Obama closes private restaurant, puts staff out of work

Cliff House Restaurant, San Francisco

Founded 1858 - Closed by Obama 2013

• No federal employees at all.  The only “federal” connection is that the Cliff House pays a fee to operate on government land, and that fee had been paid.  They had the right to operate.
• The forced closing of the restaurant by the Democrat Party has put out of work all the servers, bus boys, cooks and support staff.
• Let's bottom line it.  Our Comrade President does not give a fuck if the laid off employees are able to feed themselves, feed their children or pay their rent.

People's Republic of California  -  Most of the news about the “Shutdown Theater” — unnecessary closures ordered by the Obama administration to purposely maximize the pain of the government shutdown — has focused on the Washington, DC area, but the epidemic of artificial Potemkin Suffering has now struck the West Coast as well.

San Francisco’s Cliff House, a privately owned and very profitable restaurant overlooking the Pacific Ocean, was suddenly and unexpectedly ordered closed today, “because” the building sits on federal land. This, despite the fact that the Cliff House racks up $11.5 million in annual sales and is one of the most profitable independent restaurants in the nation reports PJ Media.

Closed a 2nd Time

On Monday, October 7, with little fanfare, Cliff House’s owners Dan and Mary Hountalas decided to defy the government’s closure order and instead re-open for business, to the delight of the hundreds of tourists and locals who dine there every day.

When word leaked out that the Cliff House had re-opened, the local National Park Service office consulted with Washington, D.C., and then issued a second (and apparently firmer) order to the owners to re-close the restaurant; the owners were then forced to unwillingly comply for a second time last night at midnight:

The famed Cliff House restaurant has been forced to shut its doors for the remainder of the federal government shutdown, after it defied orders by reopening earlier this week.

How does the government save money by shuttering a profitable business? And a private one at that?
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There are no federal employees at the Cliff House restaurant; a receptionist still manning the phones there today confirmed that all employees are paid by the restaurant’s owners, not by the government.

As the Cliff House’s own Web site notes, the restaurant is a “concessionaire” operating a business on Federal land — in this case, the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, which encompasses much of the Pacific shoreline along San Francisco and Marin counties — which means it is a private business which pays a fee to operate on government property.

Also see PJ Media.com

  

 

A California Classic Since 1858
Cliff House has had five major incarnations since its beginnings in 1858. That year, Samuel Brannan, a prosperous ex-Mormon elder from Maine, bought for $1,500 the lumber salvaged from a ship that foundered on the basalt cliffs below. With this material he built the first Cliff House.
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The growth of Golden Gate Park attracted beach travellers, in search of meals and a look at the sea lions sunning themselves on Seal Rocks just off the cliffs, to visit the area.  The 1896 Cliff House survived the 1906 earthquake with little damage, but burned to the ground on the evening of September 7, 1907, after existing for only 11 years.  The modern Cliff House features two restaurants, the casual dining Bistro Restaurant and the more formal Sutro's.