Landmark Restaurant Gets New Start, Name

Pike’s Verdugo Oaks restaurant, a 31-year-old Glendale landmark that has been closed since 1986, is reopening as a banquet and meeting room with a Saturday Mother’s Day dinner as the first event.

The restaurant, which was a center of Glendale civic and social life, was bought for $6 million by Mike Manssourian, a Glendale owner of a construction company.

The 2.2-acre property, including a row of stores on the northern edge of the parking lot, was purchased last December from the Pike family for about $4 million by Ed Groves and Frank Lanfear of Verdugo Investment in Glendale.

The restaurant, renamed Mike’s Verdugo Oaks, has been closed since August, 1986, when the Pike family decided it was losing too much money to stay open. Pike’s, which opened in 1957, became the first restaurant in Glendale to offer banquet facilities.

“Lots of clubs are coming back for weekly meetings, including the Lions Club,” said Roubina M. Beogoumian, president of Robert’s Catering Service. Beogoumian’s company will cater banquets and weddings at the restaurant. The restaurant will be open only for banquets and meetings.

Manssourian said he has no plans to develop the land and will keep the restaurant open for banquets for the next several years before deciding on a development project.