A Tale of Two Restaurants

by CARYN B. BROOKS
cbrooks@wweek.com

GENTLE READERS,

Sad but true: Of late the heated discussions in the restaurant world have been about black or red instead of red or white. Eaters who rely on restaurants for escapism rarely think about the biz behind the biz, but two recent cases have brought the numbers game to the forefront and highlight the pitfalls of both the indie and the outie restaurant biz.

First, the little guy. The Couch Street Fish House, a locally owned and operated old-school fancy-pants place, closed down Dec. 1 after long-standing financial difficulties and a bankruptcy report juicier than
a T-bone on a surf-and-turf platter. As reported in the Portland Business Journal, the restaurant staff had quit by the end of November because they weren't being paid tips left on credit cards. The staff was owed as much as $6,000 before the walkout.

Moral: The problems that led to this restaurant's downfall are many, and most will probably be worked out in court, but beware to majority owner Michele Brigham: There is nothing like a waitstaff scorned. The foot soldiers in the food-service industry have a way of inflicting bad juju on restaurant owners who screw them. Most likely, Brigham will be met with bad restaurant luck for the rest of her days. Portland loves to toast those scrappy individuals who gather their gumption and plunge into a hugely risky industry, but the flip side is that when a place fails it takes a hell of a lot of people down with it. There isn't a parent company to back up indies or look over their shoulder, so when things go bad it's usually the waitstaff that get screwed.

Now let's look at a big grilled fish. Atwater's on the 30th floor of the U.S. Bancorp Tower will be shutting down Feb. 14. Known for a sparkling, panoramic view that manages to make Portland seem bigger than it is, the 16-year-old restaurant was unable to renew its lease. The room with the best view of the city may turn into some CEO's scrumptious office. As you may recall, US Bank used to be a home-grown financial institution until it was bought out in August 1997. A real-estate company called Unico, based in Seattle, now owns the Tower, and the group recently turned down the restaurant's attempt to negotiate a new 10-year lease. Once word hit the street courtesy of The Big O that Atwater's was out, the nostalgia alarm was set. Miss Dish spoke with Craig Glazier, who manages the Tower for Unico, and he told her there's a 50 percent chance the space will go to another restaurant. It seems likely if a restaurant does go in, it will be less formal than Atwater's and more lunch-focused. "In 90 days we will make an announcement," Glazier told Miss Dish. "And then we'll either be the good or bad guys."

Moral: People who own buildings do so to make some cash. But only an out-of-town company could ignore the outrage Portlanders will feel if the 30th floor isn't open to the public. Rose City-ites feel intrinsically tied to that view, and it would be bad PR to take it away. But does an out-of-state company even care about its PR? The Tower was originally built 16 years ago as part of US Bank's then-new marketing approach, and in some ways it was seen as a gift to the city. When Portland got ugly ol' Big Pink, top-floor access seemed part of the deal. There won't be anarchists in the streets protesting the loss of a fancy restaurant on the 30th floor, but there will be a lot of Portlanders, and some very powerful ones, saying, "Shame on you, Unico!" Can you hear that, Seattle? We'll see.