A long-standing Mexican restaurant is relocating after San Jose converted the motel next door into a homeless shelter.
Los Garcia’s Restaurant will move into the former Fairway Zone Sports and Bar Lounge at 1150 Murphy Ave. in North San Jose following months of declining income, due in large part to customers not being able to find parking. The eatery’s current location will close May 31, with its new spot tentatively opening June 2.
“At this time, it’s just time to go,” Bernadette Garcia, who manages the restaurant, told San José Spotlight. “We can’t serve our customers (here). We want to go back to the way we used to serve our customers.”
When San Jose began converting the Alura Inn into a shelter last summer, Garcia said her sales immediately dropped 50%. Los Garcia’s and Alura Inn share a parking lot. Even though the inn has 42 rooms, Garcia said parking was never an issue until the city converted the motel and installed a fence to block off motel parking. The fencing left Garcia with 18 spaces. Garcia said she was never informed about the city’s plan to turn Alura into a shelter until the conversion was well underway…