End of an era––

By John Loesing
Acorn Staff Writer

Denny’s longtime slogan, "Always Open," no longer applies in Agoura Hills.

The restaurant on Canwood Street, a fixture in the community for 35 years, served its last customers on Sept. 5

The familiar restaurant is being torn down to make way for a new 40-acre development east of Kanan Road called Agoura Oak Creek. Grading has already begun.

"We’re closed," an unidentified employee said as he left the restaurant last week.

"I’m sad. I’m disappointed."

A company official said many of the restaurant’s 50 employees have taken positions at other Denny’s, including locations in nearby Thousand Oaks and Woodland Hills.

The Agoura Hills restaurant opened in April 1967.

"We sincerely regret the closing of Denny’s," said Debbie Atkins, a company spokeswoman. "This has been a good location for us."

Average sales for the 621 corporate-owned restaurants, including the one in Agoura Hills, were $1.42 million last year, according to Denny’s financial statements.

Two-thirds of Denny’s 1,700 nationwide restaurants are franchised-owned.

Business in Agoura Hills had been good right up until the last day, Atkins said.

The restaurant’s fate became sealed, however, when the landlord of the property chose to terminate the lease to accommodate future development.

In June, Los Angeles builder Jerry Snyder signed a 10-year development agreement with the city to build 336 apartments, two office buildings and three restaurants on the site just east of Kanan Road.

Construction on the 24 apartment buildings will begin first.

The Agoura Hills restaurant was one of 93 Denny’s in L.A. County.

"Many of us will miss Denny’s," said Alex Soteras, Agoura/Oak Park/Las Virgenes Chamber of Commerce president. "It was the only place to go after hours."

Several public officials were less doleful.

The restaurant’s large pole sign caused ill will in the city for years and several legal attempts to remove it were thwarted.

"The overwhelming majority of people said they didn’t want pole signs of any kind and that was the position the city council took," said Ed Corridori, an Agoura Hills city councilmember and a longtime opponent of the Denny’s sign.

Several businesses, including Denny’s, won a 1994 lawsuit allowing the signs to remain, but as the city grew, many of the tall signs and billboards were removed anyway.

"I don’t wish anyone’s business to be closed and certainly don’t wish anyone to lose their job, that’s not the idea at all," Corridori said. "At the same time, the city needs to look to the future and protect what the community is really all about. We’re not a truck stop any more."

Corridori called the closing of Denny’s "the end of an era."

For one Canoga Park family, the closing of Denny’s also meant the loss of several jobs.

Angel Villalobos worked at the restaurant for 33 years. His daughter Teresa, son Miguel and two nephews also worked there.

"It was kind of expected but it was still kind of shocking," said the daughter, a student at Pierce College. "We had a meeting posted and then that day they just closed it. We thought maybe we would have two weeks left."

Angel Villalobos started work Tuesday at the Denny’s in Woodland Hills. He said he regrets having to leave the Agoura Hills location

"I kind of liked it there. I will miss it very much," he said.