The “Northwest comfort food” chain Shari’s Cafe & Pies abruptly closed all its Oregon restaurants this week.
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Open all night, and many of them close to the freeway, the restaurants in low-roofed hexagonal buildings had been a mainstay for Interstate 5 roadtrippers since the 1970s.
A flurry of media reports Tuesday in Oregon reported the sudden shutdowns, and TV station KGW obtained an Oct. 21 email in which the CEO of Shari’s parent company told the Oregon Lottery, “I can confirm that at this time that all Oregon Shari’s restaurants are closed.”
KGW had earlier reported that the chain was facing mounting debts, including to the Oregon Lottery for proceeds from the video lottery terminals in the restaurants.
According to the Oregonian, there were 42 Shari’s locations in Oregon at one point last year, and that number had dropped to 17 by last weekend. Now the remainder in the state have closed.
There are no reports of closures among the 16 sites in Northern California, Washington and Idaho. The California restaurants are in San Bruno (I-280 and Sneath), Rohnert Park, Sacramento and Red Bluff.
