Jeff Fletcher was saying goodbye to his Mill Creek family before hopping a bus back to school in British Columbia.
Kevin Rieve was waiting out a stop on his holiday trip from Leavenworth to Bellingham.
But for the most part, I had missed the post-Christmas crowd at the Greyhound bus station in Everett. The place was nearly empty late Wednesday morning.
"Boy, it was busy. We just had three buses go to Spokane," said Ted Gohl, who manages the station on Pacific Avenue near the downtown post office.
Come Feb. 3, the place will be truly empty. Greyhound operations will move to the new Everett Station at Pacific and 35th Street east of Broadway. The multimodal facility will become the Greyhound and Amtrak station, and a crossroads for Sound Transit, Everett Transit and Community Transit buses. It will also house education programs and employment services.
A new era for Everett, the copper-roofed station means the end of the line for Vi’s Restaurant, which will close its doors next month. Vi’s, next door and attached by a hallway to the old bus station, is where I found the action Wednesday.
"This place is like a lot of places people go to lunch. They develop a habit. Here, there’s a reason to come back," said 72-year-old Victor Haglund. The Everett attorney eats at Vi’s five days a week.
"This is the good old boys’ corner, right here," added Anthony Martinis, 64. A member of a prominent fishing family, the Everett man spends every lunch hour at Vi’s. Martinis is often there at 7 a.m. for coffee, too.
"It’s a place to socialize and complain about the city," joked George Drumheller, who owns a building near Vi’s and spends lunchtime there plus "about 10 coffee breaks" each day. "A lot of wonderful people have been through here," he said.
Named for a previous owner, Vi’s has been run since 1983 by John and Susie Hong of Mukilteo. Their business has kept the Korean-born couple busy six days a week for nearly 20 years.
John cooks, while Susie works out front and artfully juggles lunch orders and good-natured teasing. Regulars chow down on sandwich specials or spaghetti while tossing wisecracks back and forth over the booths.
"Everybody knows everybody," Susie Hong said.
Haglund, polishing off split pea soup, said he’s in a bit of denial about having to change a longtime lunch habit. "I’m hoping Susie will take over someplace downtown. If she did, everyone would follow her."
The Hongs say no. They own apartments and are ready to spend more time with their family. They have three children, one a recent University of Washington graduate, another a UW student, and a third a senior at Kamiak High School.
Daughter Nancy, 18, who was helping with lunch, said she has never been on an airplane, because her parents haven’t taken a vacation in her lifetime.
"This is like home here, and nobody beats Susie’s price. She has a big heart," said Bob Wilson, 58, who was lunching with Haglund but traded banter with Martinis and Gosta Dagg, another Everett lawyer, at a neighboring table.
Over a BLT sandwich, Wilson reminisced about coffee chats with downtown business leaders, "guys like Ed Rubatino, Tom Hoban Sr. and Art Skotdal."
It was local people rather than travelers just passing through who kept Vi’s in business.
"Customers come from the courthouse, the post office, CT and Everett Transit. We’ve had people from retail, councilmen and mayors," John Hong said.
"We’ve met a lot of nice people. It’s like family," his wife added.
"It is a family thing," Martinis said.
Nobody ever likes to hear about a family breakup. For a group about to split, though, these guys were having a heck of a good time.
Contact Julie Muhlstein via e-mail at muhlsteinjulie@heraldnet.com, write to her at The Herald, P.O. Box 930, Everett, WA 98206, or call 425-339-3460.
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