Walnut Park Grill, across busy D Street from Walnut Park, has closed for good.
In 2016, the owners of El Roy’s purchased the property. It is unclear what, if anything, they plan to do with the location – calls to the owners were not returned by press time.
El Roy’s began as a perennially popular taco truck, which earned accolades from the Petaluma People’s Choice Awards and Best of Sonoma County. Just before the owners bought the Walnut Park Grill building, El Roy’s opened its first brick and mortar location in Petaluma, on Edith Street.
Over at Walnut Park Grill, a sign in the window read: “Attention Customers – As of January 1, 2020 Walnut Park Grill will no longer be in business. We appreciate your support over the years and apologize for any inconvenience.”
After I saw this sign, I called the restaurant on Dec. 29, when the owners confirmed they had shut down a few days ahead of their expected Jan. 1 closure.
This location has been a favorite Petaluma burger joint for decades, although it has operated under different names and with different owners in its years. It all started with Alvin and Faye Quinley, who opened PDQ at this location in 1952.
Although a slang term that dates back to the late 1800s, PDQ was a well-worn term by World War II, when getting supplies to the front lines “pretty damn quick” was pretty darn important.
The Quinleys sold in 1959, but PDQ would continue to operate under new ownership for another 30 years, until it was shuttered in 1989. According to Sue Navarra in the “You know you grew up in Petaluma if…” group on Facebook, her parents owned the restaurant in the 1970s.
Remember that famous “PDQ 19¢” that originally advertised Quinley’s one-third-pound burgers? Due to ever increasing beef prices, the sign would eventually apply to fries and then coffee. Sue recalled, “The city said if it got removed another couldn’t go back. So…as long as it was there, something had to be 19-cents... we joked someday it would be a napkin.”
After 1989, the restaurant sat vacant for several years. The city ordered the sign be cut down in November 1991, however, a local sign shop kept it safe until the original owners’ grandson, Jim Quinley, could rescue it.
In 1994, another of the Quinley’s grandsons, Alvin Cooper, relaunched the family brand by opening six new Quinley’s around Sonoma County, including one at the original PDQ location. He ran them for six years before leasing the businesses out so he could spend more time with his family.
His brother Destin Joseph “Joe” Cooper, took over the D Street location until 2004, when he had to step away from the business due to failing health. The lease had expired in 2004 and neither Alvin nor Joe wanted to renew, so the location again sat closed.
It reopened as Walnut Park Grill on Oct. 22, 2007, when new owner Peter Foundas launched his “All-American, old-style fountain shop.”
Yet again proving what a small world we live in, I would later meet and befriend one of Walnut Park Grill’s founding partners while attending law school in San Francisco. He opened a great little bistro tucked away in a back alley of the South Park neighborhood of San Francisco called Darwin Café and we would stop in regularly for lunch and dinner on walks from our downtown campus to the Giant’s stadium.
For the past decade, Walnut Park Grill has been a regular spot for a wide variety of menu items, from burgers and dogs to chicken sandwich and fish tacos. Favorites included the pineapple burger, spicy chicken sandwich, corndog, sweet potato fries and milkshakes.
It was also a favorite spot for those visiting the Saturday farmers market as well as during downtown festivals, especially Butter and Egg Days and the Veterans Parade.
For those looking for a replacement for the affordable burgers and dogs offered at Walnut Park Grill, I highly recommend Petaluma People’s Choice Award winner for Best New Restaurant, Chili Joe’s, at 312 Petaluma Blvd. South. Although their hours are limited, their menu is full of reasonably priced comfort food that is packed with flavor.
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December 31, 2019 at 01:25AM
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Longtime Petaluma burger joint Walnut Park Grill closes - Petaluma Argus Courier
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