Washington Restaurant Sales Down; Gainsbourg Fire

WASHINGTON RESTAURANTS—Puget Sound Business Journal's Glenn Drosendahl says that the outlook is mixed for Washington restaurants. 56% of participating Washington Restaurant Association[WRA] members reported lower year over year sales and traffic for October 2011. This follows sequential annual decreases in both sales and traffic, beginning in 2007. However, GlennDro cites a flurry of October openings and new restaurants opening in South Lake Union, as examples of pockets of optimism. According to WRA President, Anthony Anton, Washington tends to lag the rest of the country--and there is an upward trend in both sales and traffic in the rest of the U.S. [PSBJ]

GREENWOOD—Bethany Jean Clement says that french cocktail lounge, Gainsbourg suffered a serious fire and may not reopen till after the holidays. What's with that Greenwood/Phinney area - seems to see lots of fires? [The Stranger]

DOWNTOWN—Uptown Espresso at 7th & Virginia says it will close their downtown location on Friday December 16th, because their landlord raised their rent. This leaves the local chain with seven other locations in the Seattle area. [EaterWire]

SOUTH LAKE UNION—Nancy Leson interviewed Peter Birk on his recent decision to leave his longtime chef position at Ray's Boathouse to head up Harborside. Birk tells Leson that the challenge of bringing sustainable practices to a national chain with 85 locations beckoned him: "The concept of Northwest-focused, local and sustainable is not a new thing . . . But it is a new focus for this company. To be able to raise the bar at Harborside and eventually extend that to other properties is a huge opportunity, both for me and the company, which has a national identity." [Seattle Times]