When we left off (previous posts: Winchell’s Last Donut, Rancho Bravo Closed?!), we’d discovered that following the shuttering of Winchell’s, Rancho Bravo, the taco truck of city-wide fame that had made a home in the donut shop’s parking lot had closed as well, hanging a “pending new lease” sign out front.
Cub reporter that we are, we dropped a line to Freddy Rivas, the proprietor of said taco truck, hoping for some hopeful news. Here’s what we learned:
Hope you and your family are doing great. Thank you so much for contacting me. Well, here’s what’s going on. We are to take possesion and become the primary tenants of the entire property as of Tuesday October 6th, including the building. However, the previous tenant [the franchise owner] threw a fit yesterday and has denied us access to the Winchell’s building in the meantime. We have to have access to the building to be able to operate so in the meantime we are closed. His lease expired on Wednesday but he hasn’t got his stuff out yet. He has until Monday to get it out.
Overall it’s a great step for us in that we will have more control now. I don’t plan on turning the building into a taqueria though, instead I will go ahead and replace the small trailer there with the large one next door as has been the plan. I’m not sure what we will do with the building yet. It’s likely that we will keep the place operating as a donut shop in the meantime. I’m open to considering other options for the future. I would be open to hearing some ideas too. Maybe the readers would like to share some ideas with us.
Freddy went on to mention that there’s a bit more to the story, but that’s the most we’ll say for now.
This is good news, as it heads off the internecine intramural fight over where in Wallingford to relocate the truck.
phew.
That is awesome news! Didn’t want to see them leave Wallingford!
How hard would it be to turn a donut shop into a tortilla shop like the one in Queens? I would be in heaven if they could pull that off!
So the building will still be a donut shop and the taco truck will remain? Sounds good to me.
Do a donut shop like Voodoo Donuts in Portland and you’ll be a huge hit!
Yea! Makes sense to me to keep the donuts — it’s already set up for that type business. And now I get to try the tacos after all!
wouldn’t it make sense to turn it into a churreria?
or it can be extra seating for the taco truck
There is a new taco truck parked across the street now in the Shell gas station parking lot. Called TacoGol. Not sure if it was just parked there, or if they are looking to set up shop.
tortilleria. Churreria. Donuts would be good if it takes a total deviation from the winchell’s style. Something would have to change to get more traffic going through the donut shop.
Suzanne has the right idea! They should franchise Voodoo Donuts up here! I just brought a Voodoo dozen back from Portland a few days ago and they were a huge hit with all my friends.
Glad to hear the taco truck will remain too! I was super bummed when I drove by and saw the signs.
@Suzanne – having just gorged at Voodoo yesterday morning, I have to agree!
@Bill – I saw that as I was getting home last night, and just assumed “Oh! ‘Taco Truck’ just relocated across the street, cool. Anyone have an update?
Thank God they aren’t closing! I went by on Friday for my weekly burritos and saw the sign. Instant depression. I did not want to have to drive into Capital Hill every week for my burritos, but I would have. They should turn the Winchell’s into a tauqueria for sure. I don’t see why they would keep the doughnut place.
Quite some time ago on the other Wallingford blog, residents suggested that what Wallingford is lacking restaurant-wise is a good Vietnamese pho place. I’m not sure that’s a practical solution in this case, but it would certainly be welcome!
Otherwise a doughnut/churro place is a good second choice.
I second the vote for pho. I’m partial to Mighty O for my local donut fix, though it sounds like I will have to check out Voodoo the next time I am in Portland.
On a slightly related note, I was thinking that Hawaiian Breeze on the corner of Wallingford and 45th should sell shave ice in the summer. That would give us a killer trifecta of shave ice, gelato, and ice cream that would be the envy of the whole city.
I second wallingford needing a good Pho shop. I mean the U District isn’t that far…but I wouldn’t have to deal with parking then.
@Brian: Hawaiian Breeze *does* sell shave ice. They have since they opened.
They also have some of the finest danged macaroni salad this side of the islands….
A Mexican family possibly running a Pho restaurant and a Vietnamese family operating a french bakery. Only in Wallingford 🙂
Please Rancho Bravo, move into the donut house! And get a liquor license so I can have tacos and a beer inside out of the rain.
We totally need a Vietnamese restaurant! With all our Asian restaurants, it’s just wrong to have to go to Aurora, Lake City, the U District or downtown to get pho, banh mi, etc. It would be a great complement to Rancho Bravo, not competition. We do NOT need more doughnuts!
What I would love is a Mexican-style bakery like they have in Southern California, really different-style, colorful, inexpensive pastries, birthday cakes, etc. !Delicioso!
Definitely keep the donuts! Then you have morning, afternoon and evening business. Good luck!
@jp: Wow–I must have missed the shave ice on the menu in the window of Hawaiian Breeze. My mistake.
I from Arizona and would love to see a la Panaderia with Pan Dulce (Conchas) and Tres Leches and Flan in the neighborhood!
actually I DO need more donuts. I live across the street and the smell of donuts frying in grease is GREAT. Please keep the donuts.
History and community mean nothing to the people posting here. That doughnut shop had been the hub of morning neighborhood discussions – about politics and sports – for years. It opened as a pastry and coffee shop, back in 1968.
Many people became long-standing friends there. But in the late Nineties, the decline of the place began when a series of owners took it over who didn’t care about the long-time regulars. Smoking was banned in 1998 and that cost them the business of many regulars. Ironically, since that time, many of the regulars passed away from cancer.
The most recent franchise owner was absolutely uncaring about the regulars. He didn’t offer a public bathroom. The lighting was terrible and he offered free Wi-Fi; which did nothing to encourage conversation.
The church, down the street from Dick’s, opened a coffee shop about two years ago. That’s where the neighborhood regulars went.
If the former doughnut shop owner wants to blame someone for the shops’ demise, he shouldn’t blame Freddy. He should simply own up to the fact that he blew it.
Noe Gracia, the manager of the doughnut shop knows Freddie well. I hope Freddie will work to keep Noe employed at the doughnut shop.
They should make it unique to Wallingford. Screw Voodoo Doughnuts.
While I appreciate the history lesson, Terry, I’m thinking your first sentence there is a little harsh. I’m with Naomi@24, a panaderia would be awesome at that spot. Yet I have a feeling a business like that may not have been welcomed in 1968, when areas north of the Ship Canal were “redlined”. Times change, often for the better.
I stand by my earlier statement regarding the fact that history and community means nothing to most people in Seattle. If the former wasn’t true some things wouldn’t change. People would want to keep those things, as they were, and have been, for decades.
Instead, the proverbial wrecking ball has been swung so many times and so often, that now hardly anthing exists in Seattle to make it different from hundreds of other cities, across America. Now that’s more than a little harsh.
As for community, I don’t mean the monthly meetings of Democrats that sprout like dandelions across Seattle, with the regularity of same. I mean places where people come together, of diverse political and philosophical opinion – truly diverse political and philosophical opinion – and talk about current events and politics; and mix it up with the intensity and fevor of people haggling over goods at a Moroccan street bazaar.
That Winchell’s in Wallingford was like that, for decades. Of course, it hadn’t been like that for over 10 years. So maybe you’re right, Doug. That change, at least, might be for the better.
But I don’t know that a panaderia, as you and Naomi call it, would be an improvement. Admittedly, that’s based on my ignorance of the term “panaderia.”
I myself spent most of my four years in the Navy, at an Navy air base in the Imperial Valley of California. I’d welcome a basic, honest Mexican restaurant, without pretense and affectation, if that’s what you’re talking about (and I think it is).