Hundreds of people waited hours to dine at a longstanding Glendale restaurant Saturday after the owners abruptly made the decision to shut down.
“It’s just heartbreaking because they’ve been here forever,” said Glenda Leivas, who was among a group waiting in line outside Pedro’s Mexican Restaurant near 51st and Glendale avenues.
According to co-owner Butch Taylor, he and his fiancee were paying to keep the restaurant, which opened in the 1980s, afloat for several months.
“We sat and talked and put the numbers together a couple nights ago,” Taylor told ABC15. “We just said, we gotta do it now.”
Manager Patty Sandoval said she and the restaurant’s 21 other employees were told before opening Friday that the following night would be their final dinner service.
“We’re all crushed,” she said, as customers waited to hug her near the cashier’s stand. After the restaurant announced the closure on Facebook, diners pledged to stop by for a final meal.
“It warms our heart and we just love them,” Sandoval said. “It just makes us so sad that we didn’t have a month, or two weeks, or more than a day, to say goodbye.”
