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Peek into the Chart House and it looks like the staff has everything ready for the dinner rush. The tables are covered in white linens and even the china's in place—small white plates and wineglasses have been carefully arranged at every seat.
But nobody's coming to dinner.
Last week, after 27 years in Los Gatos, the Chart House at 115 N. Santa Cruz Ave. closed its doors to diners. A spokesman for the restaurant's parent company, Landry's Restaurant, pointed to declining revenues as the reason for the closure.
"This was not a successful restaurant for us—it was not a success location," said Jeff Cantwell, senior vice president of development for Landry's Restaurant. Landry's purchased the Chart House restaurant chain in July 2002.
The restaurant closed suddenly and quietly, leaving little notice of its departure, said neighboring merchants.
Passersby on N. Santa Cruz Avenue last week also expressed surprise that the restaurant was no longer in operation. Lila Walker, a Los Gatos resident who walks past the Chart House every day, said she hadn't noticed that the restaurant had closed, but was sad to see it go.
"It was such a beautiful place," she said. "We had a delightful meal there."
The Chart House chain was started in Aspen, Colo., in 1961 by surfer Joey Cabell and Navy frogman Buzzy Bent. According to Los Gatos Observed, a book by Alastair Dallas, Bent vowed that "no Chart House site would be ordinary, no building—new or old—less than special."
The Chart House in Los Gatos was no exception. The restaurant occupied a Queen Ann home, built in 1891 by an Australian widow. Called the Coggshell mansion after its owner, Mary G. Coggshell, the home was used for residential purposes for 26 years.
In 1917, second-generation undertaker and furniture salesman Elvert Ernest Place converted the house into a mortuary. The Place Funeral Home occupied the building until it was converted into the Chart House restaurant in 1976.
Some local residents felt the history of the home as a mortuary might have driven local customers from eating at the Chart House.
"It was sort of morbid," said Bill Wulf, a Los Gatos historian. "Local people never ate there because they saw their dearly beloveds go out there."
The Chart House in Los Gatos was the only restaurant in the chain Landry's decided to close. The company has no plans to close any of its other Chart House locations.
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Photograph by George Sakkestad