The Ragin Cajun Café has received a second lease extension allowing owner Stephen Domingue to operate the popular Pier Avenue restaurant until Jan. 15, 2011 before closing it up and moving it, perhaps to El Segundo.
After his lease expired May 31, Domingue originally was given until Sept. 15 to make way for a new restaurant, Town Hall Gastropub, to be operated by the son of Domingue’s landlord.
A partner in the new eatery, Allen Sanford of Union Cattle Company and Saint Rocke, read Domingue’s angry comments in the Easy Reader and proposed the second extension to landlord Chris Bredesen Sr.
“What happened was, based on the article, there was a little bad blood going back and forth,” Sanford said. “I talked to the Bredesens – it’s a business thing and a family thing – but nobody wanted to see any bad blood occurring.”
Sanford said the extension was provided to “bury the hatchet” and give Domingue more time to operate his 18-year-old restaurant and “prepare for his next move.”
Domingue said the extension will be helpful.
“It gives me time to come out of the location all set up,” and to operate Ragin Cajun for a number of months after noisy construction is completed to remake Pier Avenue.
Domingue said he was leaning toward moving the restaurant to the shiny, spacious Plaza El Segundo on Sepulveda Boulevard. ER
