The Firehouse restaurant in Winlock is seen in this file photo from 2012.
A long-time downtown Winlock bar and diner that has provided a social gathering place for the community is closing its doors.
The Firehouse Restaurant & Lounge will serve its last meal in the Egg City on Sunday.
“It’s sad, especially since there’s nothing else here in town,” said Sherry Willard, a cook and waitress at the eatery.
The couple currently operating the business, Vern and Kris Delaney, are stepping down due to health issues, Willard said, leaving community members with no other local eatery that serves classic American diner food such as homemade soups, burgers, sandwiches and fresh hand-cut french fries.
“Most of our clientele is the older people who have been here forever,” Willard said.
A group of locals known as the “Firehouse Round Table” have been coming in on weekdays and Saturdays from 7 to 10 a.m. for years. Now, the group will have to find a new place to socialize.
“It’s been here forever,” Willard said. “We’re all sad to see it go.”
Winlock Mayor Glen Cook said the business has changed ownership and its name several times but has continuously operated on N.E. First Street for many years.
“We’d like to have another restaurant pop right up in its place,” he said.
Cook said he thinks Winlock has enough business to support a new restaurant but the problem of finding someone interested in running it remains.
General Cothren, who bought the business in 1999 and gave the Firehouse its current name, ran it for several years before Bruce Hylton took it over.
“It irritates the heck out of me to see it close down,” Cothren said. “There’s a living there.”
Hylton, who currently owns the business the Delaneys have been running, said he is working on leasing the restaurant.
“It’s just talk so far,” he said. “We’d like to see it running.”
In the meantime, most of the restaurant's nine employees have found new jobs in Centralia or Chehalis, according to Willard.
The Firehouse will serve one last prime rib special on Saturday.
•••
Amy Nile: (360) 807-8235
twitter.com/AmyNileReports
www.facebook.com/AmyNileTheChronicle
