A local landmark shut its doors last week and turned out its
lights with little fanfare leaving residents curious about the
inconspicuous closure.
A local landmark shut its doors last week and turned out its lights with little fanfare leaving residents curious about the inconspicuous closure.
Patrons calling Harvest Time Restaurant are greeted with a dead phone line, locked doors and little indication of why the restaurant closed. Owner Adalberto Gonzalez said that, with dismal business the past two years, he couldn’t afford to keep the restaurant open any longer.
“For as much as I tried, it just didn’t work out,” he said. “I was thinking for a long time about closing. The restaurant just wasn’t producing.”
Diners who frequented the restaurant confirmed that the business had been struggling in recent years.
Situated in downtown Gilroy at the corner of Monterey and Sixth streets, Harvest Time was a “very happening place back in the ’70s,” Mayor Al Pinheiro said. “I’m a believer. Now with the revitalization of the downtown, I’m sure it’ll come back.”
Harvest Time was housed in the old Milias Hotel, now an apartment building. The hotel always had a fine restaurant on the ground floor that was said to be patronized by celebrities such as John Wayne, Bing Crosby and Bob Hope back when U.S. 101 ran along Monterey Street in downtown Gilroy. The hotel and restaurant were referred to as the finest hostelry between San Francisco and Santa Barbara, old newspapers reported. The Milias Hotel, City Hall and Hall’s, a Western clothing store, made for a bustling street corner.
“I loved working there,” Karen Covington said of nearly a decade of serving at Harvest Time. “How fun it was to sit around that bar and meet all the generations.”
But the restaurant surrendered its liquor license March 18 in anticipation of closing and had its water shut off Friday, a city official said. Their business license is good through the year but the doors remain locked.
“A shame,” said Connie Rogers, president of the Gilroy Historical Society. “But I’ve lived in Gilroy for 40 years and there’s been a restaurant there at least that long. It’s quite a tradition.”
