Patrons At Landmark Eatery In La Mirada Fear It Will Be Taken Over By Fast Food Joint
LA MIRADA (CBSLA.com) — A landmark eatery in La Mirada might soon close and longtime patrons and employees are trying to keep the place open.
The employees and customers fear the Carriage House Restaurant, a coffee shop and diner, will become a fast food place.
The eatery is located on Imperial Highway, but as KCAL9's Adrianna Weingold reports, it's really located in a lot of people's hearts.
The Carriage House has been a La Mirada institution for decades.
Employees and patrons are planning on petitioning the planning commission to keep McDonald's from developing the site.
"Some people, with their families, eat here three times a day, every day," said Stephanie Ackerman, an employee. "There's no other restaurants close around here that they'd be able to go to."
Ackerman is one of about 30 employees trying to save the coffee shop.
McDonald's, the fast food giant, applied for a conditional use permit to build a fast food restaurant where the Carriage House is located.
The idea of that permit is also not sitting well with long-time employee Linda Gray.
"They come here for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It will be sad," said Gray.
The petition, obviously being signed by all the patrons as well, is asking for the planning commission to deny McDonald's their conditional use permit.
The Carriage House owner, Helen Liu, said she doesn't want to close but since she doesn't own the land, her hands are tied.
"We don't have a whole lot of choice," she said, "I really don't know, I don't know. That nothing happens, that would be my wish for it."
Customers like Mike Reber say the restaurant closing would be a big loss for the community.
He's been eating here for 40 years.
"To tear it down, to put up a fast food place. There really is no place to eat around here," Reber said, "I've been coming here since I was 5 or 6, I would say."
Customers and employees will deliver their petitions to the planning commission at their meeting Thursday.
