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West Side Deli Owners: Cheri Shope and Janet
Hyatt Sedro-Woolley has never been short of mother-daughter or sister businesses. Look at Seven Sisters Electrical Contracting, for example. And, now, literally just down the road from electrical firm is West Side Deli, started by the three sisters and their mom. It all began when John Falavolito built Sunset Tower Plaza, his new 22,000-square-foot headquarters building for Consolidated Cellular, at 632 Sunset Park Drive. One of his employees approached Michelle Beck, daughter of Janet and Dewey Hyatt, about opening a restaurant on the corner of the building. Michelle, who had dreamed about owning a restaurant, contacted her siblings, Cheri Shope and Sheila Oudman, who agreed to the plan. “We looked first at the side where Riverside Health Club is now (on the east end) but decided it wasn’t big enough,” says Shope, 32. “We decided that one day we would want a drive-up window, so space was important.” They built West Side Deli from scratch and were open and ready for business Jan. 3, about the time Consolidated Cellular came on line. Unfortunately, while everything was going according to plan in the business, things were not so good with the sisters. Oudman had to leave because of a minor health problem, while Beck soon departed for financial reasons. Shope, who had owned Sweetpea Construction Co. for eight years, secured the initial loan for the deli and decided to push on with the plan, but with her mother as a partner. “I wouldn’t be able to do without her,” Shope says of her mother. Shope, who has three children ages 1 to 13, says it’s a challenge working long shifts in the restaurant and taking care of her family as well. Indeed, she has a lot of help also from her mother-in-law, Judy Shope, who babysits. “I’m on my feet all day (in the restaurant) and then on my feet in the evening, chasing my 1-year-old,” Cheri Shope says with a laugh. Meanwhile, the deli’s business has picked up enough for Cheri and Janet to hire three employees on a part-time basis. They pride themselves on running a super-clean restaurant that’s air conditioned and smoke free. They also have gone to serving breakfast. “We open at 6 a.m. for breakfast and close at 3 or 4,” says Shope. “We serve several types of breakfast sandwiches, biscuits and gravy, homemade waffles, yogurts, muffins and homemade pastries. Most of our menu items are homemade.” “We also make our own potato salad and have paninis and Reuben sandwiches for lunch,” adds Janet. “At this time of year, we have taco salads.” In the winter, the deli serves up to three kinds of soup and sticks to one or two year-round. “We’re doing really good for a new business,” Shope puts in. “We have lots of regular customers now.” |
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