Taco Villa, a locally-owned Mexican restaurant in UC San Diego’s Old Student Center, closed this past Wednesday after 10 years of business. Shores Diner, the neighboring ’50s-themed restaurant, is set to close this upcoming Wednesday after two years of business.

Both restaurants decided not to renew their leasing agreements with UCSD.

Taco Villa owner Ryan McGuffie told The UCSD Guardian that the bills from UCSD have put his business under significant financial strain, especially as a standalone restaurant.

“The amount of money that they want for this space, the raised costs that are coming along with it, the things that they’re charging us for, like maintenance that doesn’t get done, [is] a significant amount of money,” McGuffie said. “At the end of the day, it just didn’t make sense. You know, we can’t raise our prices anymore.”

He explained that UCSD takes 10% of the restaurant’s revenue as part of the leasing agreement. The restaurant has fewer customers during the summer, and the buildup of this yearly dip created inconsistencies in revenue that compounded over the years.

“When you start adding up all these things, you can see that the amount of money we give UCSD is the largest chunk of money that anybody gets,” McGuffie said. “But I find it very difficult to think that somebody could actually build a business as their sole source of income with a restaurant on campus.”

Shores Diner is co-owned by Dirty Birds co-founders Adam Jacoby and Paul Cagnina. In contrast to Shores Diner, Dirty Birds is a chain restaurant that has been operating at UCSD since 2020. Shores Diner is closing due to scheduling conflicts between the two owners, according to bar manager Matthew Poremski.

“One of them’s about to have a kid and [is] living in Las Vegas,” Poremski said. “The other one is opening more Dirty Birds, so it didn’t make sense for them to keep trying to build this [restaurant] when they already have one that’s solidified.”

Poremski has worked at Shores Diner since its opening. He believed one of the challenges the restaurant experienced was the lack of drinking-age customers.

“Personally, it always sucks because you put your heart and soul into it,” Poremski said. “But business-wise, I understand.”