SYLMAR, CA (The San Fernando Valley Post) — A well-loved Mexican restaurant and its adjacent coffee shop in Sylmar have abruptly closed after years of serving the San Fernando Valley community, with the owners citing a combination of rising rent and mounting costs that made it impossible to keep the doors open.
Ernie and Maricela, the owners of Los Ruizeñores at 15206 Roxford Street and its attached Jardín Café, posted an emotional video on social media Thursday announcing that the previous day had been their last day of in-person operations.
"As some of you may know, yesterday was our last day of operation there at Los Ruizeñores and at Jardín Café," Ernie said in the video, sitting alongside his wife.
The restaurant was started by Ernie's father and later handed down to him, making the closure a particularly painful moment for the family. Maricela fought back tears as she described the difficulty of the decision.
"It's the hardest thing we're going through," Maricela said. "We're trying to figure out stuff. We've never done anything but own Los Ruizeñores and Jardín, and believe me, it's not easy."
The couple explained that a rent increase earlier this year, combined with rising costs across the board, was the final blow.
"Our landlord had risen the rent earlier this year and really kind of took the bang out of us, and we regret to inform that as of right now our locations are closed," Ernie said, noting that both locations operated under the same lease.
Maricela added that the cost of everything, not just rent, had gone "crazy," despite what they described as years of hard-fought efforts to stay open.