The Twin Teepees in 1999. (Robin Layton/seattlepi.com file)
The Puget Sound Business Journal is reporting that the site of the former Twin Teepees restaurant (7201 Aurora Ave N, a block south of Beth’s Cafe) has been purchased.
Kelly Baker of Gramor Development Washington said his firm bought the half-completed residential development for $2.1 million.
Baker said Gramor will spend another $2.5 million to finish the 24-unit apartment complex and commercial building. The development is about 60 percent completed, he said, but work’s been stalled for more than a year because the development has been in foreclosure proceedings. [ ... ]
The four-story development should be completed in June, Baker said.
Casey McNerthney of seattlepi.com provided this remembrance of the Twin Teepees on July 31, 2009:
It was eight years ago today that the Twin Teepees, the iconic restaurant near Green Lake, was razed.
The restaurant had been damaged by fire and closed since May 2000. Owner Robert Pierides had said he wanted to reopen it, but he encountered a problem at every turn in his attempts to bring the building up to code — rotting beams, asbestos floor tiles, lead paint on the walls and difficult-to-access bathrooms on the upper floor, according to a P-I story announcing the demolition.
The restaurant was opened in 1937 by Walter Clark, who ran more than a dozen restaurants in Seattle at the time. Harland Sanders, the Kentucky Fried Chicken founder, worked there.
Some people believe he perfected his fried chicken recipe there, but have a hard time proving it.
I remember the restaurant for their killer breakfasts. As a freshman at nearby Blanchet High School, we had to run Green Lake every few weeks in boys’ PE and some buddies tried to take a detour to the Tepees for breakfast.
As the story goes, teacher Bill Herber, who I’m convinced has discovered every possible way a freshman had tried to cheat on lake runs, caught them with to-go boxes crossing Aurora Avenue North.
The Twin Teepees site now has a stalled residential development.
Clark’s had several round-the-clock restaurants, including one where Seattle University basketball players such as the O’Brien twins would go for meals after games.
Clark started with a small barbecue stand on Roosevelt Way in 1930 and turned Clark’s Restaurant Enterprises Inc. into a multimillion dollar business. He died in June 1990 at age 93.
