Lawsuit: Closure of San Mateo’s Par 3 restaurant ‘completely avoidable’

SAN MATEO A Poplar Creek Golf Lesson restauranter sued the city of San Mateo this week claiming city leaders destroyed her thriving business by leasing a leaky and moldy building to her then failing to do much about it despite her pleas for help Alicia Petrakis who ran the Par restaurant and Villa Vista banquet hall at the city-owned golf module claimed the city knew for years that the buildings she leased were prone to flooding leaks and sewage issues Still she commented city functionaries failed to properly warn her about it or do much to fix those problems after she repeatedly aired her concerns Related Articles amazing Bay Area things to do this Memorial Day weekend Taco Bell introduces Mike s Hot Honey Diablo Sauce Owners of Saratoga s Hero Ranch Kitchen are opening a new restaurant in Santa Clara In-N-Out Burger leads a Yelp list of top burger chains New tropical cafe in Walnut Creek serving acai bowls Turkish coffee The issue came to a head on Oct when city leaders abruptly red-tagged the building during the dinner rush and ordered chefs to stop cooking Patrons had to hastily finish eating the suit says The business never re-opened causing more than people to lose their jobs according to the lawsuit To Petrakis it was absolutely avoidable It s sad it s heartbreaking Petrakis notified this news organization It s a -year career in hospitality and working in my district that had a hard stop That s what makes it so hard is that it was comprehensively unnecessary that we re all going through this In a comment city spokesperson Jeanne Sullivan Billeci commented the city respectfully declines to comment as this is a pending litigation matter and the city has not yet been formally served While we are unable to comment on the specifics at this time we will respond appropriately through the legal process Sullivan Billeci mentioned Petrakis opened Par and the Villa Vista banquet hall in June after winning a city application process for the space Before then she had been a mainstay in the San Mateo eatery scene having owned Three Craft Kitchen and Restaurant previously known as Astaria for several years as well as a catering business before that Prior to signing her seven-year lease according to the suit city functionaries reported Petrakis that the clubhouse had been absolutely rebuilt in and that roof leaks that had caused staining on the building s ceiling tiles had been fixed Despite her business plan working to perfection she noticed an increasing cascade of problems with the property Staff ascertained water pooling in the restaurant and banquet room and did little if anything to fix it In early the city narrated Petrakis that it needed to close the restaurant for a month to conduct repairs It offered her to cover her losses during that stretch and the two sides settled on a November monthlong closure the lawsuit claimed Yet Petrakis noted the city later appeared to grow reluctant on paying those costs while also allegedly suggesting repairs would take half as long as originally thought Rather than address the problems the lawsuit mentioned city agents criticized her payroll and management structure By May city bureaucrats notified Petrakis that her restaurant would be responsible for in water repairs despite not knowing where the water was coming from the lawsuit announced Petrakis countered that the city had long deferred maintenance on the building and her lawsuit claimed the water issues predated her arrival Petrakis noted she returned from a vacation in summer to find that city workers had created a hole inside one restaurant wall which revealed mold Yet she noted the city did little to cover it up She announced she later commissioned her own mold testing in September which recommended professional remediation Early the following month city authorities recommended air quality tests at Par which Petrakis allowed the lawsuit noted At p m on Friday Oct city executives red-tagged the building and revealed people could not safely be inside The decision led to a scene of mass confusion Petrakis revealed during which the restaurant was advised to abruptly end dinner function I think my heart stopped I just couldn t believe what I was hearing Petrakis declared She commented a -person memorial function planned for the next day had to be moved overnight to a new location More than additional events had already been booked at Par and Villa Villa over the next several months all of which had to be canceled the lawsuit claimed Petrakis commented she invested a minimum of into the property to transform it into Par and lost out on at least a quarter-million dollars in revenue from events that had already been booked through the end of It wasn t just a restaurant We were a group hub a place where people celebrated life And it took me five-plus years to build that -person gang into the group they were when the restaurant closed The amount of effort that goes into that is excruciating Petrakis explained It s really formidable to even imagine how to recreate what we had again