After 31 Years, Casa Verde Will Close in September

Casa Verde, which has served Los Gatos from the same North Santa Cruz Avenue storefront since 1995, will close after dinner service on Saturday, September 27. Owners Rosa and Emilio Duarte announced the closure in a letter posted to the restaurant’s door and website on Monday.

The Duartes cited a lease renewal that would have raised their monthly rent by just under 40 percent. "We ran the numbers eleven different ways," the letter reads. "Every version of them required us to become a restaurant we would not want to eat at."

A long run

Casa Verde opened in the spring of 1995 with nine tables and a menu built around Rosa Duarte’s family recipes from Michoacán. It expanded into the neighbouring unit in 2004 and has employed, by the family’s count, more than 300 people over three decades. Six current staff members have been there longer than fifteen years.

The restaurant became something of a fixture for a generation of South Bay families — the sort of place that hosted the same graduation dinners year after year. In a follow-up call, Emilio Duarte said the response since Monday had been "completely disproportionate to a small restaurant closing," with more than 2,000 messages received in four days.

We ran the numbers eleven different ways. Every version of them required us to become a restaurant we would not want to eat at.

Reservations for the final two months are being released weekly rather than all at once, which the family says is an attempt to give regulars a fair chance. Walk-ins will continue to be taken at the bar.

The Duartes have not announced plans beyond September. Rosa Duarte said she intends to "sleep past six for the first time since the Clinton administration."