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Page A-6 - Shelton-Mason County Journal - Thursday, Dec. 29, 2016
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II HI
Available at
Off the Walls in Shelton (703 W. Railroad)
and Boom Gallery in Olympia (520 Adams St. SE)
LindaRudinFrizzell.com
Dave and Wendy Blain have owned and
Shelton for 39 years. The Blains retired
new owners.
After nearly 4O years,
Roosters Restaurant has
been sold to new owners
By BRIANNA LOPER
brianna@masoncounty, com
Dave Blain doesn't hesitate when
talking about the best part of running
a restaurant -- it's the people.
"We've had hundreds and hundreds
of employees over the years, and they
do kind of become like family," said
Blain. "These are my kids."
Blain, 70, has owned and oper-
ated Roosters Restaurant, originally
Burgermaster, at 3001 Olympic High-
way N. in Shelton with his wife, Wen-
dy, for 39 years. The couple sold the
eatery and attached gas station Dec.
13, planning to start the new year as
retirees.
A new couple, Rohit and Kiran
Chawla, will take over the business.
Blain started cooking at a Burger-
master, a hamburger restaurant chain,
in the 1960s. At the time, a friend who
owned the land Roosters sits on wanted
Blain to open a Burgermaster in Shel-
ton.
"He talked to me for a number of
years, but I was not very receptive,"
Blain said. However, in 1977, Blain
was finally convinced. He began build-
ing in the winter and opened a Burger-
master in June 1978.
"We just became part of the commu-
nity," Blain said. "We raised our kids
here, we have our regulars that come
in every day .... My wife worked here,
my daughter worked here, my son
worked here. Now my granddaughter
works here. She's 22; she was born and
raised in this."
Roosters has always been a fam-
ily operation, Blain said. Even those
who weren't related by blood became
part of the family. The restaurant was
called Burgermaster until the original
Burgermaster owner died eight years
ago. At that time, Blain decided to
change the name to distinguish himself
from the Burgermaster chain stores.
The new name, Roosters, came from
a coffee cup his wife was drinking out
of with a picture of a rooster on it.
The chicken and rooster memora-
bilia that covers the store was easy to
find, Blain said. Customers brought in
most of it.
Photo courtesy of Dave Blain
operated Roosters Restaurant in
this month, selling the business to
"They just like to see their stuff put
up here," Blain said.
Blain said he's watched past em-
ployees and regular customers grow
up, have families of their own and con-
tinue coming to the restaurant.
He even has past employees that
no longer live in the country, but still
pop in every couple years to have lunch
with Blain.
Blain said consistency has always
been his biggest priority.
"The biggest challenge is trying to
keep the same quality of service," Blain
said. "If a customer comes in, they
should get the same thing every time.
They like their fries a certain way or
the tartar sauce, so that's what they
expect."
Blain said the restaurant did its re-
search whenever it added a new item
to the menu. When Blain needed a
new orange juice brand, he ordered six
types and had employees blind taste-
test each to determine what the restau-
rant would sell.
Tropicana-brand juice won, so the
restaurant still serves it.
"The customer depends on that,"
Blain said. "I've made the same tartar
sauce for 50 years. That's my trade-
mark. The customer depends on it."
Blain said the new owners have the
same attention to detail. For the past
three weeks, Blain has been working
with the Chawlas, passing on as much
information as he can to help them con-
tinue Roosters' legacy.
"Nothing should change at all," he
said.
Blain said besides closing on
Thanksgiving and Christmas day each
year, the restaurant has never closed.
When the Blains added the Shell gas
station and convenience store in the
front of the business, customers went
through the back door. When the own-
ers built additional seating, customers
walked through a hole in the wall to get
to the window seats until Blain added
a doorway.
The Blains don't have plans for re-
tirement yet, but the former owner
suspects he and his wife will probably
travel for a while. He plans to come
back to Roosters whenever he can to
get a bite to eat.
Blain said he's looking forward to
not having something to do daily, but
he's not sure what itll be like to be a
customer in Roosters.
"I think itll always be hard," he said.
"I've always been in the restaurant
business. I started cooking in 1964."