Nearly four decades after they served their first breakfast at Perry's Cafe, the Georgakopoulos family will be hanging up their aprons soon when their restaurant site makes way for a housing project.
Thousands — millions? — of diners have begun their days at Perry's Cafe since it opened at 4620 Pacific Highway in Old Town back in March 1985, whether they were boothing it or getting warm-ups for their coffee at the counter.
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Greek immigrants Constantine "Costas" and Margaret Georgakopoulos named their 150-seat restaurant after their daughter, Perry Eulmi, who, since they retired, has been running the place, which will have its last service on Aug. 15. The family has served as many as 5,000 customers a week, Perry told NBC 7 on Monday. A little napkin math says: 5,000 customers x 52 weeks x 39 years = 10,140,000. That's a lotta omelets.
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The move comes in the wake of Perry deciding she, too, wants to retire, in her case up in Carlsbad, where she has been commuting from, so she sold the property to a developer. While there was some opposition to the transfer from, Perry believes, an environmental group, that appeal of the sale was declined by the city.
"At this point, the applicant has three years to utilize the Neighborhood Development Permit and apply for construction permits," city spokesman Richard Berg told NBC 7 on Monday.
Escrow closes, she said, in August.
A sign on the door informed customers of the closure:
To Our Valued Customers:
It is with heavy hearts that we inform you that Perry's Cafe will be closing its doors permanently on Thursday, Aug. 15, 2024.
We would like to express our heartfelt appreciation to the 1000's of people that have crossed our door during our 39 years in business. Your loyalty and patronage have meant the world to us and it has truly been our pleasure to serve you.
Thank you for being part of our journey!
Sincerely,
Perry Eulmi and staff
Over the years, the eatery has made the news, whether it was when one of many cars flew off the nearby Interstate 5 into the parking lot ("Every time it rained we were guaranteed that a car would go flying into our parking lot," Perry said); when a fire raged through in 2009, causing $300,000 of damage and prompted a closure (so we'll take away 60,000 from that 10 million total); or when Perry's had a cameo on the Veronica Mars TV show. The pandemic, of course, challenged their business model, but they offered outdoor dining and made it through. That brings the diner total down, too, but it's still in the millions.
The meals served after Aug. 15 will be much more intimate, dished up in one of the 223 apartments being built in a seven-story building by Viewpoint Development. Many of those homes will be set aside for those with moderate incomes (13 units) or very-low incomes (20 apartments), according to city documents. Parking is part of the design of the structure, with two floors above ground set aside for that use and a third, underground level as well.
Some of the new structure, though, will be familiar: It's Perry's understanding that the building the cafe is in has some sort of historic-designation protection, and at least a portion of it will remain on the site as part of the new development.
"The new owners, because it has been designated a historic site, they're obligated to preserve parts of the building because of the architecture," Perry said.
Now, though, Perry's 32 employees, some of whom have worked there for 30 years, will be looking for employment elsewhere. Perry said she'll spend her twilight years up in North County and in San Diego, visiting family.
