Percy’s owner ponders soup kitchen

The owner of a popular Spokane Valley restaurant that lost its lease in July would like to feed the poor.

Pat Kroetch said she considered reopening Percy’s Cafe Americana in a new location, but now is leaning toward running a soup kitchen instead.

“I’m not going to open another restaurant right now,” Kroetch said. “If I do, it will be quite a while.”

Either way, she’s prepared.

Thanks to friends and family, Kroetch was able to remove all her restaurant equipment, including walk-in coolers, from the Percy’s site in the University City Shopping Center instead of selling it in place.

“My kids took over this move for me,” Kroetch said, noting she has five adult children and 13 grandchildren – including some football players for heavy lifting.

Also, Kroetch said, “My employees have been just like family to me, and they’ve been helping me.”

She bought two semi-trailers to store the restaurant equipment until she’s ready to use it.

Kroetch said she plans to confer with operators of established food charities, such as the Women’s and Children’s Free Restaurant at 1620 N. Monroe St., for advice on how to put her skills to use.

“I’d like to kind of piggyback on someone else’s outfit rather than just jump right in on my own,” she said.

Kroetch was touched by tragedy in the past year. Her husband, Greg, died of an illness 10 days after the July 10, 2008, Valleyview fire destroyed the dream home they designed and built in 1986.

“I’m not going to rebuild it,” Kroetch said. “It would be too lonesome without Greg, I think.”

Still, she said, her life has been blessed. “There is nothing sad about my life.”

Percy’s Cafe Americana opened at U-City in 1965 as The Golden Hour. It was operated by Kroetch’s father, Percy Howell, until Kroetch and her husband took over in 1984 and renamed the restaurant in Howell’s honor. Previously, Greg and Pat Kroetch operated other eateries, including two Bread Basket restaurants in Spokane.

Four women who incorporated in April as The Luxury Box are to take over the Percy’s site as well as the independently operated Decades banquet room next door. They include Tina Bishop, whose Elegant Touches wedding-planning business has used Decades for receptions.

The Luxury Box partners say they were looking for space elsewhere when University City Inc. offered the Percy’s site.

They plan a new restaurant, bar and banquet operation. The business will cater events off-site as well as at Decades.

Cancellation of the Percy’s lease raised some eyebrows on the Spokane Valley City Council as well as among longtime customers.

The successful restaurant catered numerous events at Decades and was a community icon. The Greater Spokane Valley Chamber of Commerce had its meetings there.

University City Inc. is to be the city’s partner in redeveloping the largely defunct shopping mall as a city center. The mall owners will choose a developer for the project.

“I was hoping Percy’s would stay right where it’s at so we could have an institution at the new city hall site,” Mayor Rich Munson said. “That would have been great.”

Does the decision to cancel the Percy’s lease shake his confidence in University City’s management?

“Can I just smile?” Munson responded. “I really, officially can’t comment as mayor, but I am very, very disappointed on a personal basis.”

Councilwoman Rose Dempsey said she already had misgivings about the mall owners.

“It was just kind of like, ‘Well, what do you expect?’ ” she said of the Percy’s closure. “I would have thought Percy’s would be a good restaurant to keep in the city center.”

But Jim Magnuson, president of University City Inc., said the lease cancellation has no bearing on the city center project.

He said the problem was that Kroetch’s lease expired around 1 1/2 years ago and Percy’s remained in its quarters on a month-to-month basis.

“Our management had a number of conversations with her in an effort to renew a lease,” Magnuson said. “There was nothing ever forthcoming, and it just sat there. As a landlord, you like to have a little security other than a month-to-month lease.”

Kroetch confirmed that mall manager Orville Barnes told her several times that he wanted a new lease and a rent increase.

“I was just waiting for them to present it,” she said. “I thought that was their move.”

Barnes declined to comment, but Magnuson said management did what it could to negotiate a new lease.

“The Kroetches have been there for a long, long time and they’ve been very good tenants – good restaurant people – over a long period of time,” Magnuson said. “They know how the tenancy works.”

“The reason I didn’t know was because it was my husband’s department,” Kroetch said. “But I do think things happen for the best reason. I don’t wish anything bad to anybody.”