Considered one of Seattle’s extra outstanding chains is scaling again its operations in an enormous means, as Skillet is closing three of its diners, leaving solely its places in SeaTac Airport and on the Seattle Middle Armory.
Skillet began out within the late 2000s as a roving Airstream trailer, one in all Seattle’s first meals vehicles. In these days it was intently related to its founder, the magnetic and mercurial chef Josh Henderson. In 2009, Greg Petrillo, who would go on to be Skillet’s CFO for a few years, joined Henderson and helped flip what was a fly-by-night operation right into a viable enterprise. Skillet was well-known for its poutine, for its fried rooster sandwiches, however perhaps most of all for its bacon jam, which was as soon as praised by Martha Stewart.
In 2011, Skillet opened its first brick-and-mortar restaurant to rave opinions; a Seattle Occasions critic referred to as it her “dream diner.” It served not simply the same old Americana staples like corned beef hash but in addition adventurous-by-Seattle-standards dishes like grilled rabbit loin. It expanded to a number of places over the following few years, however Henderson left the enterprise in 2013 — the menu had turn out to be an excessive amount of “large fats boy meals,” he later complained to Eater Seattle. Skillet remained a profitable chain for a few years, although it ditched the meals truck facet of its enterprise in 2020. (Sooner or later, rabbit fell off the menu and it caught to typical diner fare.)
Petrillo instructed the Seattle Occasions that Skillet was affected by the identical elements hurting many space eating places — lowered demand from clients, and rising prices each on the meals and labor fronts. The Capitol Hill and Submit Alley diners have closed already, and the one at Denny Triangle will shut on December 12, in response to the closure announcement on Fb.
The closures imply that Skillet is shedding 45 staff, a few of whom are already being recruited by different eating places, Petrillo instructed the Occasions. When he knowledgeable the employees on the Submit Alley restaurant, they had been “beneficiant,” and “form,” he added.