Tempting to call it the end of an era, but it's just a hiccup in a 40-year run for Seattle saloon-keeper Mick McHugh. Along with his business partner Tim Firnstahl, Mick ran a chain of eateries that were hugely influential in the seventies and eighties, with a detailed operating manual, an insistence on detailed descriptions of ingredient sourcing, coupled with outrageous promotions.
For those with long memories, McHugh and Firnstahl chartered the Concorde in November, 1984, to bring the first cases of Beaujolais Nouveau to Seattle. They paid $100,000 for LeRoy Neiman to paint a mural of the bar at McRory's. When they split up, to decide who got first dibs on which property, they flipped a coin from the top of the Space Needle.
A personal note. Some 35 years ago I had my office a block from McRory's and one autumn day I stopped in for coffee. "Hey, Ron," said Mick, "You have a passport, right? You busy next Tuesday?" Which is how we took off for France in November, 1983, to set up the Concorde trip the following year.
Well, the neighborhood has gentrified, two new sports facilities have replaced the Kingdome, and Mick's landlord needs to do a seismic retrofit for the building. So Mick is moving out, taking the whole kit & kaboodle with him to another spot a couple of blocks away. But he's playing it coy; he's not saying where. He did say, in between toasts and hugs, that he wants to be up and running again by Seahawks season.
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