High Sierra Grill & Bar plans to close its doors for good at 9 p.m. Sunday.
The restaurant owner tried to transfer the lease to entrepreneur Warren Butler, but the City of Santa Barbara has not signed off on the lease transfer.
“We have lost hundreds of thousands of dollars the past three years and tens of thousands the past 15 months waiting for the city’s airport division to approve a lease assignment to the Flightline,” said Manuel Perales, owner of High Sierra Grill & Bar. “The delays, roadblocks and list after list of new requirements have far exceeded a reasonable attempt to assign a lease.
“The airport is well aware of our financial situation. We have cooperated and delivered our own personal financials to continue our lease guaranties, but our messages continue to be ignored.”
The property where the restaurant sits is on Santa Barbara Airport land at 521 Firestone Road, the site of the former Elephant Bar restaurant.
More than 18 months ago, restaurateur Butler announced plans to acquire the High Sierra Grill & Bar near the Santa Barbara Airport and rebrand it as the aviation-themed restaurant Flightline. Butler, a veteran of several restaurant escapades, has managed eateries such as Wolfgang Puck, Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. and Morton’s Steakhouse. Locally, he owned the Marmalade Cafe and Stateside Cafe.
He partnered with John Blankenship, a former U.S. Navy pilot who started the Pierre Claeyssens Veterans Foundation, to deck out the new restaurant with planes, photograms, helmets, masks and a variety of military plane memorabilia.
Butler raised more than $500,000 to take over the lease. The City of Santa Barbara has balked at the deal, however, because it wants to know the sources of Butler’s funding.
High Sierra is in the sixth year of a 10-year lease, with three five-year options to extend. The lease payments to the city are about $15,000 per month. City officials want to make sure that the company taking over the lease will sustain the site for the long term.
“We’re trying to work with them and seeing if we can come up with something that benefits the city at large but also what the residents will enjoy,” Councilman Eric Friedman said.
Of Sierra Grill’s closure, Friedman said, “It will be a void in that spot, but we also want to make sure that what is going in there will fit in with the airport long term.”
Perales said he and his business partners have worked hard to come to terms with the city.
“We have kept the doors open to support the changeover to Flightline and to protect our employees and their families, and have only received a lack of support and lack of urgency to reassign the lease,” Perales said. “I truly wish the restaurant could remain open, but we cannot continue to wait while the city claims to evaluate a straightforward lease assignment request. There have been many opportunities to resolve our request to benefit all parties and avoid litigation. Our patience is now at an end.”
Update: Warren Butler told Noozhawk on Sunday that he would attempt to keep the High Sierra restaurant’s doors open beyond Sunday. Check back to Noozhawk for updates to this story.
— Noozhawk staff writer Joshua Molina can be reached at jmolina@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
