Christophe's leaving with large debt to city, landlord

UPLAND - Christophe's Restaurant and Lounge in downtown is closing today with a tab of more than $470,000 owed to the city and landlord.

Christophe's Restaurant, which opened in October 2009, was the first to participate in the city's loan program, in which restaurant owners could be loaned city redevelopment money for fixtures and infrastructure repairs if they meet certain guidelines.

The city loaned the owner $350,000, and only two payments have been made, said City Manager Stephen Dunn.

With interest, the bill exceeds $400,000.

"I think we probably learned some lessons on this process and in the evaluation of the business plan because Christophe's had very ambitious goals and that's what the city was looking for," Dunn said.

Dunn said, speaking for himself, that the city should have taken more data into consideration.

"Was the concept really right because the concept apparently didn't work for Christophe right off the bat?" Dunn said. "He had trouble right out of the gate, so maybe if we were to do a deal like this again, we learned from that process and that we would change a few things."

Dunn said the city will try to make money back through selling fixtures to a new owner.

"We'll take a hit. We'll take a pretty significant hit," Dunn said. "We had the equipment appraised. It's probably 15 and 20 percent of what the loan was for. That's if we take the time to sell it. If we want to sell it for a fire sale, then probably 5 percent."

The restaurant owner owes the landlord, Barbara Polk, more than $70,000 in back rent.

Christophe has not paid rent since July, Polk said.

"I just don't know of an ethical person that would actually stay rent-free for this many months," Polk said.

Polk reduced Christophe's rent by $2,000 a month, but since he still did not make any payments, she increased the rent back up to a $9,000 a month.

"He wasn't able to follow through on anything," Polk said. "We gave him the benefit of the doubt for so long. Probably longer that we should have for sure and then knowing that and then to continue all these legal maneuvers to stay in rent free is just unethical."

Polk said she intends on pursuing the money Christophe's owes her.

Owner Christophe Jardillier argued that the rent was too high for the building and location.

The restaurant has made several changes to its menu, pricing and entertainment in order to boost patronage, manager Cory Fierro said.

"I want to say we had a good September, but it dropped off at the end of October," Fierro said. "We started doing comedy nights every other Thursday, which brought a lot of people in at first, but it kept dropping off."

Fierro said the quiet downtown may have been the main reason why the restaurant could not survive.

"Honestly, I think the issue was that downtown Upland just isn't a destination for a lot of people. It's not like the Colonies, or Victoria Gardens or even the Village in Claremont," Fierro said. "People don't go to downtown Upland unless they have a special reason."

Sartaj Singh, owner of Antonino's Italian Restaurant and Haandi in Rancho Cucamonga, has plans to open a Californian infused Italian restaurant in the space soon.

"I think it's a good area," Singh said. "Christophe had very good food. He had a different concept. Some people didn't like that concept. We are 100 percent sure we do everything good. We want to bring upscale casual restaurant like Antonino's but pricing will be very casual."

He will be redoing the kitchen, flooring and some interior d cor once he gets the keys.

"We wish (Christophe) all the good luck," Singh said.

Christophe's will be open at 4 p.m. today for dinner. It is at 296 N. 2nd Ave.

Reach Sandra via email, call her at 909-483-8555, or find her on Twitter @UplandNow .

Source: http://www.dailybulletin.com/ci_19690928?source=rss_viewed

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