Bobbie and Fran Beaudet
Working hard
and enjoying
every minute
of it!
Written By Crystal Han
T
he thought of owning and running a restaurant can be
daunting for some. For Fran and Bobby Beaudet, who own
the Old City Hall Restaurant, it is a lifelong passion that
they wouldn’t dream of leaving.
“Sometimes I think about the question, ‘What would you do
if you only had six months to live?’. For me, it’s simple. I’d work,”
Fran smiled.
Fran and Bobby have been involved in the restaurant business
almost all of their lives. Forty-three years ago, Fran started out
working as a crew person for Carl’s Jr. She worked her way up to
Director of Operations and she now oversees eight locations in and
around the Monterey Bay area.
For Bobby, who builds restaurants, his introduction to
the business came very early in life. His father was a general
contractor and from the age of eight Bobby worked for him,
learning the tricks of the trade.
“I used to get fired about five times a week from my dad,” Bobby
laughs. The lessons he learned from his father have stayed with him
and now he builds restaurants for 60 companies in nine states!
In addition to their main jobs, Bobby and Fran have owned
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GILROY • MORGAN HILL • SAN MARTIN
and operated several restaurants over the years. They started out
with Dutchman’s Pizza, which they ran for 12 years, and then
they brought and sold the Krazy Koyote Bar & Grill, both located
in Gilroy. Their daughter’s love for baking cupcakes actually
prompted the couple to buy Station 55 Bar & Grill to give her a
venue for sales. Two years into owning Station 55, Bobby and Fran
bought what is now the Old City Hall Restaurant and for a year
and a half they ran both restaurants. Eventually they sold Station
55 to focus primarily on the Old City Hall Restaurant.
From the start, the Old City Hall Restaurant has been an
incredibly fun venture, so much so that they often joke that it isn’t
a real job. The building has a rich history, much of which can still
be seen on the walls and in its spacious rooms. Fran and Bobby
enjoy listening to the stories that many of their customers have to
share. “Some of Gilroy’s older residents will come by and tell us
stories like ‘my uncle was in jail here’ or we’ll have wedding anni-
versaries here and the couple will tell us how they were married in
this building, back when it was still City Hall,” said Fran. There
has even been talk of a resident ghost that has been known to
occasionally wander through the building!
JULY / AUGUST 2015
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