Local restaurants close their doors
No one can escape it. Even the bubble of Walla Walla has been popped by the recent economic recession.
Four restaurants, 26Brix, Luscious, Sean Destination Grill and Pine Street Diner at Elmer’s closed within the last two months and two businesses, Gotta Go Embroidery and A Touch of Class, are planning to close in March.
While the owners of the local businesses are choosing to close for personal reasons, the restaurants needed to close due to poor weather conditions and the credit disaster.
“Back to back harsh winters, the recession and the inability to re-structure debt because of the credit meltdown all contributed to our closure,” said owner of 26Brix, Mike Davis.
Bob Austin, owner of another local restaurant that survived the winter, Merchant’s Delicatessen, agreed with Davis about the harsh winters. “After being here six years we’re used to it. It’s just like any other date on the calendar, but combined with the greatest amount of ice and snow that we’ve had in years, and with the downturn we’ve had in the economy, this has been a really tough winter…”
The closure of the restaurants also affects the prominent Walla Walla tourist agency, which relied on places such as 26Brix and Luscious, to pull in east coast travelers.
“It sad to see these folks go because they’re a major part of our tourism industry,” said a representative of Tourism Walla Walla, Chris Erickson.
The Downtown Walla Walla Foundation, an organization formed in 1984 to address economic activity in the downtown area, hopes to improve the situation through various methods. These include lowering rents to fill vacancies, assembling a group of experts to offer free services to local downtown businesses, and trying to reach out to more regional tourists instead of East Coast travelers.
Jennifer Northam, Events and Public Relations Manager for the Downtown Walla Walla Foundation, stated that recent times will still be rough even though Walla Walla is in better shape than other communities.
“[We] have two different bankers on our board of directors. They are pretty certain it won’t be until 2011 when things are seeing the uptake again. So, yeah we’re in it for the long-haul…” said Northam.
Perhaps the greatest reaction to all four of the local restaurants closing was about 26Brix.
Senior whittie Ron Davie commented on the closure, saying: “It was unfortunate because they [26Brix] actually had really good French cooking combined with American influences.… it was actually one of my favorite places.”
Davis, owner of 26Brix, is “personally devastated [in] being forced to close. 26Brix was our dream and our passion. Losing it was like losing a family member.”
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