"I went in there all the time; there were always people there willing to help me with whatever I needed," she said.

Years later, the Brewhouse was still actively involved in the Sunnyvale community, donating to community services and providing beer and food for city events.

Just days before the restaurant closed, Blackman stopped by for a beer after work. She talked to the brewmaster there about new beers he had planned for the holidays. They also discussed ways Stoddard's could contribute to next year's Sunnyvale Art & Wine Festival.

Two days later, she sent her husband to pick up a pony keg of beer for the

Chamber's monthly mixer, but when he got to Murphy Avenue, the store was in the middle of its farewell party.

On Nov. 18 Stoddard's closed its doors, leaving a small printed sign in the window to signal the end of a Sunnyvale landmark that began in 1993. The restaurant also left behind employees in search of work.

"It was very sad; the employees didn't get any warning at all; they were literally told at 9:30 in the morning that they were closing down," Blackman said. "I guess the part that is so darn sad is that there was no preparation. It was just a huge shock to everyone, and now we have another empty building downtown. It's just not a good scene."

The place closed so fast that regular patrons are leaving notes on the door, directing their friends to a new location.

Blackman said she and the Chamber knew that the restaurant was struggling, but she said it was nearing new ownership. In fact, the employees had just filled out paperwork for their new employers, only to lose their jobs later that week.

"That saddest thing here," Blackman said, "is that I think they were about to turn a corner and get things together."

One of the roles of the Chamber is to provide a network for businesses, and in this case, use that network to find jobs for displaced workers as they enter the winter holidays.

"I asked the general manager for a list of all the displaced people, so I could keep up with all them," Blackman said. "I understand that it's just business, but these were people working here."

Blackman said she and several others—including the Southern Wine & Spirits representative who supplies the downtown with wine and spirits—began calling around to people they knew to find work for those who had lost their jobs.

Had there not been a network in place to help those in need, Blackman said they could have turned to NOVA, a seven-city organization that helps people search for, apply for, and maintain employment.

Mike Curran, Director of the NOVA Workforce Board, said that networking like this is common when small chains or businesses have trouble. And when it comes to restaurants, a strong safety net is important.

"The problem with many restaurants is that they don't usually close down slowly, not like our big companies that go through downsizing first," Curran said. "What happens a lot of the time is the people end up employed fairly quickly, getting less hours than they were working before while they work themselves back up to the level they were at."

The closing of Sunnyvale's Stoddard's is the second in a line of hardships faced by the owners of the restaurant. In February 2002, a second Stoddard's opened in Campbell, but by the end of 2003, it was gone.

Nick Gera—who owned both business properties—then opened the Campbell Brewing Company where the second Stoddard's had been, and brought Stoddard's founder, Bob Stoddard back to run the restaurant. Four months later, the brewing company was gone, replaced by the Sonoma Chicken Coop.

With the loss of the Sunnyvale location, the original Stoddard's restaurant joined its offshoot as a memory. Gera would not give details about what happened in Sunnyvale, just that the struggling business had filed for bankruptcy before it closed.

Economic hardships are not uncommon in the area these days. Il Postale owner Joe Antuzzi—just down the street from Stoddard's—said that he hopes the area doesn't see more situations like this as downtown redevelopment begins. His is a fear shared by many in the community.

"The downtown cannot have another place of this size close," Blackman said. "If another place closes, that means even fewer people will come."