After 22 years serving North San Jose, family-run Los Garcia's Restaurant is packing up its Oakland Road location after a long-running fight over customer parking tied to the city-backed conversion of the motel next door. The restaurant is set to close its current site on May 31 and is tentatively planning to reopen on June 2 at another spot in North San Jose. The owners say a steady stream of loyal customers being turned away over the past year finally made staying put impossible.
Manager Bernadette Garcia told San José Spotlight that trouble started when the Alura Inn was converted into an interim shelter last summer. Fencing went up around the property and the restaurant’s share of what had been a shared parking lot shrank to roughly 18 spaces. Garcia said sales fell by about half. She added that city housing staff floated ideas such as reconfiguring the parking and pointed to a small business program that can offer up to $10,000 for outdoor improvements, but those efforts did not stop the revenue slide that forced the family to move. With help from a family friend, they secured a new lease and intend to keep Los Garcia's in North San Jose.
City Response And Earlier Coverage
The conflict has been playing out in public for months. In October 2025, CBS Bay Area highlighted how fencing around the motel lot cut off customer spaces and reported that city officials said they would work with the restaurant to find additional parking. The coverage underscored that talks between Los Garcia's and city staff have been ongoing, but the conversations did not translate into a rebound in foot traffic.
Motel Conversions And Columbus Park
The motel conversion that triggered the parking crunch is one piece of a broader strategy to expand interim housing. A review by the California State Auditor notes that San José has leaned on motel-based interim housing to help clear large encampments such as Columbus Park. The report points out that converting motels can quickly add shelter beds, while also creating neighborhood impacts that are difficult to fully track and address.
Where Los Garcia's Is Headed
The Garcias plan to reopen in a space connected to Fairway Zone Sports and Bar Lounge at 1150 Murphy Ave, a move San José Spotlight reported and business directory listings also show. The family says the new address should give diners something they have been lacking at the current location this year: enough parking to come and go without a headache.
Regulars say they will miss the familiar Oakland Road spot, but many expect to follow the Garcias to Murphy Avenue. For the family, the relocation is a last-resort bid to keep a neighborhood fixture alive after months of dwindling sales tied to the motel conversion and the loss of customer parking.
