Hard times have hit Corvallis--or maybe not quite yet? A number of local restaurants have closed down recently and all the announcements blame the closings on the sorry state of the economy. While that is surely one factor, we suspect that other factors may be playing a role. One reason we suspect this is that a ton of new restaurants have also opened recently. And good luck to them. It seems that the demand for restaurants in Corvallis is not infinitely expanding. It remains to be seen whether it is shrinking. Meanwhile let's look a little harder at some of the recent closings, the eateries that have now joined the ranks of former Corvallis places, the dear departed of the local restaurant scene.

 

Latest to close is the Fox and Firkin, an English pub themed place on the river front. It was in fact one of the very early outposts of the river front renaissance when it opened about ten years ago. Did it happen to close just now because of widespread anti-British feelings flaring throughout the region due to the fact that it was a British company that OSU chose to help them destroy one of the most beloved and well-respected educational units in the area? Actually, no. Strangely enough, none of those feelings have cropped up yet. It's more likely that the British pub in America thing is just a difficult concept to make work. After all, people like pubs precisely because they are local; a foreign local is a contradiction in terms. There are lots of Oregon brew pubs who do the real local thing locally, and most of them seem to be doing okay. Also, the food was just so-so. It was sort of...uh...British. So bye-bye F&F. We'll be placing you in the middle rank of the departed, alongside such stalwarts as Mazzi's, Toa Yuen, and Road Trip.

A much greater loss to my mind was last year's closing of The Gables, a fixture on the scene since 1958. The Gables was an elegant steak, prime rib and seafood place of the sort that became popular all over the American West starting--I suppose--sometime around 1958. Such restaurants often had a warren of smallish dimly lit rooms. It was so dark that patrons had a hard time seeing the menu. There were candles on every table and by holding your menu close to the candle it was easier to make it out. I remember one evening at the Gables when my companion set her menu on fire...

 

Many towns used to have restaurants like The Gables, dark, elegant and romantic, with better quality beef than you could buy in most supermarkets. In recent years The Gables began offering vegetarian selections and the quality of all their food remained high. By the turn of the century, though, their sort of ambiance was way out of fashion, and The Gables seemed to have a mostly aging clientele. Some say the fat content of the chicken bisque soup probably killed a large number of them...  But The Gables in fact lasted quite a bit longer than did similar restaurants in other towns nearby. And did their business fall away or did the proprietors just get tired of it? Maybe a bit of both. In any case, we will be remembering The Gables in the very top rank of the departed, alongside The Night Deposit and the magnificent Olga's Ice Cream.

 

 

Other departed that we liked very much include The Class Reunion--more the bar part than the restaurant really--and the modest but reliable Valley, which long ago closed its retail doors and became a caterer. Another great one was The Black Swan--slow and eccentric, but always interesting. And how many locals remember the Playa Azul? It was down near where the Darkside Cinemas are now, in the place at the end which is now a law office. Playa Azul is our nominee for best Corvallis Mexican restaurant ever, though today's La Rockita chain is very much in the running. And before Playa Azul, in that same space? The much loved Bayou...