Broadway mainstays forced to flee

Rima Shah

There’s nothing flashy about Maria Granillo’s Salvadoran restaurant

-- filled with modest, orange furniture, crammed coolers, salsa

bottles and Spanish music flowing from a jukebox. A “Woman of the

Year” certificate that she received from the Rotary Club a couple of

years ago hangs high up on a wall.

The restaurant, “El Buen Gusto Pupuseria,” has been in its same

location on East Broadway Street for about 24 years.

But now Granillo and her neighbors, a tattoo shop and a perfume

store, will have to move out by the end of June because their

landlord, Jack Williams, sold the building in September.

“El Buen Gusto,” famous for its pupusas, or stuffed tortillas, has

been a dream of Maria Granillo’s since childhood and a source of

livelihood for her family more than two decades since they immigrated

to the United States from El Salvador in the late 1970s.

“My mother always wanted to own her own business,” she said in

Spanish as her son, Jesse Granillo, translated.

The Granillos and some of the other tenants are upset, saying

Williams did not tell them he was selling, and the new owners, SNK

Properties, went back on their word to help them relocate.

Williams did not return calls.

But SNK Properties director of development Don Peterson refutes

both claims, saying the tenants were informed of the impending sale

and that his company made no promises to the tenants about helping

them relocate. They worked with the tenants on a case-by-case basis

to make sure they had enough time to move out, he said.

“They were very well aware that we were going to purchase the

place not only because we were on contract but during the course of

their relationship with the previous landlord,” Peterson said.

The Arizona-based company has been looking to buy the property

since March 2003, he said.

SNK Properties plans to tear down the building and erect a

four-story, multi-use project with about 34 condos and 4,000 square

feet of retail space. The new building will be ready in about two

years, Peterson said.

Tenants are far from happy about the move. “I’ll still be happy to

stay here,” said Melik Gozalyan, owner of Perfumes of France, who has

been at the location since 1988. “It’s not good for me to change

locations. I’ll lose a lot of clientele. Of course, I am angry. My

customers know me here. I prefer to stay here.”

But tenants do not have many legal options because they are on

month-to-month leases, without a specific clause on their lease

agreement asking the landlord to let them know about any sale

beforehand, said attorney Christopher Gonzalez, a partner at Perez

Gonzalez and friend of the Granillo family.

“It is a bad situation for a good, productive business,” Gonzalez

said.

Maria Granillo and her son said they spent $20,000 renovating the

place in September and said Williams led them to believe the sale

would be two to three years down the road.

“He would talk to us as a friend to a friend, and we trusted him,”

Jesse Granillo said.

The Granillos rent an apartment above the restaurant and said they

will lose their home along with their business.

Tomas Villagran, owner of Body Shop Tattoo, is worried about what

the future may bring.

“It’s going to be hard for me to find a place in Glendale,”

Villagran said. “I don’t want this to be over -- no tattoo, no life.

That’s what I make my living on.”