Shari’s Cafe & Pies, an iconic chain of 24-hour household eating places and residential to quite a few lottery machines, abruptly closed all of its Oregon areas on October 20, in line with a number of sources. KGW confirmed the chain’s closure after acquiring an e-mail that Shari’s dad or mum firm CEO Sam Borgese despatched to the Oregon Lottery (apparently, Shari’s was a giant income for the lottery).
The primary Shari’s opened in Hermiston in 1978, finally rising to 42 areas throughout the state. The Oregonian stories that Shari’s areas in California, Washington, and Idaho stay open.
The Beaverton-based Shari’s diner empire began displaying indicators of decline all through 2024 because it quietly closed nearly a dozen areas throughout a number of states. Based on KATU, the difficulty is nothing new — Shari’s has been struggling financially for years. In August 2024, KGW reported that Shari’s was going through a bevy of monetary points together with $100,000 in unpaid charges to a advertising and marketing company, at the least two eviction notices, and 6 tax liens from the Idaho State Tax Fee for about $220,000 in unpaid taxes.
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Restaurant Enterprise stories that the chain’s gross sales in 2023 had been down by 7.5 p.c in comparison with the earlier yr. Deb Melina, a supervisor on the Shari’s on Northeast Airport Means in Portland, instructed KGW the location has been in “hospice” for the previous couple of months, and at one level went to the grocery retailer to restock when substances stopped being delivered to the restaurant. A remaining Yelp evaluate from September 20 of a Eugene-area Shari’s notes that the restaurant was fully out of pie — its signature merchandise. Tiffany Johnson, a normal supervisor on the Farmington location, instructed KOIN she was notified of the restaurant’s closure through textual content with no warning.
The closure of Shari’s — primarily the PNW’s reply to a Denny’s — is a big loss for Oregon’s late-night eating choices, filling a gap in smaller communities the place few round the clock eating places exist. The place will teenagers go now to hold forth in regards to the highs and lows of highschool soccer, heartbreak, and chemistry homework over a hulking slice of apple pie and a stack of pancakes at midnight?