Charlestown Street Cafe, a West Seattle favorite will close its doors at 3 pm April 3.

A victim of the economy and a lease with no future owner Ron Hanlon told the West Seattle Herald that while they survived having the land almost taken from them, and a fire they finally reached the point where rising costs, the need to upgrade the building, and declining sales made it impossible to keep going.

32 years ago this month in 1979, Hanlon opened the White Spot Cafe, near The Kenney Home on Fauntleroy. He and his partner at the time were successful enough to open another location which they dubbed Websters, on California Avenue (in the current VCA Animal Hospital location) in 1982 which operated until 1991. They opened another location on First Hill in 1986 and one in Ballard. Then in 1992 the current location formally called Websters Charlestown Cafe opened.

That building was originally built in 1976 and was called The Country Kitchen, then became The Dakota House. Due to tax problems at the time it closed and reopened as Meal Makers. The business suffered from a series of problems and Hanlon and his partner at the time Larry Mellum took over. They ran it together through many changes until 2009 when Mellum left to open Pike Place Chowder in Pacific Place downtown. They parted amicably. "We were together for 20 years," Hanlon said. But economic conditions prior to that were the writing on the wall.

"Basically what happened," said Hanlon, "When we had the fire and we were shut down for five months (Feb. of 2008) we reopened to gangbuster business. In the middle of September Wall Street busted and I watched the business overnight go down. We dropped 38%, boom. So we got to the point where it costs X number of dollars to keep this thing open. So I told the staff, I'm going to step out of here and let Hesper (Guerra the Manager) run it. We weren't even breaking even."

Hanlon kept it going to keep people employed and to preserve the restaurant for the neighborhood and his customers. At it's peak, following the fire Websters employed up to 42 people. After a series of cutbacks it still wasn't enough so 30 people will lose their jobs.

The proudest memory Hanlon has of his 32 years here? "The response the community had when the landlord tried to kick us out (in Sept. 2006)."
Since that time the restaurant has been on borrowed time since he was unable to secure a long term lease from the owners of the land. "How do you justify fixing the building when you have no lease? You have to maintain the building and enhance it to keep people coming in. I just bought these chairs two months ago," explained Hanlon, " just because I thought well maybe things are going to get better, but no. The roof is shot, everything is shot."

His line of credit is essentially expired and he estimates it would take $200,000 to get everything up to where it needs to be. But that can't happen without a long term lease.

"We got through 2010 and I thought well, maybe this is going to turn, but it didn't turn, we had the worst February ever," Hanlon said sadly.

He has a $100,000 line of credit that is used up. He applied for more but can't get it.

"It wasn't my objective to go out this way because I have to pay it back," he said.

It's going take up to a year to resolve all the issues in closing the Charlestown, Hanlon expects.

At one point Hanlon said he had a buyer, "a good one" he said. But the landlord had a clause in the lease that allowed them to terminate it, essentially at any time. The deal fell through. "That was my retirement. Now I have nothing."

Saying goodbye to his loyal customers has been the hardest part. "This is not easy," he said. One elderly customer approached and asked sadly, "What are you doing? You can't do this to us." To which he could only reply, "I have no choice my dear, I'm sorry, I'm sorry." "I'll tell you what, I'm going to miss you," she said.
"I'm going to miss you too," Hanlon said.

Server Shavaughn Henley said she had been crying all day, "This is the second job that because of the economy I'll be losing. It's rough but there's nothing you can do. I'm going to miss everyone. We're going to miss all the customers."

There will be an employee party after 3 pm on April 3. Then the doors will close forever.

Hanlon expressed his thanks, holding back tears, to everyone in West Seattle for all their support. "They're all friends. Everybody who comes here is part of the family. The only reason we're still here is because of West Seattle. We were gone. If it wasn't for people going to the land use meetings, this was gone. So I owed it to them to stick it out."