The Magic Lamp Inn, a restaurant on Route 66 in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif., for more than 60 years, is changing operators for the first time in decades, according to the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin.
Longtime owner and general manager Anthony Vernola is retiring. Sartaj Singh, who owns several restaurants in the region, including nearby Antonino’s, is leasing the Magic Lamp with an option to buy.
Vernola seemed confident that Singh would do well:
Singh has known Vernola 15 years, and he’s casually offered to take the Magic Lamp off his hands, an appeal Vernola waved away until recently.
Vernola owns a lot of developable land, and with the housing market perking up, he was thinking he should concentrate on that. The restaurant isn’t his main source of income but it takes most of his time.
Still, he’d always been hesitant about turning over the keys to someone else. “I’ve seen restaurants go into ruins. I’ve invested too much into this place to have that happen,” he says.
Singh, however, is a local fixture. He took on two partners earlier this year, which has allowed him to expand by launching Aria in downtown Upland and by preparing to open a sports bar in the former Bobby Baja location a few steps from Antonino’s. He’s also taking over the former Harvard Square Cafe space in Claremont. […]
“They’ll do good here. I know they will,” Vernola says. “They’re good business people and they know how to run a restaurant.”
Singh pledged to leave the Magic Lamp “as it is.”
A bit of history behind the restaurant:
Founded in 1955 by John Clearman […] the Magic Lamp was built in Old World style: stained glass, heavy wooden doors, red brick and Spanish tile. Clearman is said to have modeled it on a Steer ‘N Stein in Pico Rivera that he owned.
The Rancho Cucamonga restaurant is vaguely Bavarian yet has an Arabian Nights name and a sign shaped like Aladdin’s lamp, outlined in neon and with a natural gas flame at night. Inside, there’s a fire pit that is converted into a fountain in warmer months – sounds like magic to me – and a specially made lamp-patterned carpet amid a setting with exposed wood everywhere.
Here’s a video made in 2011 with Vernola:
https://youtu.be/Mx61DDTcp8w
Anthony is the one that hired me in 1976. I’ve worked for him over 30yrs. I loved this place and Anthony. He’s always been there for me