Bye-Bye, Beachside Bar-Café

“Emotion.” That’s the word that Dave Hardy will forever associate with the Beachside Bar-Café, the Goleta Beach landmark that he’s closing this month after 36 years of serving the community. 

“There is just a ton of emotion about the Beachside, with the customers, the employees, the ownership,” he explained on Friday, the morning after announcing the restaurant’s permanent closure on January 31, or until inventory lasts. “It’s a lot of fun to be in that position where people enjoyed what we did, and that’s why we did it,” he said. “It’s what I wanted out of my life, to do something that can give back to society. It’s been a wonderful run.”

Hardy blamed the closure primarily on the economic damage wrought by the COVID pandemic, but also said that recent minimum wage hikes also made business tough. “We’ve got a lot of overhead,” he explained. “We just can’t go on forever losing money. We just didn’t see any end in sight. We have just a year left on our lease, so we decided to pull the plug.”