Two legacies of a recently departed eatery have been built into Panera Bread, the new restaurant now occupying the former Steakburger site along Highway 99.
One is the word “EAT.” It’s spelled out on the ceiling in glowing letters salvaged from Steakburger’s old neon sign.
“There was a lot of sentimentality attached to Steakburger, and we wanted to create some sort of legacy to honor that sentiment,” said Sherri Kennedy, project manager with MAJ Development.
Along with members of the Panera team, “We came up with ‘EAT’ above the community dining tables.”
The other legacy has much lower visibility. Actually, it’s below ground level: It’s the sewage capacity Panera Bread inherited from the venerable Hazel Dell burger place.
By building on a previously developed site, the total sewer fee for Panera Bread was less than $750, said Shawn Moore, assistant manager of the Clark Regional Wastewater District.
That has helped address another venerable Hazel Dell feature: its limited dining options. One community leader noted a few years ago how Hazel Dell defined the four food groups: fast, frozen, home-delivered and takeout.
There was some conjecture that sewer connection charges were keeping residents in Hazel Dell and surrounding neighborhoods from eating a bit higher up the restaurant food chain.
Actually, the restaurant sewer connection charges in the area identified as Hazel Dell South are the lowest in Clark County, Moore said. From their perspective, Moore said, incomplete market research had a lot to do with the shortage of sit-down restaurants.
“If you’re a national chain, you’re looking at a fixed radius of demographics, and if it doesn’t pass that test, you move on,” he said.
But Hazel Dell establishments draw more than Hazel Dell residents.
“It takes somebody who knows that folks in Lake Shore, Felida and Salmon Creek are strained, in a sense, for opportunities for services,” Moore said. “They don’t always show up” in a market analysis.
“The exciting thing is that we’re starting to see change,” Moore said. “Buffalo Wild Wings has proven it works, and we’ve seen Applebee’s be successful” at locations in Hazel Dell and Salmon Creek. Chipotle also is represented.
It’s sure been a good move for Panera Bread, said area director Dave Hardin: “From the day we opened the cafe, it has performed above expectations.”
And it’s not just customer traffic.
“We were really well-received by the community. Steakburger was a landmark,” Hardin noted.
Many customers who have come to try out Panera Bread have shared stories of family outings and dates 20 years ago at Steakburger.
As far as those sewer fees go, Clark Regional Wastewater tries to equate restaurant and residential use.
“We convert it into an ERU — equivalent residential unit — using the number of seats in a restaurant,” Moore said. “Twelve seats are equivalent to one ERU for a typical restaurant.”
(A “quality” restaurant has 17.4 seats per ERU. Generally, they’re not open for breakfast and have a slower turnover of customers.)
In Hazel Dell South, the typical rate is $1,720 per ERU. Panera Bread saved about $10,000 with its Steakburger sewer legacy.
There are more Steakburger legacies to come, by the way. Some features from the old miniature golf course were saved and eventually will become part of the Panera Bread site.
Tom Vogt: 360-735-4558; twitter.com/col_history; tom.vogt@columbian.com
