PORT HADLOCK — A restaurant that received a reality show makeover last fall is closing its doors because it lost its lease, its owners said.
But owners are seeking to reopen elsewhere, perhaps in Sequim.
Zoog’s Caveman Cookin Restaurant & Cave Lounge will close at the end of Thursday because it was not financially feasible to raise the money needed — $16,000 by this coming Saturday — for the lease renewal, according to Bret “Zoog” Forsberg, owner of the family business at 141 Chimacum Road.
“If I had gotten a loan to cover the payment, my interest rate would have been so high it only would have kept us open another month,” Forsberg said.
“I wouldn’t have been able to make the payments on the electric bill. They’d shut off the power, and we’d be back where we started.”
The restaurant will open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Thursday, and there will be no ceremony.
“We were going to buy extra chicken wings and do a special but figured, ‘What’s the point?’” said Holly Pritchett, Forsberg’s daughter, who manages the restaurant.
“So we decided to just do traditional barbecue, which is what people come here to get anyway.”
Pritchett said the family is investigating several possible locations in Sequim.
“As much as we want to save the place, Port Hadlock is not a good place for us,” Pritchett said.
“We thought of trying to continue but decided to just call it what it is and find another location in a bigger town.”
Pritchett said the business has a built-in customer base in Sequim since many people travel from there to Port Hadlock to eat at the restaurant.
As they search for a new location, the family will bring its barbecue cart to such North Olympic Peninsula events as Sequim Lavender Weekend and the Jefferson County Fair.
The Port Hadlock barbecue restaurant opened in October 2012 with a 1,900-square-foot bar and restaurant on Chimacum Road after serving out of a food cart at several local fairs and events.
Business was good at first but tapered off.
Last year, Forsberg contacted the producers of “Restaurant Impossible,” a show on the Food Network that selects distressed restaurants and provides a $10,000 makeover in a three-day period.
The work on the barbecue restaurant began Nov. 14. It reopened Nov. 21 with new flooring, paint, wall coverings, refreshed tables, new chairs and repaired kitchen and bar equipment.
Pritchett had said March 18 that the business might have to close after losing its lease when the building reverted to a former owner, Trudy Boedticker.
Pritchett said Boedticker told the family the business could stay where it is if they paid $16,000 by this Saturday to renew the lease.
Forsberg said his appearance on the Food Network’s “Restaurant Impossible” in February was ultimately worthwhile as it increased his visibility and allowed him to stay open for a few more months.
He’s not sure what will happen to the building but feels that the improved flooring, furniture and paint make it a better investment than when he moved in.
The property is listed for $495,000 on the Century 21 website, http://tinyurl.com/PDN-BBQ.
“We want to thank all our customers for their support over the last two years,” Forsberg said.
“And if people want to find out where we end up, they just need to check our Facebook page.”
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Jefferson County Editor Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or cbermant@peninsuladailynews.com.
