He still shared some quick thoughts on the way back to his car. One man, who left with his wife and two kids, had used up his lunch hour at the Black Bear Diner, so didn’t have time to give his name and a detailed retelling of their first visit. Locals leaving the new restaurant voiced their approval of the food, some stopping to take photos with the bear sculptures. “I just want to thank the city of Santa Maria for really embracing this place.” “It’s really been overwhelming,” he said. They held a job fair and found locals with plenty of restaurant experience, hiring at least 16 cooks and seven prep cooks. Most things are housemade, Fitzpatrick said, like the salad dressings or the meatloaf, which is a big part of the chain’s draw.īetween a packed opening week and scratch cooking, Fitzpatrick needed to hire more than 100 people to join his staff. The Black Bear Diner serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner, from eggs and bacon all the way to steak and mashed potatoes. Once the diners waiting outside with the strawberry bears got inside to eat, they had a wide selection to enjoy and choose from. “And that’s the thing about these restaurants, is people always take pictures with the bears because they are all unique to every store.” “And the kids are all climbing all over it,” he added. “So I said, ‘Can you have a baby bear holding a big strawberry? … And have the daddy bear have a wheelbarrow with a giant strawberry on it?’ and that’s what he did.īEAR NECESSITIES: Black Bear Diner owner Kevin Fitzpatrick asked the chain’s resident wood sculptor Ray Schulz to incorporate strawberries into the sculptures created for the new Santa Maria location. “They always have a baby bear, mama bear, and daddy bear out front,” he said. The artist who makes all the wood sculptures, Ray Schulz, will work within a theme, Fitzpatrick explained, so they asked him to design something special for Santa Maria. Kids and parents alike really take to the wooden bear sculptures found at the diner, Fitzpatrick said, and when he and his wife were planning out the new store, they wanted there to be a strong local tie. Part of the draw is the family atmosphere at Black Bear Diner, Fiztpatrick explained, where parents “feel comfortable with their kids.” “Santa Marians, they’ve really embraced this store,” he said. It’s impressive considering that Popeye’s Chicken also had a popular opening just down Betteravia around the same time. 10, when the restaurant was on track to set a corporate record for opening week earnings, he said. 7 and immediately saw a line out the door.įitzpatrick spoke with the Sun on Aug. The skullery certainly came in handy during the new Black Bear Diner’s first week in Santa Maria. “If there’s an earthquake, I’m running in there,” he added. “They turned that into the skullery, the dish pit, so they had the big concrete saws to saw off the side, and then they had the chisels in the floor to put in the electrical and drainage. The remodeling process was extensive, Fitzpatrick said, and included doing something about the old bank vault. So, it’s been a great location for us.”īefore they could wheel in the wooden bear sculptures and start frying bacon and eggs, though, the location needed some serious work. “You look here, and there’s 50,000 cars that go by by here every day on Betteravia and 30,000 here on Miller. “There’s so much traffic,” Fitzpatrick explained. They then looked to the former location of Santa Barbara Bank and Trust in Santa Maria, at the corner of Betteravia Road and Miller Street in the same shopping center as Target. They had a spot lined up near where they live, in Arroyo Grande, but the location fell through, Fitzpatrick said. STARTING STRONG: Kevin Fitzpatrick said the Santa Maria Black Bear Diner location was on track to set a record for opening week sales.
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