SEQUIM — Dockside Grill owners Steve and Ruth Little were running tight on space at their 3-year-old John Wayne Marina location when a neighboring shop went out of business.
That’s when they seized the opportunity, and the Pelican Room took flight.
“We turned away 4,000 people in the summertime, and we thought we desperately needed the expansion,” said Steve Little, the restaurant’s chef.
24 additional seats
The new 24-seat Pelican Room adds about 600 square feet of restaurant overflow space — the main restaurant seats 56.
The new room comes with a walk-up bar that contractor Willie Floyd and Sequim artist Mike Jaquish hand-crafted from a slab of old-growth American elm planted in 1890 in Marysville.
Tile work on the bar was done by the Littles’ son, Lance, who also is a server at the restaurant.
It’s a family-run operation.
The Littles’ daughter, Emily, also is a server among the staff of 18 that grows to about four more during summer months, Steve Little said.
Cozy fireplace
Like the main restaurant, the cozy new Pelican Room, complete with a wall fireplace, overlooks John Wayne Marina and Sequim Bay.
The Littles worked out a new lease with the Port of Port Angeles, the marina owner, for the space used by the former Bosun’s Locker marine and gifts shop for 10 years.
Steve Little, a chef for 33 years, owned the former Xanadu Grill east of Sequim for five years. Before that, he was the chef of the former Oyster House on Discovery Bay. He also was chef at the Old Mill Cafe for two years in Carlsborg.
He said loyal Xanadu customers followed him and his wife to the Dockside Grill, which opened in 2007.
The restaurant will be open on Christmas Eve — a first — and is always open on New Year’s Eve.
The restaurant also caters to the Port of Port Angeles conference space upstairs of the marina facility that marked its 25th anniversary this year.
Besides five draft micro-brews at the bar and a shelf full of fine wines, the bar offers an appetizer and three-wine deal that allows customers to pair wine with foods, he said.
Hours are Wednesday through Sunday with lunch served from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and dinner served from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m.
For more information, phone 360-683-7510 or visit www.docksidegrill-sequim.com.
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
