Owners Not Ready to Doff Top Hat to Downtown Ventura Development

By Daryl Kelley

May 19, 2004 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

As Ventura charges forward on several fronts to transform its downtown from funk to fashionable, some old-timers are already saying they miss the good old days -- and asking City Hall to spare Charlotte Bell’s red-and-white Top Hat Hamburger Palace from the wrecking ball.

The Top Hat has occupied the same corner of Main Street since 1938, and the 74-year-old Bell has run it for 38 years, serving generations of customers the messiest chili dog and the greasiest cheeseburger in town.

But Bell is hearing that a developer wants to raze her little stand and replace it and a surrounding parking lot with three stories of condos above new chi-chi shops. That fits perfectly into the ambitions of city officials who have tried for 20 years to jump-start a downtown revival. And they are finally getting takers.

“I’ve raised two sons and three grandchildren in this place. And after 40 years, it’s the young I’m concerned about,” Bell said during Tuesday’s noon rush, the day after some of her customers pleaded her case to the City Council. “My grandson helps me run it. He’s good at it. He’s got personality plus.”

The council got an earful Monday night, and not just from Top Hat supporters, about 1,400 of whom have signed petitions the last two weeks to save their beloved greasy spoon.

Locals say they fear their favorite buildings may not survive the city’s explosive downtown boom. Plans for nearly 800 new dwellings are before the city.

Councilman Sandy Smith said they can build skyscrapers in Manhattan, but no one is going to replace the Top Hat. “And he said he’d be here for lunch today,” Bell said. “But he didn’t show up.”

That doesn’t mean the city wasn’t listening, said Brian Randall, a planner who is overseeing city efforts to beef up guidelines to save historic buildings.

“Last night’s comments by various people made it clear the Top Hat is a treasured site,” Randall said. “A lot of people believe it should be preserved. Obviously, the architecture is not outstanding; it’s more the fact that it’s contributed to the community all these years.”

As it turns out, James Mesa, who hopes to build nearly three dozen condos on the parcel, said he’s also a big fan of the hamburger stand. And he said he’s ready to sign an agreement guaranteeing that Bell and her 29-year-old grandson, Jack, can rent a new shop at the same corner where they have served hundreds of customers a day. The $550 monthly rent would be about the same, he said.

“Every time I talk with a council member about this, and I’ve talked to several, the first thing out of their mouth is, ‘What about the Top Hat?’ ” Mesa said. “We’ve all been very concerned about it all along. And I think we’re headed for an extremely happy ending where customers can enjoy a beautiful new building along with their Top Hat burgers.”

That would seem to be the political thing to do, not to mention good business. On Tuesday, one customer after another signed a petition to “Save the Top Hat” as they ordered $2 burgers and $1 fries from Charlotte and Jack.

The lunch crowd was filled with longtime customers, one of whom married the cook. Laura Fuss, 23, dropped in four years ago shortly after arriving from Georgia, and liked the burger Jack grilled her. Now, they’re expecting their second child. “It’s a good family place,” Fuss said. “It’s not like those big franchises.”

Jim Killen, a 57-year-old retiree, comes in every other day for a chili cheeseburger and a little conversation.

Next to Killen was Andrea Vela-Vela, 20, a teller at the bank across Main Street, with her mother, Maria Hernandez, who has brought Andrea to the Top Hat for lunch since she was a baby.

County employee Lee Bowman, 60, drops by often with wife Susana and their Chihuahua pup, Blackjack. “A lot of good people come by,” he said, “and we shoot the breeze and raise hell.”

Indeed, some hell has been raised at the Top Hat. A Hells Angel was convicted of felony assault two decades ago for slugging a woman customer. And in 1988, a 63-year-old handyman who opened the stand each morning for Bell was stabbed to death as he put the coffee on to perk.

Yet, Charlotte’s Top Hat memories have nearly all been good since she joined her parents in buying the burger business for $3,000 in 1966.

“I feel very sad about all this,” she said. “To me, the business is worth saving.”

Charlotte wasn’t around late Monday to hear Mesa’s offer. But her grandson said they’re hoping to keep their old metal building and wooden sign the way it was when war bonds were sold from it during World War II.

“We went up to City Hall and they said they want to keep it the same,” he said. “And we want to keep it historical, just the way it was.”