MUKILTEO – When Ivar Haglund began selling his signature clam chowder in the late 1930s, he made it right at his restaurant on the Seattle waterfront.
That’s no longer practical, as Ivar’s Inc. sold enough chowder last year to fill 61/2 Boeing widebody jets, according to the company.
Starting next year, that chowder will be made in a new 16,000-square-foot production facility under construction along the Mukilteo Speedway.
Even though he was aware of Ivar’s plans, Mukilteo Mayor Don Doran admitted the size of Ivar’s facility, which is called a commissary, surprised him when he saw the metal framework going up this week. It looms higher than the neighboring QFC supermarket in the Harbour Pointe shopping center.
But the commissary has to be large enough to supply clam chowder to Ivar’s 31 restaurants and nearly 10,000 other restaurants and stores worldwide where the chowder is sold. That includes outlets in China, Mexico and Japan, said Bob Donegan, president of Seattle-based Ivar’s Inc. The Mukilteo building also will produce tartar sauce, ketchup and salad dressings for Ivar’s restaurants.
Donegan said all of Ivar’s chowder was made for years at Seattle’s Pier 54. But demand outstripped that location.
“It got to the point where it began to overwhelm the company,” he said. So Ivar’s, which began packaging its chowder for supermarket shelves in the mid-1990s, put its first commissary on the south shores of Lake Union.
But that facility, Donegan said, is at the center of redevelopment plans by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, who wants to put up several biotechnology-oriented buildings there.
Ivar’s officials searched carefully for a spot to put the relocated commissary.
“We looked all the way from Auburn, Kent and Renton to the northern end of Snohomish County,” Donegan said. “In the end, it came to Everett and Mukilteo.”
Mukilteo emerged as the finalist for the new facility after Donegan was impressed with the city’s cooperation when he approached them.
Construction on the new commissary should be finished by spring, but it will take time to get the facility certified and in perfect working order, according to Ivar’s. The facility near Lake Union employs about 20 people, but Donegan said that number should increase once the move to Mukilteo is complete.
While nearly every seafood restaurant in the Northwest claims it has the best-tasting chowder, Ivar’s has won numerous awards over the years. The seafood chain also claims its is the best-selling fresh clam chowder in the nation.
Fittingly, Mukilteo’s mayor said he is indeed a fan of clam chowder, and he has eaten his share of the seafood soup from Ivar’s.
“I will tell you, that if you want a consistent clam chowder, Ivar’s has it,” Doran said.
Reporter Eric Fetters: 425-339-3453 or fetters@heraldnet.com.
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