Another Nice Bus: addENDum

[Lanval]

This one is used by a local taco shop that opened nearby ~ it's what they use when the cater. Given their location, and the history of the nearby locations, they're going to go out of business in a couple of years. I'll be waiting.



such a beauty. It's really well done. I wonder if the guy who owns the business is a VW guy and used this as a way to get a cool van and write it off as a biz expense.

[ruckman101]

Sweet.

neal

[airkooledchris]

clean up those bumper bolts, paint the wheels silver and that would be a real gem!

[Lanval]

clean up those bumper bolts, paint the wheels silver and that would be a real gem!

It looked pretty clean. The body was smooth, paint looked good, tires new. Like I said, I suspect a VW fan used his biz to get a cool van as a write off-able expense. I'd like to see inside, see if they've molested the interior or if it's original. Please, God, let it be original.

ML

[Jivermo]

If they survive the first year, chances are good that they'll make it. The restaurant business is a tough way to make a living. I encourage folks like this, and hope that they do well and thrive. I especially like that they are using a bus for an active role in their business. I like vehicles that are used, and not tucked away like a museum piece. I hope you turn the people on to the great resource that we all share here.

[asiab3]

The Costa Vida chain has a location in Phoenix I visited last month- had a few bay window buses in various posters and menu pictures. Nice to see a local one!

[Lanval]

If they survive the first year, chances are good that they'll make it. The restaurant business is a tough way to make a living. I encourage folks like this, and hope that they do well and thrive. I especially like that they are using a bus for an active role in their business. I like vehicles that are used, and not tucked away like a museum piece. I hope you turn the people on to the great resource that we all share here.

Well, I assume it's a chain, and those guys know their business, but:

Irvine Company owns all the retail property in this town. Even during the economic downturn a few years ago, they weren't lowering rents, instead letting the locations remain vacant. One nearby store lost a Mervyn's and about 50 % of their small outlets. They are all filled now, no doubt at higher rates.

The mall that location is in has turned over to the tune of at least 50% in the 10 years I've been here, and restaurant after restaurant has come and gone. Maybe it'll work, but they are in a non-negotiable market and Irvine is growing leaps and bounds. Nothing about the (lack of) traffic since they opened a few months suggests that location is going to make it. The nearby pizza place, a local institution however, is fine. The location on the other side of the the pizza place? It's been 4 restaurants in 10 years.

Tough town ~ and FWIW, this town and Newport Beach taught me about vanity boutiques ~ shops that lose money, but are kept open by rich spouses as a hobby for their significant other.

We'll see how it goes, but I'm not too sanguine about their chances.

ML

[Amskeptic]

I wonder if the guy who owns the business is a VW guy and used this as a way to get a cool van and write it off as a biz expense.

I do . . . at the standard mileage rate, I have a whoppermungo deduction..
Colin

[Lanval]

I feel obligated by my ego to post this note:

I overestimated the length of time they'd survive. The Costa Vida closed sometime during the summer, and the van disappeared, without so much as an auction notice in the paper.

I lost out in both cases.

Sigh.

ML

[Amskeptic]

I feel obligated by my ego to post this note:

I overestimated the length of time they'd survive. The Costa Vida closed sometime during the summer, and the van disappeared, without so much as an auction notice in the paper.

I lost out in both cases.

Sigh.

ML

I am obligated by my ego to post that I too have lost out.
I hope the owner is in the bus out on the road licking his wounds and taking in the day and beginning to realize that his business was just feeding The Machine at the expense of his dreams.
Colin

[Lanval]

I hope the owner is in the bus out on the road
Colin

Truth be told, I wish this for us all. Here's hoping I can hit Maupin next year. Double bonus if you're there too.

ML