Drove by Garcia's and noticed it is all locked up. Don't go there myself but curious if they are out of business.
I presented this exact question to the owner about a week and a half ago via FB. The response I received was, and I quote: So Pat, I guess the answer is "no it's not closed"....and only an idiot would think it's closed because: the doors are locked all day/all night there are no customers present there are no employees present there is no management present there is no owner present there are no motorcycles or cars ever parked outside people have witnessed the kitchen equipment being loaded up and put on trucks and the landlord has contacted people who had previously shown interest in renting the place to tell them about the lot being open for lease again How silly of me! I see now how stupid it was of me to assume that a business had been closed with only the information stated above available. There must be some other explanation for these observations that are just beyond my feeble mind's understanding. Clearly I should wait for a public announcement over print, radio and television from the owner and a public announcement from the Mayor of Dumaguete before making such ignorant, wild and grossly irresponsible assumptions.
It seems that nowadays when you just politely ask an answer about a very ordinary nothing unusual situation, some people do react like this. Well, how frustrated can you be to give such a feedback. Happy Sunday and enjoy it for everybody..
I don't know the owner but the bamboo telegraph says that the property owner locked the tenant out for some reason. Rumor control also says this has happened before by the owner to other tenants same as with Black pearl supposedly. Don't know if any of this is true just rumor control/bamboo telegraph as far as I know.
We probably shouldn't be propagating rumors. I have also heard many stories. Among other reasons, I don't post them here because rumors (which may not even be true) may hurt the business. Garcia's is a beautiful location which hasn't been living up to its potential. We can be sure it will open again in some form. It's too nice of a place to just collect dust. Perhaps the owner of Garcia's is just retooling it to target a different crowd.
Mostly are Westerners that go in, what kind of different crowd would he target? I agree it's really is a nice place, with plenty of room.
Let's see, I get called an idiot by owner of Garcia's who has refused to pay a debt that is well over a year old.....
It is almost always more profitable and less stressful to focus on the local crowd than expats. Expats are far harder and more expensive to cater to than locals (we complain more and expect higher quality of food). Why spend extra time and effort making a group happy that comes in smaller numbers and basically spends the same amount as locals? Look around at the customers at almost any restaurant in town and it becomes very obvious who you should be focused on attracting. Locals have the money and influence here and have more friends/family to tell about a place they like.
