Local Restaurant, Drive-Thru Gets Demolished

GRAND TERRACE>> Demitri’s, an american restaurant and drive-thru located in Grand Terrace has been demolished to make way for the upcoming I-215/Barton off ramp makeover. The eatery at 21900 Barton Road that had been a guilty tradition for locals near the western boundary of the community has been reduced to about five cubic yards of concrete, plaster and wood rubble with a giant backhoe lingering over it. Demitri’s was the place where local families and weary travelers ate breakfast, lunch and dinner for more than a quarter of a century, serving host to meet-and-greets, as well as post-game gatherings. The menu board that hung over the grill was packed with more gyros, grinders, combo dinners, burgers and salads. Young and old, people all over the Inland Empire associated Demitri’s with the south bound off ramp of the 215 freeway that led back over Barton Road toward Grand Terrace. Some of the locals might even remember the fateful night when the small commercial building across from Demitri’s that housed a convenience store, a dry cleaners, gift basket place and a hair stylist that was part of the Demitri’s Plaza, lit up the sky as it burned to the ground. The wreckage was flattened and paved over, while Demitri’s restaurant powered on as the "Mom and Pop" operation it always was and had an enlarged parking lot. Now, Demitri’s will soon be a part of the local history.