Just heard that the B*rgermaster near U Village is going to close, replaced by a residential tower. I’m devastated. I may move to Thailand. Or Italy. Some place where you can still linger over breakfast and the morning papers!
--Facebook (January 9, 2022)8 comments-----------------------------------------------------------
Exactly two years ago today, as noted above, I learned that my favorite hangout for lunches and breakfasts was about to close. A developer had bought the property that both B*rgermaster and the adjacent Safeway occupied. Safeway closed almost immediately. But the developer apparently had difficulty obtaining the necessary building permits, or at least his obtaining the permits took longer than expected.
As a result, B*rgermaster has continued for the past two years, serving the needs of the area north and east of the University. And, more important, my own needs -- it is a sit-down restaurant, where food is ordered at the counter and brought to the table by servers.
But today, the other shoe dropped, as it were. While getting breakfast this morning, the checker warned me that my string of meals was coming to an end. B*rgermaster had been served with notice of cancellation of their lease. Or, as the checker put it more tersely, they were being evicted.
B*rgermaster serves a diverse base. Students, construction workers, family groups, and retired people like myself. Many of the retired customers are regulars, who show up day after day. Some even have regular seats. The servers greet them by name, and know exactly at which table to find them. The loss of B*rgermaster will be a significant loss for the neighborhood.
It won't be the first. The lot to be developed abuts the upscale University Village shopping center. The Village is a beautiful shopping center, large, nicely designed, well landscaped, and full of customers. But it's also a shopping center that, while welcoming to all, clearly caters to a fairly well-to-do clientele.
It wasn't always so. At one time, it had not only expensive shops, but stores that served the daily needs of Seattle's customers. It had a beautiful Barnes and Noble bookstore, one so comfortable and full of books of every kind that it served almost as a library. B&N left many years ago, as digital sellers like Amazon took over the book selling business. The local Bartell chain of pharmacies has had a large drugstore at the Village, which I have patronized regularly. The chain was taken over by another pharmacy chain, and the Village outlet will close this month. Amazon Books itself had a short-lived presence in the Village, but it also closed.
There are now no bookstores in the Village, and there soon will be no drugstores. I discovered recently, needing a passport photo, that there no longer are any camera stores.
What's left to draw me to the Village? Three Starbucks outlets, and one supermarket that has necessarily replaced Safeway in my affections.
There are lessons to be learned here about trends in American retailing, and about the killing off of local businesses by their acquisition and liquidation by national chains, and about the replacement of many types of small retail stores by both Wal-Mart type bulk sellers and by the internet. University Village is such an attractive collection of stores, including a large number of good bars and restaurants that it's in no danger of collapse. It's a gathering place for people of all ages, who wander about, meeting and checking out their peers. But most retailers don't find themselves surrounded with the same pleasant ambience as those at the Village.
B*rgermaster served a varied clientele, many of whom also on occasion stroll about the Village. But they don't do so every day, and it will be difficult to find another spot where they can sit quietly in a booth or at a table, reading the paper or their phone while slowly working their way through a pleasant and well prepared breakfast or lunch. Most sit-down restaurants encourage fairly rapid turnover.
To me, the closing of the university area B*rgermaster is another step in the wrong direction for a city that would like to increase casual human interactions -- not encourage its citizens to barricade themselves in their houses or apartments and order their goods and meals by phone or internet.
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