Hullabaloo Restaurant Sold

Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal - 12:38 PM PDT Wednesday, May 30, 2007
by Mary Duan

Hullabaloo restaurant, a mainstay of casual yet upscale dining in Old Town Salinas, has been sold to a San Diego businessman. The purchase price was not disclosed.
An application for a change of ownership lists the new owners as "Brooks Brothers," and current chef/co-owner Todd Fisher said the business was sold to Robert Peterson, whom he described as a successful businessman and restaurateur. The official change of ownership will take place on June 16; Fisher will remain for six months as a consultant, and his business partner, Will Reynolds, will depart to pursue "other things in the food industry," Fisher said.

Peterson did not immediately return a phone call requesting comment.
In addition to consulting to Hullabaloo, Fisher said he plans to continue as a consultant to the agriculture industry on food and restaurant matters, develop a cooking show for cable television and write cookbooks. He also has an exclusive contract to provide catering for events at the National Steinbeck Center.

"The reason behind the sale is that my wife just had our fifth child and it's time for me to slow down and not miss any more baseball games or soccer games, and the opportunity was right," Fisher said. "But I'll still be in the kitchen and I'll still be seen around the restaurant."

Hullabaloo opened seven years ago and, like most other restaurants in California, has weathered tough times in recent years; as consumers pay higher prices for gasoline, for example, they have less money for discretionary spending. The catering kitchen at the Steinbeck Center was another second Fisher and Reynolds-owned place, and the pair transitioned it from "One Main Street" to a much more casual dining venue called Chicken Scratch Flats.
It closed last year.

"The past seven years have been spectacular. That's all I can say. Spectacular," Fisher said. "I'm excited about the new owner and the quality of places he's had."