Owners of Celestin’s Restaurant Retiring; East Sacramento Space Available for Lease

After more than 30 years operating restaurants in the Sacramento area, the owners of Celestin’s Restaurant are ready to retire and are looking to find a new operator to take over their East Sacramento space.

Celestin’s Restaurant, owned by Phoebe and Patrick Celestin, specializes in French Creole cuisine. The restaurant’s menu includes small plates, gumbo, sandwiches, desserts and main courses such as jambalaya and Brazilian-style Pacific snapper.

The operators opened their first restaurant in 1983 on J Street in Midtown. The restaurant operated for nearly 19 years before moving to a larger location on K Street. That restaurant closed in late 2011 — eventually becoming home to The Porch Restaurant & Bar — and the Celestins looked to retire from the business before announcing six years later a plan to establish a restaurant on McKinley Boulevard in East Sacramento.

“We’ve had a great run,” said Phoebe Celestin. “We love our community and our customers. If we weren’t the age we were we’d keep on doing it.”

The 1,457-square-foot restaurant space is at 3610 McKinley Blvd. in East Sacramento. It also includes a patio area in front of the business that currently occupies two parking spots.

The space has been listed as available for lease for $160,000, which would include the remaining lease (approximately two years and six months); all of the restaurant’s furniture, fixtures and equipment; and a license from the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control to sell beer and wine at the location.

“We put in quite a substantial investment into the space when we opened five years ago, so someone will have the benefit of that,” Celestin said.

Broker Kimio Bazett, who along with Turton Commercial Real Estate partner Matt Axford is listing the space on behalf of the restaurant operators, said the kitchen equipment has everything needed to operate a full-service restaurant, including a hood and fire suppression system, multiple burners and ovens, and various refrigeration and freezer units.

“To replicate the back-of-house build-out in the current market could easily be five times the asking price, if not more,” Bazett said.

Ideal users for the space include restaurant operators or potentially a cafe concept, Axford said.

“Our primary purpose is finding the perfect user for the neighborhood,” Axford said. “It’s immediately available, so if someone came in and fit the criteria, we would be ready to go.”

Celestin’s Restaurant has four stars on Yelp, following 184 reviews.

Prior to Celestin’s opening in the small strip center on the corner of 36th Street and McKinley Boulevard, the space was occupied by Devine Bakery & Gelateria.