Atthe end of December 2020, Dan and Mary Hountalas took their marbles and went home.
For the 40 years prior to 2018, the Hountalases — more accurately, their food-service company, Peanut Wagon, Inc.—had operated the landmark Cliff House, in San Francisco, under two consecutive 20-year leases with the Cliff House’s owner, the National Park Service (NPS).
When the second of these leases expired in 2018, NPS did not offer a new long-term Cliff House contract to Peanut Wagon, or to anyone else. Peanut Wagon continued to operate The Cliff House under one or more short-term contracts with NPS, even as the company continued to push for a new long-term lease.