SEQUIM — This week, what appeared to be a thriving restaurant was shut down by the bank that financed its opening six months ago.
The Sauer Kraut German Deli, Bakery and Cafe “is closed — permanently,” its Web site says.
On Tuesday afternoon, First Federal officers foreclosed on the Sauer Kraut, evicted owners Tom and Daniel Heintz and posted a security guard outside the locked restaurant.
“They came in and ransacked my building. They kicked out the employees and told the customers to leave,” Tom Heintz said Thursday.
“They took the keys from my desk and counted the money in the till,” which amounted to about $400.
First Federal’s vice president of credit administration, Roger Kelso declined to comment on the Sauer Kraut and its owners, referring comment to Gina Lowman, vice president of sales and marketing.
“There is nothing I can share,” Lowman said Thursday.
Until Tuesday, the Sauer Kraut seemed like a smashing success. The eatery offered European-style deli fare, baked goods, catering, cooking classes, live music and wireless Internet, and sent its food and servers to festivals all over the Dungeness Valley.
Missed payments
But for the past three months, the Heintz brothers haven’t been able to make the $3,500 monthly payments on the First Federal loan that funded their business.
“We got behind,” Tom Heintz said, not only on the bank loan but on the $8,000-per-month lease on the 4,000-square-foot space at Rock Plaza.
On Tuesday, First Federal officials phoned him to ask him to come to The Sauer Kraut, where they had a security guard standing by.
Tom and Daniel Heintz were allowed to go in and collect their personal property, but “my accounts are frozen and my facility has been locked,” Tom Heintz said. “We are filing for bankruptcy individually.”
Though a hand-printed sign in the window of the Sauer Kraut reads “closed till further notice,” Daniel Heintz said on Thursday that “that does not look possible.”
He added that his Carlsborg property, the 5-acre Heintz Berry Farm, was put up as collateral for The Sauer Kraut loan.
Also lost the farm
“The farm is also past tense,” Daniel Heintz said, adding that he hopes to find a buyer who will keep it as it is — blackberry and loganberry vineyards – rather than turning the land into a housing tract.
As for the next chapter of his life, Daniel Heintz said he hopes to return to his vocations of photography and travel.
He has a fine art degree from Brigham Young University and wants to do relief work and photography in the developing world.
“Come next year, I’ll be a new man on a new mission,” he said.
The Heintzes opened the Sauer Kraut on April 24 with a staff of nearly 40.
By this fall, “we had it narrowed down to 12,” Daniel Heintz said. “We streamlined it as best we could.”
He added that Tuesday started out “as a regular day.” The speed of the shutdown stunned him.
Tom Heintz spoke more strongly. First Federal was “heavy-handed” in its eviction of the staff and its demand for his keys to the restaurant, he said.
“They thought I was a flight risk,” he said. “I don’t know where I’d go.”
Tom Heintz said that he had met with his landlord at Rock Plaza, Joe McLaughlin, to try to negotiate a lower monthly lease payment.
“He was willing to come down some but not enough for us to survive,” Tom Heintz said.
McLaughlin wouldn’t comment Thursday on the Sauer Kraut.
For more than a year before the doors opened, the deli-bakery-cafe-catering company was Tom Heintz’s mission.
After working as a computer programmer for 20 years, he’d followed his passion for German food and become a chef.
Future uncertain
He’s not sure what he will pursue next.
“I’m open,” he said, adding that he and his wife, Laurel, want to stay in the area.
The message he wants to give those who enjoyed the Sauer Kraut’s hearty fare is one of thanks.
“We had so much fun there. It was something special,” he said.
And on the Web site, www.TheSauerKraut.com, the Heintzes made one last posting.
“What a great community we have! We will miss serving you and even dancing with you — we truly wish it could have been otherwise.”
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Sequim-Dungeness Valley reporter Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladaily news.com.