Pasta & Co. sold, but former owners keep a hand in the business

Pasta & Co. has been sold. But before you take a deep breath and scream "Oh, no! Did Somebody say McDonaldification?" here's some news to ease your mind. Though owner Marcella Rosene has sold her specialty foods and take-out business, she apparently hasn't sold out.

As Rosene tells it, when she and her husband, Harvey, opened their fifth (and last) store, they said, "This is it! We are not going to fund any more growth." Given Pasta & Co.'s obvious success, why stop? Rosene says she was daunted by the task of managing five stores, particularly in Seattle's challenging labor market. "The prospect of ever doing another store was just, `Arrgghhhh!"' she says. "We realized that what we needed was a really good balance sheet and management expertise to move the company forward."

Hence the sale. "I wasn't ready to hang it up," says Rosene, "but I didn't like knowing there wasn't a sugar daddy (to back the company financially)."

With the sale, which leaves the Rosenes as minority investors, Pasta & Co. now has two sugar daddies: management whiz Jonathan Kniss, named president and CEO, and local investor Kurt Dammeier, who heads-up Kirkland-based Sugar Mountain Capital, LLC. "They (Kniss and Dammeier) are not food people. They need us. I think there's a very good chance that I'll be with the company for a long time," says Rosene, whose first Pasta & Co. opened in University Village in 1981 before spawning shops in Bellevue, downtown, Queen Anne and Capitol Hill.

JaK's is returning to West Seattle

Five years ago, Jeff Page approached his buddy, Ken Hughes, and suggested they get together and open a restaurant. That restaurant, a small, neighborhood steakhouse called JaK's Grill (an acronym for Jeff and Ken's) opened in West Seattle's Admiral District in the summer of '96. Two years later, the pals found another small spot - this time in Issaquah - and opened a second JaK's. Within months, the Issaquah location was, as Hughes describes it, "uncomfortably busy." So much so that they found and remodeled a larger venue just down the street (at 14 Front St., Issaquah, 425-837-8834) and quickly moved into it, expanding seating capacity to 80.

The joint was slammed every night.

Meanwhile, back in West Seattle, things weren't going as well due to "operational and management challenges," says Hughes. The pair were having trouble securing a good lease, their chef quit and things were keeping them so crazy-busy in Issaquah that they decided to get out while the getting was good. The original JaK's bid a fond farewell to West Seattle in the fall of '98.

That was then, but this is now: JaK's is (almost) back. This time, in the remodeled West Seattle space that most recently housed La Louisianne (4548 California Ave. S.W., Seattle; 206-937-7809). The new JaK's is "the same old JaK's Grill," said Page. "It's a very neighborhood, very traditional, very correct little steakhouse" complete with the requisite hardwood atmosphere. If all goes as scheduled, West Seattle can welcome JaK's home later this month when the restaurant opens for dinner at 4 p.m., nightly.

Nancy Leson's phone number is 206-464-8838. Her e-mail address is: nleson@seattletimes.com