Kennewick loses longtime grocery + A Tri-Cities favorite eatery reopens + A new Dutch Bros
Not long after a delinquent tax notice went up at the old Richland Shari’s location, demolition work officially began. But what’s going to replace it?
The Shari’s restaurant opened in 1979, and for many years was a popular Tri-Cities hangout spot. It closed in December 2020 and never reopened. When the Kennewick restaurant reopened in April 2021, the chain announced the Richland store would not be coming back.
At the time, the owners of Washington Plaza, Wallace Properties, told the Tri-City Herald that they intended to replace the restaurant with a new building housing up to three tenants.
Now that’s finally coming to fruition. Demolition work has started.
A recent commercial listing indicates that the Starbucks storefront in the main shopping center will move out to the new 4,800-square-foot strip and gain a drive-thru window.
But the plaza owners don’t own the building, just the land it sits on.
The building at 1745 George Washington Way was marked with a tax lien notice recently, but Wallace Properties said that won’t change their plans. Once they have tenants lined up for the new retail strip, they’ll begin construction.
Kiemle Hagood commercial sales company is handling the real estate listing.
Dutch Bro baristas needed
A new Dutch Bros coming to the Tri-Cities is now hiring.
The second Dutch Bros in Richland will create about 40 jobs.
The new drive-thru at 490 Wellsian Way will serve customers at the intersection of Stevens Drive and Duportail Street, about one mile south of Fran Rish Stadium.
Like their other Tri-Cities locations it will feature drive-thru and walk-up windows. Unlike the others though, this one is not freestanding. It is on the end to a small shopping center.
It will be the eighth Dutch Bros. Coffee shop in the Tri-Cities. There are four in Kennewick, two in Pasco and one in Richland.
Pizza Taco
One of the most unique restaurants in the Tri-Cities is back, after closing down during the early days of the pandemic.
Mercy’s Pizza Taco in Pasco reopened recently at the corner of Nixon Street and North 3rd Avenue, across from Pasco City Hall.
Sure, you can get a traditional pepperoni pizza there, but you can also get a chicken taco or al pastor pizza. Their unique recipes combine everything you love about the two wildly popular dishes.
Mercy’s Pizza Taco, at 524 N. 3rd Ave., is open 10:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday.
Safeway
Kennewick has lost a grocery store. The Safeway at Kennewick Avenue and Highway 395 officially closed last week.
The move to close the store and gas station took customers by surprise early last month, and the store quickly began liquidating its stock.
A local union representative told the Herald last month none of the employees were being laid off. They were set to be transferred to other area Safeway stores.
It’s unclear what prompted the move, but the Washington Safeway stores were believed to part of a plan for the company to spin off stores in areas where they overlapped with Kroger and Fred Meyer stores, if the proposed merger of the nation’s two largest grocery chains is approved.
That deal might be in danger though after a Washington judge last week ordered a halt to a $4 billion payout to shareholders, citing antitrust concerns.
The final touches on conversion of the Clearwater Avenue Albertsons into a Safeway also are completed.
The renovation work saw the store completely rebranded under the Safeway banner.
Cory McCoy covers housing and development for the Tri-City Herald. If you have information about businesses opening or closing in the area, let him know at cmccoy@tricityherald.com
