San Jose says goodbye to family-owned restaurant after 40 years

Yum Yum Tree in San Jose announced they were closing after 43 years in a Facebook post that quickly went viral with more than 200 shares.

Owners said the pandemic was the nail in the coffin that forced them to shut down for good.

Wednesday was the chicken salad restaurant’s last day in business.

Owners of Yum Yum Tree said they don’t know why locals crave their chicken salad.

The original owners came from New Hampshire, and their simplistic chicken salad caught on quick in Jacksonville.

Chicken, celery and mayonnaise is all it takes, but customers say the secret recipe is the customer service.

A line of locals wrapped outside as customers waited for their last fix of the Jacksonville-famous chicken salad on the restaurant’s last day.

Stacie Dern’s parents opened up the restaurant in 1977.

“It’s very sad, but it’s also very happy because we have so many people coming in and so I love that the community has rallied around and come in one last time.”

Dern is a 6th grade teacher and is returning to her full-time work after closing. Tucker Polkey ran the day-to-day, and he is now going to grad school to work in school psychology.

“It’s been in my family my entire life, so I’ve been here since I was 8 or 9 washing dishes, bussing tables.”

Owners said several things led up to them closing, but the COVID-19 pandemic was the ‘final nail in the coffin’.

Polkey said since the shutdown they’ve lost about 60% of their business and had to order less food, because they were selling less. The family-owned restaurant started doing just takeout in the beginning and then slowly opened up to limited capacity.

They will be hosting an open house Saturday to sell off tables, chairs and memorabilia.

Cox Media Group