Carrows Closed to Clear Way for New Restaurant Concept

For those Diamond Bar and Walnut residents who may be frustrated by the apparent closure of another local restaurant, its owners say fear not.

Yes the city is losing the Carrows, located at 21130 Golden Springs Drive, but it is gaining a Ranch House Café & Grill, a new restaurant concept developed by the Catalina Restaurant Group, owners and operaters of Coco’s and Carrows restaurants.

Several residents noted that the Carrows, on a busy section of Golden Springs near the 60 Freeway, was closed for some time. A fence surrounds some of the site and a sign outside the restaurant confirms, “Restaurant Closed,” in big red letters.

“We understand that Carrows was an important fixture in the community, however in order to meet the changing demands of our consumers, we as a company have developed a new restaurant concept named ‘Ranch House Café & Grill.’ ” Keith Marron, Director of Marketing for the Catalina Restaurant Group, wrote in an email.

“We are very excited about this concept and our first location, which opened in August in the City of La Habra, has had a very positive response from the community,” Marron wrote. “This new restaurant helps meet consumer's needs for delicious food, served quickly in a friendly, causal environment.”

Catalina officials said they understood the Carrows, which had served the community since 1977, had become a fixture. But the new eatery should serve more of the community's by serving breakfast, steaks, chicken, burgers, a salad bar and hot soups, according to the website for the cafe and grill.

For locals, the closure was cause for concern, especially after the loss of a Denny’s on Pathfinder. The Denny’s closed in August, upsetting several residents. Many residents said they want to see more of a restaurant selection to the city.

Mayor Ling-Ling Chang says city officials are working to bring in more restaurants, but it’s a process and sometimes the city doesn’t always fit business-generated demographic models used by stores, branches and restaurants to guide them when choosing where to open a location, city officials said.

City officials and the council members discussed the opening of the café and grill during the Aug. 22 meeting and encouraged people to patronize it and other locally owned eateries so they do not suffer the same fate as Denny’s.

“We have to do what we can to support these businesses or we’ll be saying ‘whatever happened to D’Antonio’s,’ ” said Diamond Bar councilman Steve Tye.