“Covid-19 has made the decision for us,” the website read. “Lalime’s is retiring.”
When they write the history books, restaurant farewells like this, from a beloved north Berkeley restaurant of 35 years, will come to define the economic downturn triggered by coronavirus.
On Tuedsay, Lalime’s owners Haig and Cindy Krikorian posted a long and heartfelt goodbye to their customers and employees on their website and Facebook page.
When the shelter-in-place orders were first made, they hoped the closing would be temporary. But now they join several other Bay Area restaurants, including Benchmark in Oakland, San Francisco’s Locanda and Palo Alto’s Dan Gordon, that have shuttered for good.
The letter relays some of the owners’ favorite memories of their small Cal-Med neighborhood restaurant, the site of weddings, bar mitzvahs, funerals, Mother’s Day celebrations and pre-Thanksgiving lobsters fests.
“Thanks to all our small farmers especially from Yolo and Sonoma and other counties,” the letter said. “To all our venders who gave us credit when times were hard, a thank you.”
The Krikorians also recalled how customers came to “shelter in place at Lalimes” during other times of tragedy, from fires to earthquakes. But also during great triumphs.
“When the Bears lost to the Cardinals, we had to deal with the smug faces of the foreigners from Palo Alto, and WHEN WE WON, oh boy, it was a sea of blue of gold,” they wrote. “No foreigners would dare to come!”
The Krikorians first opened Lalime’s on Solano Avenue in 1985 before moving it to its Gilman Street location in Berkeley in 1988. On Tuesday, Haig Krikorian told KPIX 5 that this is his final act in the restaurant business.
“We’re going to miss it dearly, it’s been my life,” he said. “I love to cook but in the long term, this is going to be a hard thing to rebound from.”
