Las Casuelas Quinta closed their doors on Tuesday surprising customers and employees who showed up to work to find a locked door and a sign.
“We all came to get our paycheck and it’s so sad that we actually came to the restaurant to work but we weren’t notified that it was going to close,” an employee, Jose Lerena, told KESQ.
Employees told the tv station that Tuesday was payday and they are owed two weeks of wages. A lawyer representing owner Lisa Delgado told managers that employees should get a check in a couple of days and couldn’t be paid because of a hold placed by American Express and Mastercard.
The law firm sent KMIR a statement stressing that Las Casuelas Quinta “is not affiliated with any other Las Casuelas restaurant in the Coachella Valley”. The statement added that the restaurant is indeed closed permanently and that owners, “reached out to the employees to stress how much the owner cares for them and to inform them we are working as quickly as possible to address their concerns. The owner wishes to thank the residents of the Coachella Valley for the many wonderful years of support and patronage. The customers will be missed.”
The restaurant, on Highway 111 and Washington in La Quinta, was not a hit on Yelp, averaging only 2.5 stars after 398 reviews.
The other Las Casuelas locations in the Coachella Valley remain open.
