New Skippers location (update: closed 2019)

Super S
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Re: New Skippers location

Post by Super S »

storewanderer wrote:They had one in Reno and one in Sparks, NV in the late 80's or early 90's.

I think I've seen their buildings in California. Something along Gray Ave. in Yuba City comes to mind immediately.

Fast seafood seems to be tough out west. It isn't easy to find a freestanding Long John Silvers in Nevada or California.
Long John Silver's has an extremely weak presence in Washington and Oregon also. I think I have maybe seen 2 or 3 locations in recent years, in the area from Seattle to Salem, always a combo unit.

Longview actually at one time had a freestanding Long John Silver's, (which was already closed but still had the signs up) when I first came to this area in 1988. That building now is home to Jansen Flowers. Not sure if they had much of a presence as far as freestanding locations went as I never saw one in this area again until seeing the combo units I mentioned.

The Pacific Northwest does not have much in the way of "fast" seafood restaurants. Skippers is actually one of the bigger players. Ivar's has several smaller locations around the Seattle area, the food is better but their prices are getting on the high side.

Skipper's, if they can maintain the quality of their food, and in addition to opening a few new locations, work on remodeling some of the older ones, has potential to become a decent regional chain again.
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Re: New Skippers location

Post by norcalriteaidclerk »

storewanderer wrote:They had one in Reno and one in Sparks, NV in the late 80's or early 90's.

I think I've seen their buildings in California. Something along Gray Ave. in Yuba City comes to mind immediately.

Fast seafood seems to be tough out west. It isn't easy to find a freestanding Long John Silvers in Nevada or California.
Skippers had Sacramento locations as late as the mid 90's.One was in Citrus Heights on San Juan Avenue,adjacent to(but not part of)the Albertsons/PayLess twin.A coffee shop was operating out of the Skippers building when I last checked a few years back.I also recall one along Folsom Boulevard in Rancho Cordova.I'm pretty sure that there were others...
For your life,Thrifty and Payless have got it.
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Re: New Skippers location

Post by Brian Lutz »

While out for a drive this evening, I just saw that Skipper's is establishing what appears to be a new "Global Brand HQ" (at least that's what was on the sign) in Bellevue. This would sound a lot more impressive if they weren't sharing the second floor of their small building with a yoga/dance studio...
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Re: New Skippers location

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Well, the new Longview Skippers quietly opened today, so I decided to eat lunch there. The food was just what I expected it to be, and all of the classic items are on the menu. The crew seemed to be on top of their game, although the staffing level seems to be high for now. It will be interesting to see how this works as time goes on.

About the restaurant itself, it has decent seating, and is all new, and quite roomy inside, with a high ceiling. However, two things did seem a bit off. First and foremost, this restaurant looked VERY plain inside, with bare gray walls that lacked pictures or anything, and they also had polished concrete floors in a darker color (which I am not a fan of) The other thing is that the lighting had a rather cheap appearance. There were a few hanging lights over some of the booths (which had bluish color CFL bulbs in them) and the rest of the dining area had some rather small lights that used a softer color of CFL bulbs, but were way up on the ceiling and looked like they could have come off the shelf of the nearby Home Depot or the nearby Walmart. They did have recessed can lights above the counter, but also some plain looking fluorescent strip lights. The tables and booths themselves I thought looked nice though.

My overall impression is that they are making an effort to concentrate on serving good quality food. However, they need to do something different about the appearance of the interior if Skippers is serious about making a comeback. With that said though, I will definitely be returning. This restaurant fills a void that has been present since the previous location closed.
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Re: New Skippers location

Post by Super S »

I made another visit to the Longview Skippers today. Food is still good. However, I noticed a few things today that, after being open for two weeks, are troubling.

First, the drive-thru is still not open. There is a bare, lighted menu sign outside, but the entry to the drive-thru was blocked off and there is no other signage outside. It looks like a drive-thru was planned as there is a pop dispenser by the window, visible from the front counter, that is separate from the one in the dining area.

Also, I noticed something odd about the tables today (which I did not notice on my last visit). A couple of the booths have nicely finished, solid wood tabletops, and a few of the open tables are also like this. However, I also noticed that some of the booths along the wall, while they had the same new seating/upholstery, lacked the nice solid wood tables. Instead, they have two smaller tables, with formica tops, sitting next to each other, and are not permanently mounted.

And the lighting, combined with the gray interior, and the dark polished concrete floor, made it really dark looking inside today as it was raining during my visit.

This location seemed to take a longer time than it should have (from when it was originally announced they were opening here) to get up and running, and I wonder if the delay was due to things like tables not being finished, drive-thru equipment not ready, etc. Combining that with the plain interior, and the cheap-looking lighting, I am wondering if there was an investor that backed out along the way, or if Skipper's did not want to front the money for a nicer looking interior.

The food they are doing right. The rest of the restaurant experience, not so much. I really hope they can survive, but after seeing a few things that should be ready to go when they first open, which are still not sorted out a couple weeks later, makes me skeptical about how long this one will be open.
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Re: New Skippers location

Post by Super S »

Something Skippers related: I was out for a drive today, and stopped at Drew's Grocery in Toutle, a small town on the way to Mt. St. Helens. I noticed a Skippers sign in the window. Upon further investigation, I found that, in their deli area, they are offering a limited selection of Skippers food at this location: Fish, clam strips, shrimp, and clam chowder. I found this very interesting as Toutle does not have any chain restaurants, and maybe one or two regular restaurants. I am not sure if this is something Skippers is doing in many locations, or if this is a test. It seems like something like this could be popular during tourist season, or with the log truck drivers that pass through the area.
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Re: New Skippers location

Post by Brian Lutz »

Looking at the Skippers website, it seems that they are now listing a bunch of so-called "go fleet" locations (mostly gas stations, it appears) serving a limited menu, and in some cases it looks like they might be serving only chowder. I see one listed in Redmond, I might go check it out. This appears to be a fairly recent development.
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Re: New Skippers location

Post by BillyGr »

Brian Lutz wrote:Looking at the Skippers website, it seems that they are now listing a bunch of so-called "go fleet" locations (mostly gas stations, it appears) serving a limited menu, and in some cases it looks like they might be serving only chowder. I see one listed in Redmond, I might go check it out. This appears to be a fairly recent development.
Could be - I remember one of the Boston area seafood chains doing something similar on the Mass Pike - I think it was only the soup (being that would be easier to have made and just heat on site) or maybe soup and one or two of their best known items.
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Re: New Skippers location

Post by Brian Lutz »

Digging up an old thread here...

While spending a few days in Utah I came across a fairly new Skippers location on State Street in Orem, and was surprised to see how well it seems to be doing compared to other Skippers locations I've been to. The interior was clean and fairly modern, and the location is on a busy road with plenty of traffic. When I went in there was a steady stream of customers, both eat in and drive thru.

It's a stark contrast to the last Skippers I used to frequent in Renton WA, which has since closed in the past few months. That one was old, dingy and in a bad location nobody would know about if they weren't looking for it. It rarely had more than a handful of customers at any time I was there. It had the feel of a place that was trying to stay afloat long enough to run the clock out on a lease, and sure enough it closed down. It seems that a well run Skippers in a good location can do well, but most of the legacy locations aren't all that well run. It is a bit depressing to note that I now have to go to a gas station in Marysville to get Skippers food near my house.
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Re: New Skippers location

Post by Super S »

Well, the Longview Skippers is closing after 6 years:

https://tdn.com/news/local/skippers-res ... the-latest

While not much changed regarding the appearance of the restaurant, the owners were heavily involved and the food was consistently good. I have a feeling the location had issues, it was vacant for a while after the Walmart opened. I am not sure what effect the marijuana store that opened in the other half of the building had on business.

The same family owns the Skippers on Highway 99 in Vancouver. They hinted that Vancouver may close after the end of the year.

This could be the final blow to Skippers in this area. Too bad.
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