Good Vibes Coastal Cantina in League City. Both the Coastal Cantina and Good Vibes Coastal Kitchen have closed, with employees saying they were left scrambling.
Brandon Holmes/File/Houston Chronicle
A Houston Bay Area restaurant has suddenly closed, leaving its staff scrambling for new employment. Good Vibes Coastal Kitchen in Pearland notified staff on Sunday, in an email that they would be out of jobs by the end of the day. Additionally, it’s League City sibling concept, Good Vibes Coastal Cantina, has also closed as a result.
News of the closures popped up on social media Sunday, albeit indirectly, when Good Vibes posted a thank-you notice to its staff that day, encouraging anyone to hire them.
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“A huge thank you to everyone who showed up and stepped in, especially on such short notice,” the post on Sunday read. “We know last-minute changes aren’t always easy, and the fact that so many of you were willing to jump in, help out, and make it work does not go unnoticed.”
A few commenters expressed their grief over Good Vibes’ closure, which confirmed its status in response. But peppered in the thread were a few individuals who expressed outright indignation over the way the business conducted itself in its final days—or rather its final hours.
Employees speak out
A Good Vibes server who had been with the restaurant for two-and-a-half years told Chron anonymously they and other staff at the Pearland location were notified of the closure in an email sent at 12:02 p.m. Sunday and obtained by Chron. The management team attributed the closure to a disagreement with the Pearland location’s landlord.
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“Over the past several weeks, our ownership group has been working tirelessly to negotiate a lease restructuring to save this restaurant. Unfortunately, we have reached an absolute impasse with the landlord,” the email read.
Good Vibes Burgers & Brews in Pearland, before it became Good Vibes Coastal Kitchen.
Alison Cook/Houston Chronicle
According to the email, Good Vibes’ management accused the property owner of refusing to contribute financially to mandatory structural, electrical and Fire Marshal repairs needed to bring the aging space up to code. The out-of-pocket costs were so enormous that the management team said it had no choice but to close the business.
But by closing the business, Good Vibes’ management said it also lost its “combined purchasing power and shared vendor contracts” between the Pearland and League City restaurants. As a result of losing those savings, management said they could no longer keep the Coastal Cantina site open, either.
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How much advance notice should a restaurant give its employees that it’s closing?
The employee told Chron she wasn’t convinced by the explanation.
“It goes much deeper than just ‘landlord issues.’ We were so poorly managed and used as employees,” the employee said.
‘We were all blindsided’
Another server who wished to remain anonymous told Chron the restaurant closed early on Sunday, around 3 p.m., depriving staff of extra pay.
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“We were not given any consideration by upper management and the investors. The majority of the employees have been there for multiple years and no meeting was held by them. We were all blindsided,” the anonymous employee said.
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Good Vibes management has not yet responded to Chron’s request for comment.
In the meantime, no one on staff has anything lined up for new work. She’ll be taking a day or two off before starting the job search. Jennifer Lopez Fuller, the administrator of the Bay Area Houston Food Lovers Facebook group, told Chron she was surprised by the news, as she had just done a promo shoot with Good Vibes roughly two weeks ago.
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Fuller posted a hiring notice on the group page. Several restaurants had already indicated interest in hiring.
Dining and Cooking