The wave of Shari’s Cafe & Pies restaurant closures across Oregon appears to have shuttered a couple of Clark County locations, as well. As of Tuesday morning, the Shari’s at the corner of Northeast 117th Avenue and 76th Street appeared to be the only one still open here.
It was widely reported Monday that all Shari’s locations in Oregon abruptly closed over the weekend. Two Vancouver locations have closed in recent days too: one on Chkalov Drive and another on Thurston Way near Vancouver Mall. The Thurston Way location was open as recently as earlier this week.
A worker who answered the phone Tuesday at the 117th Avenue Shari’s said she doesn’t expect that location to close.
“We’re still open and still working,” she said, adding that she’s worked at that location for 29 years. She said her manager was unavailable to speak to The Columbian.
She said the two Clark County locations that closed recently had failed to renegotiate their leases. Renegotiation for the lease at the 117th location is underway now, she said.
It’s been widely reported since last year that Shari’s restaurants have been in decline and struggling to pay bills, rent, taxes and other expenses. Portland TV station KGW tried to reach Shari’s parent companies in August but found its Beaverton, Ore., offices empty, and got no response from offices in Texas, according to the station’s story.
Founded in Hermiston, Ore., in 1978, the chain of signature hexagonal, 24-hour restaurants grew to a total of 95 locations in six states in the West, according to its website.
The Shari’s chain in Oregon has been lucrative for the Oregon Lottery’s video terminals. KGW reported that Shari’s locations generated more than $34 million in lottery revenues in 2023 and earned $7.45 million in commissions. But the Oregon Lottery shut down its Shari’s terminals and yanked them from all Oregon restaurants earlier this year.
The loss of those commissions contributed to Shari’s downward spiral in Oregon.
According to both The News Tribune of Tacoma and Restaurant Business magazine, numerous legal actions have been filed against Washington Shari’s locations and its corporate owners, listed as either Shari’s Management Corp. or Shari’s Non Oregon Holding LLC. That includes debt collection cases that have been filed in 11 Washington counties, including Clark, since 2020, according to The News Tribune.
