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Let's hear from a local about what really happened to Stanich's: https://www.metafilter.com/177718/Sometimes-its-better-not-to-be-the-best#7564793 https://www.

Let's hear from a local about what really happened to Stanich's: https://www.metafilter.com/177718/Sometimes-its-better-not-to-be-the-best#7564793 https://www.metafilter.com/177718/Sometimes-its-better-not-t... "Anecdotally, I went to Stanich's a few weeks before the shutdown. They certainly weren't getting overrun with customers at that point. The place was maybe a quarter full on a Friday night, and it was filthy. Dust everywhere, dishes left on tables, stains on the floor, the crust on the ketchup bottles indicating it had been at least a week since anyone bothered wiping them. We watched our food sit at the pass for five minutes before a waitress could be bothered to serve us. The place had all of the hallmark signs of a restaurant going under." "Did Kevin Alexander hurt Stanich's business by giving them the press? Maybe. But Kevin Alexander isn't responsible for running the restaurant. It isn't Kevin Alexander's job to clean the tables or the floor or the dishes or the ketchup bottles. Stanich killed Stanich's."

gkoberger 8y ago
Nobody thinks too much business is what hurt Stanich's. Rather, it was too much attention. The pressure of a small-town short order cook all of a sudden having to live up to what Stanich's "could" and "should" be. One day, he's making the same burgers his dad was 70 years ago. The next, he's getting franchise offers and vitriolic reviews and personal issues. It seems he started cleaning and renovations, and just couldn't bring himself to reopen... much like how many of us here fail to launch startups.
- andy_ppp 8y ago
  Oh man, the renovations I’m making without having any customers are damn awesome...
  - Shorn 8y ago
    Ouch.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
49531 8y ago
Yea _reading_ the linked article goes into all of this.
- jakobegger 8y ago
  Not really, the author is pretty convinced that he killed the restaurant, despite Stanich mentioning family problems.
  - 1024core 8y ago
    Did you actually try to read it? It says so right there: Apparently, after my story came out, crowds of people started coming in the restaurant, people in from out of town, or from the suburbs, basically just non-regulars. And as the lines started to build up, his employees -- who were mainly family members -- got stressed out, and the stress would cause them to not be as friendly as they should be, or to shout out crazy long wait times for burgers in an attempt to maybe convince people to leave, and as this started happening, things fell by the wayside. Dishes weren’t cleared quickly, and these new people weren’t having the proper Stanich’s experience, and Steve would spend his entire day going around apologizing and trying to fix things.
    - ryanwaggoner 8y ago
      It seems you and the author have something in common: refusing to believe the man at the center when he says that it wasn't the author's fault. Which he says repeatedly. And he hints at the actual reason, which you and the author just refuse to believe, I guess. And then, in a quieter voice, he started to explain why it wasn’t just two weeks. He asked me not to reveal the details of that story, but I can say that there were personal problems, the type of serious things that can happen with any family, and would’ve happened regardless of how crowded Stanich’s was, and that real life is always more complicated and messier than we want it to be.
      - MisterTea 8y ago
        It appears to have been a perfect storm of events. A family problem in a family business can be very stressful, been there, got the tee shirt. Then add on top of that an explosion in business you never really wanted and as a result of the overload, a decline in customer service. That then turned into vitriolic reviews and nasty/hateful answering machine messages. Imagine all of that happening in just a few months. What an awful out of control ride that must have been. No wonder Stanich pulled the plug. And if people were paying attention, they would have noticed a lot of drug talk from Stanich. Why was Stanich so fixated on talking about drug problems? That usually happens when stuff hits close to home. All speculation on my part but I found it an odd topic for a burger restaurateur.
purplezooey 8y ago
Do they really call the place where the orders are picked up "the pass"? :)
- joezydeco 8y ago
  Yes. https://firstwefeast.com/eat/kitchen-slang-101-talk-like-real-life-line-cook/ https://firstwefeast.com/eat/kitchen-slang-101-talk-like-rea...
- jacurtis 8y ago
  Yeah, it's short for "the pass thru". Older restaurants and diners used to cut a hole in the wall between the kitchen and dining area to pass food through. So yes it became known as "the pass". This is where your food sits and collects before it comes out to your table. It's also where waitstaff pass tickets through to the kitchen. Lots of passing going on back and forth. Hence "the pass".
ssegraves 8y ago
Portlander here and experienced very similar circumstances to what is described in that post just before Stanich's closed.
- cvwright 8y ago
  I was there just over a year ago, and it was pretty bad then too. We waited probably 90 minutes for burgers at lunchtime the last time we went.
matchagaucho 8y ago
Portland native. Had my first Stanich's burger around 1980. All I can say is the food reviewer romanticized the place. The burgers were good, but messy. Like the atmosphere. Once Perry's opened down the road (now also closed) we kind of stopped going to Stanich's.
- cvwright 8y ago
  Until earlier this year, I used to live in that neighborhood. I've been to Stanich's -- we could walk there from our house. This whole episode is bizarre. The food really was not that good. Not by a long shot. Which makes what happened to them all the more sad.

gkoberger 8y ago

Nobody thinks too much business is what hurt Stanich's. Rather, it was too much attention. The pressure of a small-town short order cook all of a sudden having to live up to what Stanich's "could" and "should" be. One day, he's making the same burgers his dad was 70 years ago. The next, he's getting franchise offers and vitriolic reviews and personal issues. It seems he started cleaning and renovations, and just couldn't bring himself to reopen... much like how many of us here fail to launch startups.

andy_ppp 8y ago
Oh man, the renovations I’m making without having any customers are damn awesome...
- Shorn 8y ago
  Ouch.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

49531 8y ago

Yea _reading_ the linked article goes into all of this.

jakobegger 8y ago
Not really, the author is pretty convinced that he killed the restaurant, despite Stanich mentioning family problems.
- 1024core 8y ago
  Did you actually try to read it? It says so right there: Apparently, after my story came out, crowds of people started coming in the restaurant, people in from out of town, or from the suburbs, basically just non-regulars. And as the lines started to build up, his employees -- who were mainly family members -- got stressed out, and the stress would cause them to not be as friendly as they should be, or to shout out crazy long wait times for burgers in an attempt to maybe convince people to leave, and as this started happening, things fell by the wayside. Dishes weren’t cleared quickly, and these new people weren’t having the proper Stanich’s experience, and Steve would spend his entire day going around apologizing and trying to fix things.
  - ryanwaggoner 8y ago
    It seems you and the author have something in common: refusing to believe the man at the center when he says that it wasn't the author's fault. Which he says repeatedly. And he hints at the actual reason, which you and the author just refuse to believe, I guess. And then, in a quieter voice, he started to explain why it wasn’t just two weeks. He asked me not to reveal the details of that story, but I can say that there were personal problems, the type of serious things that can happen with any family, and would’ve happened regardless of how crowded Stanich’s was, and that real life is always more complicated and messier than we want it to be.
    - MisterTea 8y ago
      It appears to have been a perfect storm of events. A family problem in a family business can be very stressful, been there, got the tee shirt. Then add on top of that an explosion in business you never really wanted and as a result of the overload, a decline in customer service. That then turned into vitriolic reviews and nasty/hateful answering machine messages. Imagine all of that happening in just a few months. What an awful out of control ride that must have been. No wonder Stanich pulled the plug. And if people were paying attention, they would have noticed a lot of drug talk from Stanich. Why was Stanich so fixated on talking about drug problems? That usually happens when stuff hits close to home. All speculation on my part but I found it an odd topic for a burger restaurateur.

purplezooey 8y ago

Do they really call the place where the orders are picked up "the pass"? :)

joezydeco 8y ago
Yes. https://firstwefeast.com/eat/kitchen-slang-101-talk-like-real-life-line-cook/ https://firstwefeast.com/eat/kitchen-slang-101-talk-like-rea...
jacurtis 8y ago
Yeah, it's short for "the pass thru". Older restaurants and diners used to cut a hole in the wall between the kitchen and dining area to pass food through. So yes it became known as "the pass". This is where your food sits and collects before it comes out to your table. It's also where waitstaff pass tickets through to the kitchen. Lots of passing going on back and forth. Hence "the pass".

ssegraves 8y ago

Portlander here and experienced very similar circumstances to what is described in that post just before Stanich's closed.

cvwright 8y ago
I was there just over a year ago, and it was pretty bad then too. We waited probably 90 minutes for burgers at lunchtime the last time we went.

matchagaucho 8y ago

Portland native. Had my first Stanich's burger around 1980. All I can say is the food reviewer romanticized the place. The burgers were good, but messy. Like the atmosphere. Once Perry's opened down the road (now also closed) we kind of stopped going to Stanich's.

cvwright 8y ago
Until earlier this year, I used to live in that neighborhood. I've been to Stanich's -- we could walk there from our house. This whole episode is bizarre. The food really was not that good. Not by a long shot. Which makes what happened to them all the more sad.