EVERETT — Darlene Brown assumed ownership of the Prohibition Grille in September of 2008.
One year later, the sign is still up on Hewitt Avenue. The bar is still stocked, and customers still come in.
Brown, a retired belly dancer better known by her stage name “Rishi,” is breathing a sigh of relief.
“I had no idea what I was getting myself into,” she said one morning last week while helping open up the restaurant on Hewitt Avenue.
The place has the kind of ambiance you’d expect to find in a Frank Capra movie: exposed brick walls, panels of dark-stained wood and lighting just bright enough accentuate the shadows.
The menu boasts Southern favorites such as fried green tomatoes, buttermilk fried chicken and hush puppies — quite a change from the previous owner’s Italian menu.
Entertainment at the restaurant ranges from local blues groups to performances by Rishi’s belly dancing group.
That’s the sort of eclectic restaurant Rishi and her husband had in mind when they bought the Prohibition Grille last year, just weeks before the U.S. economy made a beeline for recession.
When the economy sank, it took Rishi’s hopes for her business along for the ride.
“We feel really grateful,” said Rishi. “We struggled day by day to make ends meet, but here we are one year later.”
And she got a crash course in business economics along the way. A loan backed by the Small Business Administration gave her some capital to work with — but no wiggle room.
Rishi said she quickly learned there are three costs that can spell closure for a young restaurant: food, liquor and labor.
“When we opened, we didn’t have any money to begin with,” she said. “We had a tight ship.”
One napkin per place setting, and one straw per glass. That’s the kind of waste-not-want-not mentality that got Rishi and her staff through their first trying months.
But after surviving the storm, she and her co-owner husband feel like celebrating.
So bring on the music.
The Prohibition Grille will celebrate one year of survival Saturday with an Oktoberfest-style event featuring a beer garden.
Bands who play regularly at the Prohibition Grille will perform all afternoon and evening on an outdoor music stage in the open alley beside the restaurant.
Contrary to the often-quoted statistic that most businesses fail in their first two years, Rishi said she’s planning on a second anniversary celebration, too.
“I think we’ll make this an annual event,” she said.
Read Amy Rolph’s small-business blog at www.heraldnet.com/TheStorefront. Contact her at 425-339-3029 or arolph@heraldnet.com.
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