Santa Maria Losing Stinky’s Grill
If you driven down South Broadway in Santa Maria you’ve probably seen the sign with the skunk in a referee suit by the side of the road.
Once inside, you know you’ve come to Stinky’s Grill.
“This has always been like a mainstay for me”, says regular customer Rick Perez, “just come and grab a couple of beers after work, there’s always good food, I even come here at lunch.”
But very soon the trademark Stinky’s Grill skunk will go into hibernation, and no one knows for how long as the sports bar and restaurant is losing its location.
“This place closing is crazy to me because its a landmark in Santa Maria”, says regular customer Jenny Hubbard, “I mean everyone knows about this place.”
“I can’t even count the amount of friendships and people we’ve met throughout the years”, says David Perez, one of the original owners of Stinky’s which opened in 1999, “I think the relationships and the way we treat people, a lot of the things we do in the community, its unique, its funny to go around town and hear people say, ‘hey stinky Dave’!
Perez says the relatively-new owner of the shopping center at the corner of Broadway and McCoy Avenue, wants the Stinky’s location for a drive-through Starbucks, even though there’s already a Starbucks in the large shopping center.
A phone call to the San Diego representative for the London-based, Chinese-owned real estate company was not returned.
“They are basically known for going and flipping shopping centers”, David Perez says about his landlord, “they will go into centers like this that aren’t doing so well and they will fill them full of corporate stores and franchise stores and in a matter of a few years they will sell the property off.”
Perez says he’s looked at other locations in the Santa Maria area but none fit his budget or his nearly 20-employee business.
“I did look at several dozen other buildings to see if there was a possibility of relocating, too expensive”, Perez says, “too expensive, looking at an easy $100,000 for a build out and that’s not even moving, not even moving the business yet, that’s just getting a piece of property ready to be a restaurant.”
“This is home away from home for me”, says Stinky’s employee Alyssa Cox, “you know this means a lot to the community and its just unfortunate the way everything is happening and the way its being forced upon us.”
Perez says after 15 years he’s proud of the contribution his business has made to the community and local charities.
“That’s been the goal, and I think we’ve done that”, Perez says, “I hope we’ve made things a little bit better for everyone.”
“We are looking to have our last day of business on Friday, October 24th”, Perez says, “I’m hoping our friends and supporters come and spend some time with us before we have to close the doors.”
