EVERETT – When a lighted cigarette landed by chance on a wooden windowsill late on the night of April 25, it would change everything for the family-run enterprise known as The Sisters.
Three months later, the 21-year-old restaurant is about to open its doors again, hoping that its former crowd of loyal customers comes back.
Located at 2804 Grand Ave. in downtown Everett, Sisters suffered thousands of dollars worth of damage from smoke and water in the April blaze at the Everett Public Market building.
It could have been worse if sprinklers and firefighters hadn’t quelled the fire relatively quickly. The damage to the building was initially estimated at $10,000. Neighboring businesses, however, later estimated a cost several times that first figure.
The mother and sisters behind The Sisters are using the closure of the business as a chance to update the kitchen, something they said has been needed for years.
But even in the aftermath of a relatively small calamity, there are myriad issues for a small business to deal with as it recovers, as Martha Quall, owner of The Sisters, and her daughters – Gretchen, Kathleen and Victoria – have discovered firsthand.
“Running a business is stressful as it is,” Victoria “Tory” Quall said. “This is a different kind of stress, because you’re dealing with more unknowns.”
Before the Qualls could think about repairing their restaurant, the cleanup work had to take place. In the first week, workers set up huge blow dryers to bring up the temperature of the restaurant to 90 degrees for two or three days and industrial fans to dissipate the smoke smell and help keep mold from settling in.
After the initial cleanup and damage assessment by insurance adjusters, the Qualls concentrated on redoing the restaurant’s kitchen area. They never before had time to make more than incremental changes over the past two decades, Tory Quall said.
“It’s an opportunity to make some changes in the kitchen, which is impossible to do when you’re open,” said Tory Quall, as she and Gretchen Quall watched in mid-May as workers laid down a new subfloor in the kitchen.
All the room’s equipment was stacked in a large pile near the front entrance to the sealed-off dining room.
By that time, answering the calls still coming in from loyal customers had become too time-consuming. So the Qualls left updated messages on their answering machine to tell customers their best guess on when the eatery would be ready to serve the sizable lunch crowd again.
“They just want to make sure we’re coming back, which is gratifying and encouraging,” Tory Quall said.
Taking time to update, in addition to completely fixing the damage at the restaurant, would probably have been impossible without their business property insurance, Tory and Martha Quall agreed. The insurance covered the full wages of the restaurant’s seven employees, including the three sisters.
Without business property insurance, the restaurant would have tried to reopen as soon as possible in order to keep the employees paid, the Qualls said.
And, of course, the damage would not have been covered, increasing the business’s financial loss.
At last word, Tory Quall added, all the employees are planning to come back when The Sisters opens again. That will make the first weeks back in operation more smooth.
“I think they’re just enjoying their extended vacation,” she said.
The Qualls, however, have collectively been at the restaurant up to 12 hours a day to oversee and even help with the repairs and renovation.
Finding the right people and companies for each of the many tasks may be the hardest part of getting the restaurant back into shape, Tory Quall said.
“It has been challenging,” she said. “For a lot of it, you get out the phonebook and start calling or talking to other businesses.”
Keeping track of what needs to be done by whom and who can do the job at the best price also means being organized, Tory Quall said. So far, though, all the work’s gone relatively smoothly, except for the usual delays involved with renovation projects.
“We feel pretty good about the decisions so far,” she said.
By early June, new flooring had been installed, and workers were getting the kitchen ready for a new range hood and other equipment.
After that, work bogged down. In the kitchen, counters and equipment still needed to be put into place. The outdated answering machine message still indicated Sisters would be opening “by early July,” while Tory Quall estimated it would open sometime in the next two weeks.
Even if The Sisters had been ready earlier, the nearby restrooms in the Everett Public Market building weren’t ready until this month, which would’ve prevented the restaurant from operating lawfully.
Compared to the front kitchen area, the dining room at Sisters needed relatively little work done after the fire. As of last week, the walls sported new paint and looked mostly done.
That’s one of the few changes being made to the dining room. Before The Sisters became a popular place for local artists to display their works, the Qualls had an artist paint the dining room with a sponge-patterned design.
While attractive, some of the artists who later wanted to hang their works at Sisters thought the walls’ look distracted from the art. So the new paint job keeps that in mind, Tory Quall said.
“It’s kind of exciting to have a backdrop that accommodates the art a little more, without fighting for attention,” she said.
During the fire, an exhibit of photographs, not paintings, was hanging. That turned out to be fortuitous, as the damage done to the photos was minimal compared with what the smoke and water might have done to painted works.
While the restaurant approaches its grand reopening, one of the only loose ends is exactly who started the fire. Everett firefighters and police investigated it as a reckless burning, believing someone threw the lighted item from the next-door Nautica apartments.
Tory Quall said she’s looking forward to the routine and the more familiar stress that comes with a restaurant’s operation once The Sisters opens. The menu will be the same, but the surroundings will look newer.
The Qualls also have used the hiatus to think about another change or two. For example, Martha Quall said, they’re toying with the idea of being open at least a few hours on weekends.
That’s been a longtime request of the eatery’s fans, but the sisters’ young children at the time prevented weekend operation. Now that most of the family’s children are grown, Martha Quall said, it might be possible.
“We’ve talked about it,” she said.
While Tory Quall said she’s glad they seized the unplanned event of the fire to update the restaurant’s kitchen and interior, she hopes customers will still come back once the doors reopen. For years, The Sisters has collected rave reviews for its homemade soups, quiches, sandwiches and desserts in an unpretentious atmosphere.
“We just hope people don’t forget about us,” she said, “because it’s taking much longer than we thought.”
Reporter Eric Fetters: 425-339-3453 or fetters@heraldnet.com.
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