It is without a doubt McMenamins is a unique corporation.  On the surface one could say they they really are not so different than Red Robin or Appleby's.  Indeed, they are clones of Red Robin's and Appleby's with the exception that they make certain each location they open is unique and very local.  They employ historians and local artists to make certain each physical plant becomes a part of the community.  This is not a bad thing but in the end we have a very localized version of Red Robin.  A Denny's could do the same thing, find a nice historical location, gussy it up, and watch the masses flock in.  In the end you still have a Denny's with its marching orders coming from a corporate office in some far away location.  I'd take a McMenamins operation over a Red Robin any day of the week, but let us not delude ourselves that McMenamins is really of our community.

I've seen recently two corporate stores go down the tubes in downtown Olympia, those would be the Quiznos and the Taco Del Mar.  Both attempted to use fairly historical buildings as their physical plants.  Maybe the Quiznos was less successful in their  blending.  The bottom line is that Olympia had not interest in such places to eat.  The investors lost money and sneaked  away in the dead of night.

If we are to believe that the McMenamins operation will "save" Olympia we really have to ask the question, do they actually serve Olympia?  My guess is that they are greasing the skids for other smart corporate operators to come into downtown and eventually turn it into a boutique downtown for the tourists and visitors.  It will be a downtown that the typical lover of downtown will eschew and that could very well be the intent of it all.  We keep the old concept of downtown as a unique place but replace it with a zombie downtown, all the while ruining it for those that have supported downtown all these years.

People would like to believe that downtown is about buildings and businesses, and to some degree they are right.  The truth is that downtown is about people.  All kinds of people with all kinds of uses of downtown.  The more kinds of people you have in a downtown, the more successful the downtown is.  Build the zombie downtown and you will only attracted a limited variety of people and the diversity that gives the downtown its charm and character will be lost forever.  McMenamins can not stop this, but they can by their very presense insure it happens.

Tacoma would do anything for McMenamins to come in and convert a building into one of their operatons, indeed it will probably happen.  The talk is that they will take over the old Elks building above Tacoma's water front.  Plenty of room for all the McMenamins amenities and a way historical and beloved building.  Tacoma is different about their intentions for its downtown than Olympia.  In Tacoma they will openly admit they want a zombie downtown and they are well aware that a McMenamins will accomplish this.

I have enjoyed the McMenamins operation, the Olympic Club, in Centralia.  It is popular with the locals and the visitors and has been the envy of Olympia for quite some time.  Good beer, good food, a movie a burger and a beer for $10 on Wed. night.  They do a lot of things right, no question about it.  What worries me about them is the wrong they will allow to occur.

"I would make it impossible for the covetous and avaricious to utterly impoverish the poor. The rich can take care of themselves."
^@^