A new restaurant has opened in the Carlton Hotel — and its name might sound familiar

After sitting empty for years, the restaurant space in Atascadero's historic Carlton Hotel has finally been filled — and the restaurant name might sound familiar.

The Carlton Restaurant and Grille opened March 2, offering both new and traditional American cuisine, including burgers, sandwiches, pasta and steak. The restaurant opened nearly one year after owner David Weyrich applied to the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control for a license to serve beer and wine.

The Carlton Restaurant and Grille previously operated out of the hotel until its closure in 2010, for failure to pay state taxes. The last restaurant to operate out of the space, Colby Jack Café and Bakery, operated from 2011 to 2013.

The space has long been plagued by an inability to keep tenants.

Shockley’s, the restaurant’s tenant from 2010 to 2011, lasted less than a year before closing.

The hotel’s other current occupant is Back Porch Bakery, which rents the 2,400-square-foot bakery that’s separate from the restaurant. Weyrich began renting out the bakery area on its own after Colby Jack closed.

“We’re excited about it,” Terrie Banish, Atascadero's deputy city manager, said last June about the potential opening . “We’ll do anything we can to support it.”

This story was originally published March 31, 2018 at 5:13 PM with the headline "A new restaurant has opened in the Carlton Hotel — and its name might sound familiar."