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Photograph by George Sakkestad
Chef Louis de Leon gets ready to serve up a handful of noodles at Tarragon, a fine-dining restaurant in Sunnyvale. Tarragon has experienced a slowdown in business during recent months.
Sunnyvale fine dining in downturn
Some restaurants on Murphy experiencing an economic crunch
By Gretchen Knaup
The fine dining restaurant business is facing hard times. Business is down. Some managers estimate business for restaurants in general is down 30 percent compared to last year at this time. Sunnyvale is no exception to this trend, and managers for some of the restaurants on Murphy Street agree with the estimates for decrease in business.
According to Brent Jones, manager at the Tarragon in downtown Sunnyvale, the family restaurants are busy every night.
"The fine dining restaurants, those are the ones that get hit because people don't want to spend that much money per person," Jones said.
Zoran Matulic, general manager of Tarragon says that everybody in fine dining is down, even in San Francisco. He attributes the downfall strictly to the economy.
"Business is just generally slow," said Matulic, who has extensive experience in the Bay Area restaurant business. "Just last week some business people who always come in said they wouldn't be back for a week because of their company making them take this week off with no pay.
"Last year's high season was excellent, and I'm not sure how we will do this year," he continued. Although this is the slow season for the entire restaurant industry, Matulic said they're way down from where they were at this time last year. To encourage more business, he has been doing more promoting than usual.
"We have lowered some of our prices and added some items to the menu to get some of the people back in here. We are also doing wine tasting and lunch give-aways," Matulic said. "We're now a little bit busier than we were a couple weeks ago, but still down."
Jones is not only manager but also does bartending and serving. He says the slow business is hitting home where tips are concerned. "It's not that bad for me because I manage and bartend, but I know a bunch of servers that are not making it," he said
According to Jones, tending bar is more lucrative right now since bartenders are paid a higher hourly wage than servers are.
Photograph by George Sakkestad
An interior view of Sunnyvale's Tarragon Restaurant. Many local eateries have been experiencing business slowdowns due to economic downturns.
Stoddard's Brewhouse and Eatery is seeing a decline as well. Manager Dennis Connor said business is definitely down compared to last year.
"We are still doing all right, because we get busy early," Connor said. "But we don't get anyone coming in later, so we've been closing a little early ... Last year we closed late every night."
He estimates the downturn to be approximately 15 to 20 percent from this time last year. "We aren't catering as many larger parties either," Connor says. Connor also thinks the lack of parking has brought business down.
Stoddard's, located across the street from Tarragon, is an upscale restaurant, but it is a casual upscale dining experience, Connor said.
Stoddard's has a brewery styled look to it; therefore it looks casual and as if it would be moderately priced. This might have something to do with how customers determine where they will get the best value, according to Jones.
He thinks that the public might be deterred by the fancy ambiance of the restaurant. "I've noticed people think we are more expensive because we are a four-star restaurant, when in reality none of our dinner items are over $22." He added, "I think the Forum will bring people down, but it hasn't happened yet because of the recession."
On the other hand, Gumba's Italian Family Restaurant also downtown just a few doors from Tarragon is doing well. Lupez Solorio, manager at Gumba's says the recession has not affected their business.
"We are doing good," he said. "We have a very steady business because we are family oriented. You don't have to get dressed up to come here."
Similarly, Scruffy Murphy's, a casual Irish Pub downtown, is doing well, said general manager Gary Like. He added sales have been the same.
"Our menu appeals to pretty much everyone, and I never get any complaints," Like said. Entrees have an average price of about eight dollars.
"The only thing I've noticed is in the kitchen we have less catering orders for dot-com companies," Like said. "We still do a lot, but not as many as last year ... Last year we did about 12 per month, now we only do about six or seven."
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Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
