La Casona Closes

The plight of Juanita Garay caught my attention this summer when the Post's Courtland Milloy published this column. After 26 years in business, she was struggling to keep her second Salvadoran restaurant, La Casona, open. It appears that the columnist's fears were right: La Casona, which was located at 11th and U, is now draped in a sign declaring, "Coming Soon! Lobo's Grill," and all before I ever had a chance to pay a visit.

The new location doesn't seem to be a chain of any sort. Milloy wrote, "the loss of home-style family restaurants like La Casona puts the city at risk of becoming bland, like some of those upscale, concrete egg crate condominiums that have become the new hot thing in town." Perhaps Lobo's Grill will fight that assumption; maybe it won't.

Any readers out there have any fond memories of La Casona or Juanita Garay?