Restaurant The 18hundred changing hands
The 18hundred, a stylish new restaurant inside a restored building in downtown Bakersfield that fast became a crown jewel of the downtown dining scene, is being sold to new owners a year and a half after it opened.
Foti Tsiboukas, the current owner, said the sale is related to a family medical issue. His toddler son was diagnosed in May with a serious medical condition that has required the family to relocate to Southern California for treatment.
“It’s not an easy decision to sell the store,” Tsiboukas said. “There was a lot of time put into it. We thought about a lot of things for the customer.”
The decision to sell is unrelated to the impacts of COVID-19 on the business, he said of the restaurant, which hasn’t reopened since the shutdown orders issued by Gov. Gavin Newsom in March.
The buyer is identified as 1800 Enterprises in a sign notifying the public of a pending transfer of the venue’s liquor license. Tsiboukas declined to identify the new owners but said they plan to continue to operate the restaurant as The 18hundred, including sticking with the same menu.
According to the California Secretary of State’s website, 1800 Enterprises is registered as a corporation helmed by Caroline Asbury, Jason Krivitsky and Codey Montoya. Montoya is identified on Facebook as an employee at The 18hundred.
Tsiboukas and his wife and business partner Maya Tsiboukas will retain ownership of the building, which they purchased in 2017 after it had been restored. The couple also own Fabulous Burgers on Airport Drive, a restaurant originally started in Hawethorne by Foti Tsiboukas’ father, who immigrated to Los Angeles from Greece in the 1970s.
Tsiboukas is a native of Southern California who attended Cal State Bakersfield, where he played soccer. He said his vision for The 18hundred was to create a family-friendly restaurant with a focus on high-quality, handcrafted food — the kind of place he and his wife would want to go with their two young sons.
Tsiboukas said he always made sure cartoons were playing on one of the bar’s televisions.
“If someone asked to change the channel and if there was one kid watching, I’d say, ‘You see that kid over there, he’s watching.’ And no one ever complained because I feel like everybody loves kids,” Tsiboukas said.
The couple also envisioned the restaurant as key to reviving downtown Bakersfield. Tsiboukas said he hopes under new ownership it continues to play that part.
“I think it’s better to have it open whether it’s me or someone else. I think the city needs it,” he said.
And when he hears from friends who go there once it reopens, he said: “I’m hoping when they call they say it’s just like when you had it.”