Extension granted to El Cajon restaurant, banquet hall threatened with permit loss
El Cajon Planning Commission is surprised to learn of new Palms ownership.
After receiving complaints about continued city code violations at The Palms Restaurant and Banquet Hall, the El Cajon Planning Commission was set to discuss revoking the business’ conditional use permit on Tuesday. But it reconsidered after learning new owners had taken over the establishment a week earlier.
City staff members had recommended the commission revoke the Palms’ CUP because of violations such as not keeping regular restaurant hours and appearing to operate almost exclusively as a banquet hall. Revoking the CUP would prohibit it from operating as a banquet hall, serve alcohol or have live music, but would allow it to operate as a restaurant.
After a representative of the new owners appeared at the meeting with photos of diners inside, new chairs and tables on the patio, a sign with restaurant business hours, receipts for meals and even a draft of a menu, commissioners agreed to give the business another chance. They asked the owners to return in 90 days with a plan to amend the CUP.
One sticking point was how often the East Main Street business could operate as a banquet hall rather than as a restaurant. Commissioners agreed that the 7,200-square-foot business was too large to operate solely as a restaurant, and they discussed amending the CUP to allow for Palms to operate 15% of the time as a banquet hall.
Vince Kattoula, who spoke on behalf of the new owners Jeff and Ramon Mansour, said he would agree but also argued that allowing 30% use as a banquet hall would help the city’s goal of revitalizing downtown by bringing in more people.
“The more restrictive you are on this business, the further away you’re going to get from achieving that goal,” he said.
The Downtown El Cajon Business Partners had submitted a letter in March urging the Planning Commission to revoke the East Main Street business’ CUP, granted in 2010, because it was not operating as a restaurant with regular hours and had a negative impact on local businesses by often appearing closed.
The complaints weren’t new. In February 2024, the Planning Commission held a public hearing to discuss revoking the Palms’ CUP, but instead directed staff members to work with the business owner to bring the restaurant into compliance.
The Planning Commission again considered revoking the CUP last February, but continued the revocation hearing to April 1.
On Tuesday, the Mansour brothers told the commission that since they took over the Palms on March 26, much of the concerns about the business had been addressed and fixed.
A search for business licenses in the city show the most current license for the Palms was issued to SNF Palms, Inc. A records search also show officers at the business are Secretary Suhail Toma, CFO Nadir Mikhail and and CEO Firas Jebo.
The Mansour brothers also said they don’t actually own the business yet, but escrow should close in about 90 days.
While commissioners agreed to have the new owners return after that with a business plan and request for an amended CUP, not everyone was convinced the Palms had turned over a new leaf.
“I’m not sure that that’s just not a shuffling game as opposed to real change,” Downtown El Cajon Business Partners Treasurer Cathy Zeman said about the new ownership. “They’ve done this before, where they’re just coming in and they’re telling you what you want to hear.”
Zeman said she is a real estate broker and had seen properties fall out of escrow before, so she was not confident that the promised changes would happen.
Commissioner Shannon Edison also said he had a problem with a new owner saying everything has been fixed in one week after hearing complaints for more than a year.
“You’re just coming in saying, ‘Okay, everything’s going to be fine,’” he said. “You just got here. So it’s kind of hard for me.”
He and other commissioners, however, agreed that they would not revoke the CUP and revisit the issue later.
“At this point I don’t know what we have to lose by giving these guys a shot with the new ownership,” Commissioner Darrin Mroz said.
