Sonoma Chicken Coop, which runs a successful business in downtown San Jose, has announced that it is expanding into the space at 200 E. Campbell Ave., which until Oct. 31 was occupied by the Campbell Brewing Company.

"This is going to be huge," said Sonoma Chicken co-owner Jeff Starbeck. "We do 1,500 customers a day at our downtown store."

Sonoma Chicken falls into a category of restaurant that Starbeck calls "fast casual." He described it as a self-serve dining establishment with "upscale food at fast-food prices."

The new restaurant is also on the fast track for its grand opening, Starbeck added, as the conversion from microbrewery to restaurant won't entail much.

"We'll only have to make a few minor changes in the restaurant," he said. "But that shouldn't take too long. Hopefully we'll only be remodeling for a few weeks."

Changes will be made to the floor plan in order to accommodate a service counter where customers place orders and pick them up when their number is called. The restaurant and brewery will be open seven days a week, and seating will be available both inside and outside the establishment.

Starbeck has set Dec. 1 as the target date for opening his new location.

Although she said she's looking forward to having a new business in downtown, Betty Deal, executive director of the Campbell Chamber of Commerce, said she's sad to see the Campbell Brewing Company go.

"I think I express the opinion of many people who were getting used to the brewery," Deal said. "The Campbell Brewing Company was a new restaurant with excellent food and excellent prices. And it was rapidly becoming a gathering place for Campbellites and other people from around the area."

She said she will miss a business that was truly Campbell-based, with "Campbell" in its name.

"It's too bad it's gone," Deal added. "I'll be sorry to see the logo and name go."

One thing, however, won't be going, Starbeck said. The new restaurant will be retaining the services of Bob Stoddard, who was serving as the general manager of the microbrewery.

"I'm a permanent fixture in the building," Stoddard said with a laugh. "I come with it."

Stoddard first became involved with the building in 2001, when Stoddards, a Sunnyvale-based microbrewery bearing his name, opened its doors to the public. The business enjoyed an initial success, but the economic downturn that struck the nation soon after led to its sudden closing in September 2003. That closure came as a surprise to many of the nearby downtown business owners, as they were counting on a robust brewery to pick up business.

Stoddard said he had no business control over the microbrewery at the time, because when it closed, there was a board making all the management decisions.

Then in July 2004, Stoddard came back as general manager of the Campbell Brewing Company, which was actually owned by Campbell Ventures Inc. Now four months later, the microbrewery that bears the city's name is gone after Campbell Ventures decided to bring another establishment into the location.

"It was always our intent to have another operator come in," said Nick Gera, secretary of Campbell Ventures Inc., the property management firm that owns the building. "We didn't want to be in the restaurant business for long."

He said that he had been negotiating with Sonoma Chicken since Stoddards, the microbrewery, went out of business in 2003. The two parties couldn't come to an agreement during the talks, so in the interim he agreed to work with Stoddard to remodel and open the Campbell Brewing Company.

"We talked to Sonoma Chicken before we opened up," Gera said, "and we just kept talking."

Few months after opening the Brewing Company, Sonoma Chicken was able to finally strike a deal with Campbell Ventures Inc.

"It just seemed liked a great opportunity," Gera said. In the short time that the Campbell Brewing Company had been open, it was still operating in the red.

Stoddard, who wasn't made aware of the decision until October, said he's fine with the change, because he'll be in charge of only the brewery operations and not the restaurant, allowing him to spend more time with his family.

"When we started the Campbell Brewing Company I was single. Now I'm married," he said. Stoddard recently married Eileen Tanaka, owner of Alie's Corner Café. "I do feel bad for some of the employees who won't be able to stay on, though. That's sad."

Starbeck and Gera said that because the new restaurant is looking at a staff of between 50 and 60 people, the intention is to keep as many of the former employees as possible.

But because the dining style is self-serve, the wait staff will either have to be retrained for other positions or they would be let go.