After an unusually turbulent yr, one among Seattle’s oldest eating places is staying put, neon signal and all.
Final week it was introduced that 4 staff had bought the Virginia Inn, a restaurant and bar that has been subsequent door to Pike Place Marketplace for longer than Pike Place Market has existed. “We’re thrilled to be the brand new stewards of this historic Seattle institution,” the brand new homeowners mentioned in a press release. “The V.I. has had a storied historical past for the final 122 years, and we’re excited and keen to start the subsequent chapter.”
The V.I., because it’s identified, is generally a reasonably low-key place, however it discovered itself on the heart of a public controversy earlier this yr. In April, then-owner Craig Perez introduced that the V.I. was closing, accusing his landlord, the nonprofit Pike Place Market Preservation and Growth Authority (PDA), which runs the market, of charging extreme charges. In an interview that month with The Stranger, Perez speculated that the PDA’s lease phrases for eating places make the most of immigrant restaurant homeowners who may not be acquainted with contract language. He additionally admitted that he took the well-known neon signal and introduced it again to his home.
However on the final second, the PDA withdrew the eviction discover it had issued, asserting as a substitute that it will work with Perez, who had owned the restaurant since 2019, to search out new homeowners.
Amber Quezada, one of many 4 new homeowners, says that Perez approached her and her coworkers again in April about taking on the V.I. “It was a right away ‘sure,’ as a result of I completely love this place and I understand how vital it’s to the group,” she says. “We need to maintain it going.”
Quezada, a server and bartender, has been on the V.I. for 5 years and a part of the hospitality business for twenty years. She and co-owners Jackelyn Batingan, Manuel Sarabia, and Marisa Mohr are all business vets and have labored on the restaurant for greater than 25 years mixed. As you would possibly count on, they aren’t in a rush to vary a lot. The area will keep the identical, and so will the menu of Pacific Northwest stuff like mussels, smoked salmon, and sandwiches. “We all know what the individuals like and we’re going to maintain doing what we’re doing,” says Quezada.
The signal would be the identical too — it’s been retrieved from Perez’s home and was re-installed final week, bringing again a well-known landmark to Virginia Avenue and First Avenue.
As for the enterprise with the lease and the PDA, that’s all up to now. “The market has been very supportive of us. The second they heard that we have been going to step in and take over, they have been very supportive,” says Quezada. “We at present have a five-year lease and we’re planning to remain even longer than that.”
