Marco Capanni, the owner of Marco’s Restaurant, located at 8200 Santa Monica Boulevard, has confirmed that his family restaurant is currently listed for sale after being in the city of West Hollywood for the past 30 years.
A representative for Commercial Brokers International, a commercial real estate agency, posted the listing of the beloved Italian restaurant on Instagram stating that the business is up for lease. It is described as a 1,400 square foot turnkey restaurant in the heart of West Hollywood. Its highlights include a “hard corner of a highly sought-after street on Santa Monica Boulevard. between La Cienega Blvd and Crescent Heights with high counts of pedestrian and vehicle traffic.”
However, Capanni wants to clarify that the business is up for sale and not for lease. He says that they can’t lease the space until he is out of the building. He owns the lease right now, at least until the end of the year.
“We put the restaurant up for sale earlier in the year,” he told WEHO TIMES. “I have a lease that is good until the end of the year. The business will probably close. It’s been really rough for us. I spoke to the landlord. He wanted me to renew the lease. He wanted to give us another five years. So right now, I’m testing the market to see if it’s sellable.”
He says the restaurant has everything a potential buyer would need. “It’s fully loaded,” he said. “It’s a turnkey operation, which means someone can walk in and take over the business. They will not be getting an empty restaurant.”
The future of Marco’s is uncertain once it is purchased. They can either keep Marco’s going or start a whole new restaurant. It is up to the new owner. “They don’t have to do anything to the building,” He said. “It is good to go. They can do whatever they want to it. It could be a Starbucks.”
Capanni says he can’t keep with the new world, which he believes has changed since COVID “I can’t keep up with the social media and all the things you need to do today to keep this going,” he said. “We’ve been a family neighborhood restaurant for thirty years and we’ve been pretty good at we do. Thirty years is a long time for a small family restaurant.”
He also added that the rise in the minimum wage in West Hollywood has been a challenge for his small business. “For a small business like ours, it’s costing us a few thousand dollars a week to meet this new minimum wage,” he said. “When you have 22 employees and some are making $16.00 and some are making $17.00, and now they all make $19.08, which is the highest in the country, it’s really rough for us.”
According to their website, “Marco and his beloved ‘mama’ opened a small trattoria in West Hollywood in 1993. With a lifelong passion of hospitality and a deep love of the food from her Italian birthplace, they created a neighborhood trattoria and pizzeria that spun over two decades of fabulous ‘home cooked’ foods, wonderful loving friends and the culinary memories of an era long gone.”
The man behind the name hopes their loyal customers stop by before the business is gone.
Very sad to see Marco’s go. I remember Mama. We once had a discussion about a major Italian election where there was going to be a significant reform of the Italian constitution – Mama was from Florence. I could sware that Marco’s opened earlier than 1993, I remember the original cheesecake which was made with ricotta and topped with apricots. Delicious, but they changed to the usual American cream cheese – the real Italian didn’t have enough takers. There will be no middle ground between fancy shmancy expensive restaurants and the usual fast food joints, But that’s what younger folks… Read more »
Very sad. I love this place.
Very SAD, we loosing an other mom and pop restaurant!!!
minimum wage is a REAL Issue for restaurants, full service restaurants don’t make more then 5% profit. With 23% increased payroll no many of them will survive. Corporate America hopefully will wanna come to West Hollywood but I doubt it. . .
their lease is up in December and they don’t seem to want to enter a new long term lease. Please don’t portray it as anything else.
But it is something else.
Elaborate if it is not them wanting to retire and not sign another long term lease. I wish them the very best after years in a tough business.
Sad. The last neighborhood restaurant left.
Another fine, old-time restaurant folds in West Hollywood. I love Marco’s . . . the friendly service, the cozy atmosphere, the delectable food, the intellectual clientele, the neighborhood location . . . and will mourn its closing. Very sad to see it go.
If the lease is up in December, not sure why you would buy the business. A new operator should just wait and deal with the landlord. If the landlord works with Marcos and a potential buyer of Marcos though, he could sell the “ “business” and it would continue. Selling a business near the end of lease term is nearly impossible.
Another victim of Horvath/Erickson/Shyne.
Waitstaff in West Hollywood is sickeningly overpaid. Time to start giving tips to the restaurant owners to help them stay in business.
You are definitely right they are over paid these are starter jobs they should be five dollars an hour so people will get an education and want to move their way out up in life why should we the residence finance all this because the prices of everything have skyrocketed that’s why there’s no lines at the Abey on Friday and Saturday nights anymore does empty tables at every restaurant it’s cheaper of people just eat and drink at home and drink in the parking lot and go to the club and dance for free
Please learn to spell. It’s so embarrassing. Here you are advocating for a $5 minimum wage so people will get educated and you can’t even spell residents.
Their lease is up at the end of the year and they don’t want sign a new one. Seemingly looking to retire after 30 years. It happens all the time, literally everywhere.
“…now they all make $19.08, which is the highest in the country, it’s really rough for us.” And there you have it folks.
Lease is up soon and I am sure they don’t want to re-lease at this stage of their lives. Very common in restaurants.
Try reading the article
I did, why did you. He is lease ends year end.
He says that they can’t lease the space until he is out of the building. He owns the lease right now, at least until the end of the year.