This is my town. I live here.

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Bye-Bye Sweet Garlic

I'm sorry to report that Old Town's Thai restaurant, Sweet Garlic, is closing its doors and moving to a Pasadena location. I tried to order something them last night and they said that irreconcilable differences with their landlord prevents them from staying. I'm so sad to see them go because I rather liked both the food and the decor. All in all a pleasant and taseful place.

13 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I will keep an eye out for them! Do you know when they are moving?

6:31 AM

 
Blogger aw said...

Not sure, but as of yesterday they were still answering their telephone....and were closed for business at this location.

12:07 AM

 
Blogger Unknown said...

Seems like a lot of restaurants are closing up shop these days. Tidal Wave, for instance, is closed now. I wonder if there were rent hikes that came along with Old Town's recent face lift.

9:50 AM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

This is definitely a loss to the city. I loved their flavorful food, cheap prices and clean, contemporary decor. Personally I don't give them long to live in Pasadena where they will just become one of many Thai restaurants (and I would definitely pick Saladang over them in the Pasadena area). Since their food was ridiculously cheap, I think they should have tried raising their prices a few bucks and stayed where they were pretty much a hit.

I think the rush of closures and ownership changes is a combo of increased competition (for those nuts enough to want to dine at a malls in chains instead of in unique restaurants in Monrovia's quaint Old town) and also selfish landlords that have mistaken Monrovia's housing real estate boom for a boom in retail purchasing so they are hiking leases like they are renting in Beverly Hills.

8:16 PM

 
Blogger Dario said...

What a shame! The only Thai food resaurant in Monrovia is gone. And it was soo good too. I think the Landlord should be held directly accountable! :-p As long as they dont open something we already have a bunch of - like a Sushi place or something. Anyone know whats in store for the location?

9:02 AM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I had a long conversation with the owner and main cook at Sweet Garlic. The landlord made the rent increase and created an athmosphere for the Sweet Garlic so undesirable that they were forced out. She was between a rock and a hard place. The new landlord forced them out. The mayor has big ideas for Monrovia and the small town is going to discover more greed and less pleasure with these changes. Onward and Upward

7:43 PM

 
Blogger Unknown said...

Their new location is midway between lake and hill on colorado in Pasadena, they're now called Daisy Mint. Sadly it's nowhere near as nice of a location as Monrovia.

Luckily though, I live a short walk away. I'll do my best to keep em alive. Yum.

6:44 PM

 
Blogger Clifford Ball said...

Yet another huge loss for Monrovia. What are they thinking! They are going to kill downtown yet again.

12:14 AM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ok, so what is the deal with the "new" Sweet Garlic, AKA Daisy Mint? When they were closing they gave me a card with their new address and website. At the time they said that they didn't have the phone # set up yet.
So, several months later, my hubbie and I decide to check them out at their supposed address: 1218 E Colorado Blvd in Pasadena. It's an empty storefront. According to 411, the address is correct and the phone # is 626-793-4025. WE thought maybe the address was incorrect, so we called the # to find out the correct one. At 6:30 on a Saturday night (4/7 to be exact), the phone just rang and rang. No one picked up and no answering machine.
So, we went to a place that a friend had recommended in Montrose: Zen. Great food.
We loved Sweet Garlic, but this is just way too weird. Where is Daisy Mint???

6:08 AM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I was shocked to see Sweet Garlic leave. I guess the quaint Old Town Monrovia is settling for big $$ instead of the nice atmosphere it had developed. I hope it won't become another Old Town Pasadena where high rents=high turnovers and high vacancies.

1:56 PM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Saladang sucks. ("seafood platter special??") sweet garlic was amazing. cant wait for Daisy Mint to open.

5:09 PM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hello sweetgarlic customers,

Thank you for the kind words and support that you have given us. I would like to apologize about the confusion regarding our new location and name. Moving to our new location has been very difficult for us. There had been major delays in construction that we did not expect. We hope to open our business as soon as possible. Our new restaurant will be called Daisy Mint and located at 1218 east colorado blvd., pasadena ca 91106 and there are a lot of parking in rare. Hopefully, we will have everything in place by August 1st 2007.Thank again for all your support.

11:31 AM

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

we moved from monrovia nearly a year ago because we could already tell that the town was going to be losing a lot of it's charm. this is just proof of that.

12:54 PM

 

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