SloCo Pasty Co. in San Luis Obispo to close this week

The SloCo Pasty Co. in San Luis Obispo has been sold and will transition into a Mexican restaurant to reflect its new owners.

“Our lives have changed dramatically since we opened SloCo Pasty Co., most notably with the addition of our two wonderful children, Kagan and Kyla,” owners Gwynne and Kurt Stump wrote in an email announcement Saturday. “With these changes in our lives, we felt we could no longer give SloCo Pasty Co. and its employees the resources and attention it deserved. It is with mixed emotions that we have decided to sell SloCo Pasty so that the business can have the support it needs to flourish and we can be the best parents we can be to Kagan and Kyla.”

The business opened in a 1,400-square-foot space at 1032 Chorro St. in 2011 and offers an assortment of Cornish pasties — baked, half-moon-shaped pastries typically filled with meat and vegetables, though they also offer dessert options.

Gwynne Stump told The Tribune on Monday that the business is closing so she and her husband can spend more time with their children, but also because increases in costs like minimum wage and a fickle downtown customer base made it less successful than the couple had hoped it would be when they came up with the idea for the restaurant.

“We tried for five years to make it work, and we tried a bunch of different things, but it just wasn’t working out like we thought it would,” she said. “We could have our busiest day of the year followed by our slowest day the next day. We just couldn’t predict when we were going to be busy or not be, and that made it hard.”

Stump declined to disclose annual revenue but said the restaurant did not make a profit in its five years of business.

“It has been an honor and a privilege for us to have been able to run SloCo Pasty Co. for the last several years,” the Stumps wrote in their email announcing the closure. “We wish to give our heartfelt thanks to all of the employees and patrons who have made it possible. It has been an experience of a lifetime that we will cherish forever.”

The business has been sold to new owners, who will transform the shop into El Matador, serving authentic Mexican cuisine instead, they wrote. Stump declined to disclose how much the business was sold for, though a listing on real estate website Hill & Co in September listed the asking price as $149,000.

As the restaurant transitions to its new owners, SloCo Pasty Co. will likely be short-staffed, the Stumps cautioned in the email, as most of their employees look for other employment. The business normally had between 12 and 14 workers, according to Stump.

“In fact, you will likely be seeing Gwynne or our manager Maureen working by themselves, one of our servers in the kitchen making pasties, or one of our kitchen staff taking orders,” they wrote. “Everyone is pitching in and doing what they can. Please understand that the people still working at SloCo Pasty Co. are some of the most dedicated and honorable people we have met. They are still there for the love of the place because they want to see it go out gracefully.”

The restaurant will close its downtown San Luis Obispo doors once all inventory is sold on Friday, Stump said. They will still host their Irish Music night on Wednesday and will be open all day Thursday for St. Patrick’s Day with special corned beef and cabbage pasties available for purchase.

This story was originally published March 14, 2016 at 1:06 PM with the headline "SloCo Pasty Co. in San Luis Obispo to close this week."