MARYSVILLE — Empty picture frames hang on the walls at Bleachers Grill at Cedarcrest Golf Course.
Jeff Darrah, who manages the restaurant on the city-owned golf course, hopes they won’t stay that way for long. He wants people to fill up frames with their own pictures.
“We have left places for everyone to tell a story,” said Darrah, 42. “It’s nice, it’s the story untold. Hopefully it will fill up faster than I hope.”
The city sees the new tenant for the restaurant as an important piece for generating enough revenue to prevent the golf course from losing money.
The golf course restaurant closed in November 2009 following a settlement between the city and former owners Pat and Kathy Regan. The settlement allowed the Regans to run the restaurant rent-free from June through October 2009 and required both sides to remain quiet about the deal.
The restaurant opened again in December 2009 with a new tenant and restaurateur. The doors closed again last October when the business arrangement ended because the restaurant wasn’t profitable, said city administrator Gloria Hirashima. The course has cost the city on average $304,000 a year for the past five years to operate.
“The restaurant has definitely hurt us,” Hirashima said. “Because we’ve been at a loss for some extended period of time there’s been some acceptance of that and we feel in these times the city’s general fund can’t be subsidizing this operation.”
The city has owned a restaurant at the golf course since 1972 in another building and location. The current restaurant building was built and opened in 1998.
The lease agreement between the city and Darrah is set to expire on Jan. 31, 2014. He’ll pay monthly rental fees of $1,000 in February and March; $2,000 in April; $3,500 from May through January 2013; and $3,640 from February 2013 to January 2014.
Darrah opened his first restaurant, also called Bleachers, a restaurant at 9414 State Ave., two years ago. At that time he bought shirts at Goodwill and stuck them on the walls of the restaurant along with signs asking sports teams and athletes to replace his shirts with their team memorabilia. He wants a similar but different feel to the restaurant that opened Wednesday at the Cedarcrest Golf Course.
Darrah said news about his restaurant has traditionally traveled best by word of mouth but he also expects business to start off slowly at the golf course location.
“It’s hard to close a restaurant two times and just open up immediately afterward and have built-in customers,” he said. “We’ll have to work hard to get those customers back.”
Darrah is planning to post memorabilia from Marysville Pilchuck High School and Marysville Getchell High School on opposite walls of the restaurant, he said. Golf clubs will also have shadow boxes hanging on the wall to fill with awards, schedules and pictures. Some dark green paint was added to the restaurant’s walls.
For now, the menus at both locations offer a selection of burgers, grilled sandwiches, salads and fish and chips with homemade sauces. He expects the restaurant’s full service bar to open in March. The menu at the new restaurant may eventually include regularly scheduled seafood or pasta dinner nights.
He also wants to put the restaurant’s outdoor patio to use by hosting special weekend events.
Darrah’s daughter, Caitlyn, 16, enjoys working for her dad at both restaurant locations. The Lakewood High School junior recommends the jalapeno Philly sandwich.
“I can’t get enough of it,” she said. “The spicier, the better.”
Amy Daybert: 425-339-3491; adaybert@heraldnet.com.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
