Remembering Bob Sinclair

founder Bob Sinclair died last month after losing control of his 1985 Ducati motorcycle along a stretch of highway in New Mexico.

The accident, said Santa Fe sheriff’s Lt. Joe McLaughlin, took place at approximately 4:24 p.m. on July 27. Sinclar was 68 years old.

Current Pannikin owner Sean Holder remembers Sinclair as being smart, kind and fair.

“My wife and I came on board (with Pannikin) in early 1998. I had been an executive at the Chart House and had been looking for a way to get into business for myself,” Holder said. “Bob and his wife Gay had been in escrow to sell the Pannikin to a large company but that fell through, and pretty soon we were down there working alongside them.

“When we finally were able to buy the Pannikin from him and closed escrow, we received a note, typed on an old-fashioned typewriter on a half sheet of paper, in green ink, congratulating us on being in business for ourselves for the first time,” he said. “We still have it, of course, and we treasure it because it represented everything about them. They just looked at things simply and fairly and purely. Everyone who made a deal with Bob soon realized that it was always a good deal for both sides, he was just that type of fair man.”

proprietor Doug Wills recalls first meeting Bob in October 1979 when he opened what was perhaps the first bookstore and coffeehouse in La Jolla. They met at Bob’s downtown warehouse, where he roasted coffee beans, because Wills needed to buy Pannikin coffee beans and tea for his store. D.G. Wills is located next to the Pannikin.

“I think he will be remembered not only for his vast number of practical skills but also as a visionary restaurateur,” Wills said. “While roasting coffee beans downtown, then selling them to many other restaurants around town, he also restored and created a number of unique restaurants and coffeehouses, including the old train station building in Encinitas (Pannikin) and the in La Jolla. He will be remembered as the shrewd businessman who foresaw that the Gaslamp Quarter would eventually redevelop; thus he invested in and acquired a number of properties within the vicinity of Petco Park.

“When he and Gay moved over to New Mexico he went on to invest in and restore unique properties there as well,” he said. “He will always remain one of the most unusual, innovative, highly-talented, visionary, one-of-a-kind individuals it was privilege ever to have known.”