Belisle Restaurant Goes Out of Service After 43-Year Run

After 43 years, Belisle Restaurant, the Harbor Boulevard eatery famous for its massive strawberry shortcakes, chocolate confections and enormous platters of flapjacks, has closed.

Owners of the quirky restaurant bolted the establishment’s wooden doors shut for good earlier this month, citing declining business.

“It feels like someone has died,” owner Carmen Roos said.

Scott Wellman, an attorney for Roos, said the city’s redevelopment project on Harbor Boulevard, and its takeover of the property, are to blame for the restaurant’s decline.

“It absolutely destroyed their business,” Wellman said of the city’s efforts. “Many customers didn’t know it was even open or in business.”

City officials originally acquired the property at Harbor Boulevard and Chapman Avenue, including the Oasis Mobile Home Park, to make way for the so-called E-Street project. That themed restaurant and entertainment project was abandoned by its developers and officials are now negotiating to bring three hotels to the site.

“It was their decision to close,” City Manager George Tindall said. “Our relocation consultants did everything they could to keep them open or help them relocate. They could have stayed as long as they wanted to.”

Belisle was one of the few businesses left operating on the strip of Harbor Boulevard. The city and the restaurant’s owners are still involved in legal proceedings to determine the value of the business.

The restaurant attracted celebrities including Johnny Carson, John Wayne and Ronald Reagan. The restaurant opened its doors just months before Disneyland opened its gates, and was said to be the favorite eating spot of many of the park’s original workers.

“I don’t blame the city for trying to do away with blight and to redevelop,” Wellman said. “But there have been some victims along the way.”