Tenderloin, now a dystopian wasteland, was replaced by a new one in North Beach and an additional one in Daly City. In 2007 Original Joe's in North Beach burnt down but opened again in another nearby location. Original's Joe's at Westlake shut down after almost 50 years in 2014. In 2016 the place reopened under new ownership. And then there's Half Moon Bay's Joe. It was opened by one of the former Original Joe's chefs. It's all very confusing and the Half Moon Bay one is to be avoided.
 
Same name, same owner, apparently different chef. That's tripped me up a few trimes.
Actually different owners, different waitstaff, and different chef. The waitress told me that the original owner Art sold it off a few months back.
 
Actually different owners, different waitstaff, and different chef. The waitress told me that the original owner Art sold it off a few months back.
What you quoted me posting was not in regard to Original Joe's. Joe's is an example of everything changing all the time.
 
Original Joe's has consisted of several restaurants, The first one in the SF Tenderloin, now a dystopian wasteland, was replaced by a new one in North Beach and an additional one in Daly City. In 2007 Original Joe's in North Beach burnt down but opened again in another nearby location. Original's Joe's at Westlake shut down after almost 50 years in 2014. In 2016 the place reopened under new ownership. And then there's Half Moon Bay's Joe. It was opened by one of the former Original Joe's chefs. It's all very confusing and the Half Moon Bay one is to be avoided.
Is Original Joes still open in downtown San Jose, been there a few times back in the 80's.
 
Is Original Joes still open in downtown San Jose, been there a few times back in the 80's.
No idea. I'm not an expert on Joe's. I only go to the one in Daily City. They have messed a bit with their menu over the years but not so much as to make me stay away. My friend said they recently gave him dry pot roast.
 
Yes. at least I didn't call it what everybody else calls it, which is Daily $#!**y.
 
Last edited:
Yes. at least I didn't call it what everybody else calls it, which is Daily $#!**y.

Well, there was Kome Seafood Buffet. That was actually quite good. Except I suppose that they stiffed their employees and closed down after all that. Same ownership group ran similarly named Tomi buffets in Concord, Union City, and San Jose, although those suffered the same fate (I think they sold off the one in Union City).


I think there's also Koi Palace, and I remember years of ads for Matthew's. You know - the place that gave cheap bikes with the sale of certain electronics.

63b8fea76f69f.image.png
 
Seen this a few times, although maybe not at places I visited. Someone sold a local Greek restaurant called Christopher's, but the new owner didn't bother to change the name as a Mexican restaurant.

Oddly enough, there was a fairly well known restaurant in Berkeley, California called Santa Fe Bar & Grill. Not sure what was up with the architecture, but I read somewhere that it started off with southwest cuisine before (eventual celebrity chef) Jeremiah Tower bought it and implemented his own style of California cuisine. It's now one building that's part of a private school. I looked into the history, and it was actually the original Santa Fe Railway depot, which competed with the Southern Pacific station less than a mile away. So I guess that explains the name.

What it looks like today:

1024px-Berkeley_ATSF_station%2C_June_2018.JPG


And as a train station:

SantaFeDepot_01.jpg
 
I've had dim sum at Koi Palace. It was alright.

The name has made the rounds. They opened up a second location in Dublin and then bought another place in Milpitas (don't remember the previous name) where they renamed it. Might have been ABC Seafood?

Does remind me of all the cheap eats in the South Bay. Like some place called Tung Kee Noodle House that dealt with a competitor (former business partners) opening as New Tunk Kee, as well as some places I saw called TK Noodle. I got really confusing.

 
Christopher wasn't exactly Greek either. Maybe it was Christophoro's.

My impression was that the ownership of the Greek restaurant just reused the name from a previous restaurant called Christopher's.

I've seen some really weird stuff. There's this ice cream ship in Hollywood called Mashti Malone's. The owners are two immigrant brothers from Iran, and one is named Mashti. They bought a shop called something Malone's and they did what they could to reuse as much of the sign as possible. I see reuse a lot. Some restaurants still look like mission style Taco Bell buildings. I can tell where there was previously a Winchell's Donut sign. And more recently I saw a couple of those peaked A&W buildings housing something else. Reusing a name or building style is something pretty common.
 
Well, there was Kome Seafood Buffet. That was actually quite good. Except I suppose that they stiffed their employees and closed down after all that. Same ownership group ran similarly named Tomi buffets in Concord, Union City, and San Jose, although those suffered the same fate (I think they sold off the one in Union City).


I think there's also Koi Palace, and I remember years of ads for Matthew's. You know - the place that gave cheap bikes with the sale of certain electronics.

63b8fea76f69f.image.png
I remember hearing those Matthew's ads when I was stationed at Moffett Field back in the 70/80's, used to listen to "The Quiet Storm 102.9 FM" :cool:
 
Donkey Donuts next to the Chevron just north of the intersection of 1 and 92 in Half Moon Bay closed over a year ago. Despite the good location nobody has taken over.
 
Back
Top