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Poway, Rancho Bernardo among closed Coco’s Bakery Restaurants

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Twenty-five-year Coco’s Bakery Restaurant employee Cindy Tibbets-Dangel got the call at 5:15 on the morning of April 1.

Her manager told her not to come in that day, that the Poway Road restaurant was closing and to come in between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. on the following Friday for a 30-minute meeting.

“At first I thought it was an April Fool’s Day joke, she said Tuesday. “I had no clue.”

The Poway and Rancho Bernardo restaurants were among dozens throughout the Southwest that were closed last week by the chain’s new owners.

Catalina Restaurant Group issued an April 2 statement that said low-performing stores would be shuttered in order to stabilize the company. Last month, Zensho Holdings Co., Japan’s largest operator of restaurant chains, sold Catalina Restaurant Group to Food Management Partners of San Antonio, Texas.

This wasn’t the first time the restaurant at 13464 Poway Road had changed hands. Decades ago it started as a Bob’s Big Boy, then became an Allie’s in the late-1980s. About 10 years later the name changed to Coco’s, Tibbets-Dangel said.

The former employee, who raised four children in Poway, said that she didn’t think her restaurant was underperforming, although it did not get much business between 9 and 10 p.m. when it closed each day.

“They could have closed an hour early,” she said. “Think of the money that would have saved over time.”

The restaurant was a favorite among senior citizens and anyone looking for a good pie.

“I’m worried about our regulars, our seniors,” Tibbets-Dangel said Tuesday. “Where are they going to go?”

Last Friday she was among the last employees to pick up her check.

“The district manager was talking and talking, but I just zoned out. The place was empty. I was looking around, thinking about all the people and the memories. One baby in a high chair became a Miss Poway and went on to work in the White House. I had so many friends here. I’m sad. I’m just so sad.”

The closest remaining Coco’s restaurant is in Escondido.

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