13 Coins Restaurant gets new owners

The 13 Coins Restaurant, which for four decades has served up pepper steak Dijon, liver and onions and jumbo prawn cocktails day and night, come rain or shine or Christmas, has changed ownership for the third time in its storied history.

Jeanne Boyce Jones, whose family has run 13 Coins in Seattle and SeaTac since 1981, agreed to sell both restaurants to 13 Coins Acquisition for an undisclosed sum.

The buyers, headed by former 13 Coins Vice President Stan Templeton, plan to immediately begin a $1 million remodel of the South Lake Union location, known for its dimly lit, 1960s-supper-club feel. The Seattle Times owns the restaurant's South Lake Union property.

While the restaurant's trademark ceiling-grazing private booths and high-back leatherette swivel stools will remain, the new owners aim to expand and update the restaurant's look and feel.

Their challenge: replacing the sunset-patterned wood paneling without steaming the character off the walls.

"We're not interested in taking the culture and changing it," Templeton said. "We want to improve on that culture and, more important, take that culture to other places."

The original 13 Coins, adjacent to The Times, was the city's first and only 24-hour, fine-dining restaurant when it opened in 1963.

It was the lone spot where patrons could order a New York strip steak or escargot at 3 in the morning — unless one preferred Bob Murray's Dog House, where the rib-eye steak carried the warning: "Tenderness Not Guaranteed."

As the only late-night, gourmet option, it became anyone's guess who would swivel around and reveal themselves from their high-back stools.

Retired Times reporter Greg Heberlein remembers walking into the restaurant after an NCAA tournament to find coaches Mike Krzyzewski of Duke, John Thompson of Georgetown and Bobby Knight of Indiana sitting at the counter eating dinner together.

"The city wasn't quite as cosmopolitan, even 15 or 20 years ago," Heberlein said. "The Coins was the gathering place, especially when they had big events in town."

The 13 Coins was started by the late restaurateur Jim Ward, who also founded the original El Gaucho in 1953.

After Ward's death, his wife, Elaine, opened a second location in SeaTac in 1976 and one in Anchorage in 1979. The same year, she spent more than $1 million to open the grand New Orleans-inspired Lafitte's.

That restaurant lasted less than a year. Ward, who favored expensive furs and rode around in a chauffeured, champagne-colored Lincoln Continental, lost all four restaurants in bankruptcy.

Jeanne Boyce Jones and her family have run the two Seattle restaurants for nearly 25 years.

Templeton, who will manage the refurbished 13 Coins on behalf of roughly 20 investors, said they plan to expand the Seattle location to include two large banquet facilities, while adding larger bathrooms and updating the lighting, window treatments and tile work. The group also plans to add a Bellevue location by next year.

The company's 150 employees and 20 managers were asked yesterday to reapply for their jobs. He said the new management doesn't plan to "reinvent the wheel," but rather evaluate how to provide the best possible customer service.

Templeton already knows not to tinker too much. When he originally joined 13 Coins in 1999 as vice president, he decided it was giving away too many butter balls with the complimentary bread and so cut back.

He had to change course after it caused a firestorm. "The culture is dictated by all these long-term customers," he said. "They were furious with me that I would attempt to alter the butter balls."

It took time, but they were able to reason with customers. "We've got it down to six now," he said.

Monica Soto Ouchi: 206-515-5632 or msoto@seattletimes.com