Harbor Dinner Club Re-model

When US District Attorney Lane Tucker and her partner, Allison Hill, couldn't find a place to eat when they were visiting Seward this spring, they decided to do something drastic. Candy Norman's restaurant building had been purchased from the US Forest Service to make way for the Mary Lowell Center. So Tucker-Hill purchased the Harbor Dinner Club from Norman, bought a historic building downtown, and transplanted the famous Seward restaurant to the upper floor.

Harbor Dinner Club Executive Chef/General Manager Lastan Williams spent most of May tinkering with history. A room in the back had linoleum over hardwood, the first glimpse of what would become a labor of love. Around mid-month, Williams began pulling up the carpet, then the 1/2" plywood that was nailed down to the 3/4" maple with 2" roofing staples.

"We had an idea that it was there, but we weren't sure that it went through the building," reminisced Williams. "The top floor used to be an old rooming house, so the hardwood was sectioned out for different rooms. We decided if you canít hide it, highlight it, so we patched it with pine. Really opened up with room and was an outstanding improvement."

"In the late 1940s, just before my seventh birthday, my family moved to Seward," recalls former Seldovia Mayor Darlene Crawford. "My grandparents, Wayne and Esther Heinbaugh, along with my parents, Chris and Millie Sorenson, stayed in Moody's Rooming House when we first got to town."

Millie Sorenson remembered one of Moody's more colorful residents, Flicka Red, meeting her at the station with a cab to take her the few blocks to the rooming house because she didnít think that pregnant Millie would want to walk uphill with four small children after such a long and difficult adventure.

"We started hand-pulling about 20,000 staples out of the maple. That was work," said Lastan Williams with a proud smile. "We moved a bar and glass rack that blocked half of the space's view to the back of the room. Made an amazing difference."

The kitchen was already in the space, but had been closed for seven years since it didnít meet the fire code. "It was kinda written off by the Elks," explained Williams. "We rebuilt the fire suppression systems and hood, and moved-in a dishwasher."

This isn't the first time that the Harbor Dinner Club has followed in the footsteps of the Elks Club. In 1947-8, Candy Norman's parents, Bob and Eleanor Zentmire, bought the Elks Club building on Fifth Avenue and turned it into the original Harbor Dinner Club. The new owners of the Harbor Dinner Club have taken a second hand-me-down building from the Elks, this time at 139 Fourth Avenue.

"Our intention is to have fine dining upstairs at night, and a breakfast/lunch buffet downstairs," explained Williams. "Perhaps it will be in combination with retail space, like a coffee shop/bookstore."

The Hill and Tucker intend to close down in January, if the catering business will carry them that long, and re-open in the spring after an extensive first floor remodel. On the street level, behind the layers of stucco and plywood, are large windows from when the building was the Hoben & Davis department store.

"I started peeling the cover off the one at the bottom of the stairs," suggests Williams. "I couldn't wait. We will be having our grand opening in August, complete with a band."