Savage Land reopens soon

Savage Land Pizza, a popular Spokane Valley hangout that burned a year ago, is expected to reopen in mid-May – and Robby Foote plans to be there.

“My kids are really excited to get that thing going,” Foote said. “Kids love it there. We love it there. It’s got one of the best pizzas around, and a good atmosphere for the family.”

Foote said his children, 7-year-old Cooper and 4-year-old Kendyll, cried when Savage Land was destroyed in a fire believed to have been set by a burglar. Now they’re eagerly planning to have their birthday parties in the rebuilt pizza parlor and amusement center at 700 S. Dishman Road.

Savage Land was popular with children large and small because they could crawl through a 2 1/2-story Tubes & Tunnels, jump in a giant bounce house, test their skill in the video arcade or go outside for miniature golf and trick-shot basketball on 16 curved and tilted backboards.

The separate Play Land building survived the fire although 100 seats for spectators had to be eliminated when the building was shortened to satisfy building-code and budget requirements.

Except for the arcade, all of the amusements now will be available for a single $2.50 charge. Owner Pam Veach LaRochelle said she just wants to cover the cost of maintaining the toys, whose purpose is to sell pizza she says is the best in Spokane.

“I like their pizza better, and they’ve got nachos,” Foote said. “It’s homemade pizza, basically.”

Foote, 35, and his wife, Dawn, are Spokane Valley natives who went to Savage Land for the food long before they had children.

A Chuck E. Cheese’s restaurant opened in Spokane Valley after Savage Land burned, but LaRochelle doesn’t see it as a head-to-head competitor.

“We’re for the entire family,” she said.

Guys can hang out with their buddies and watch sports on a big-screen TV, women “can have a nice salad” and children can book a two-hour birthday party, LaRochelle said.

She said the restaurant’s format and menu won’t change. There will still be cold beer and a selection of local wines, and the pizza will still be made with ingredients that are prepared fresh daily.

“We don’t do pre-made nothing,” LaRochelle said. “I try to buy the best possible ingredients I can get.”

For example, she said she uses only whole-milk mozzarella cheese.

“None of that skim stuff,” LaRochelle said. “There’s nothing diet about pizza.”

She said she can hardly wait to reopen the restaurant, but for a couple of weeks after the fire she was so discouraged she didn’t want to get out of bed. That changed when a little girl sent her $2 to help rebuild the restaurant.

“That made me cry,” LaRochelle said. “I think that was the point when I said, ‘I’m not going to let the person that caused all this pain win,’ and I said, ‘I’m going to rebuild.’ ”

She said customers have kept the restaurant’s telephone answering machine full of encouraging messages even though she empties it weekly. Some are now asking for reservations she isn’t yet ready to take, LaRochelle said.

“My message machine is full, and I think it holds 75,” she said last week. “There’s this one guy who calls back every week.”

LaRochelle said she looks forward to the man’s whimsical reports about the difficulty of finding good pizza elsewhere.

Other callers talk about grandchildren’s birthday parties at Savage Land or their own experiences there as children.

Although LaRochelle bought the pizza parlor in September 2006, it had been in business more than 30 years. LaRochelle had a long history of her own in the restaurant business, and had a well-developed strategy when she took over Savage Land.

“I grew up in restaurants,” LaRochelle said. “I put myself through nursing school in a restaurant.”

She owned The Island Cafe on Camano Island from 1988 until 1994 and ran a heavy equipment business until 1999, when she came to Spokane as senior assistant manager for CLC Restaurants, which operates a string of Taco Bells. LaRochelle had been area manager for two years when she quit to take over Savage Land.

Since then, she married Ian LaRochelle, CLC’s director of operations.

Other members of her family also are in the restaurant business.

Daughter Danielle Veach, who handles marketing, “is a mini me,” Pam LaRochelle said.

“Every restaurant, I was there before school and after school,” Veach said. “The buses would pick me up out front and drop me off there after school.”

Seven other family members also help at the restaurant, including daughter Amber Stein, sister Cindy Veach, a niece, a nephew, two prospective in-laws and a nearly 7-year-old granddaughter. And LaRochelle jokes that she’s adopted 25-year-old Savage Land manager David McCormick, who’s worked at the restaurant since he was 15.

“I’m not there to get rich,” LaRochelle said. “I just want to make a living for my family.”

She believes caring for employees is a key to success in a small business. “Then they care about your customers as much as you do.”

Investing in the community is another key for LaRochelle.

“You have to give back,” she said. “You can’t always take. If you’re not a big corporation, I think that’s how you survive.”

That’s why Savage Land continued to support the Spokane Chiefs hockey team, the Boys & Girls Club of Spokane and schools near the restaurant throughout the year it has been closed. In one popular promotion, the Chiefs and Savage Land team up to give the schools season tickets and free mini pizzas to be awarded to students for good work.

“We had to use every penny we had, but we kept it going,” Danielle Veach said.

Now, LaRochelle said, “I just hope the community comes back and supports us like they always did.”

She has a lot riding on her customers’ loyalty. LaRochelle said she didn’t have enough insurance to cover all her reconstruction costs, and what she had was swallowed up when a bank called in her loans after the fire.

“It added to an already uphill battle,” she said.

LaRochelle said she now owes about $300,000 more than she did before the fire.

A requirement to install 900 feet of eight-inch water main and a fire hydrant added more than $90,000 to the mortgage. The old 2-inch water line to the business wasn’t adequate to supply its brawny new fire sprinkler system.

“They might have to check me into Eastern (State Hospital) if I need that water supply,” LaRochelle joked.