After more than four years trying to establish a foothold in Kitsap County, Hale’s Ales is closing up shop at the mall in Silverdale.
“We’re kind of licking our wounds at the moment,” said owner Mike Hale. “We gave it a great shot and it’s a shame.”
Hale’s Ales in Silverdale will remain open until Sept. 30. The restaurant employs 35 servers, cooks, bartenders and other staff. Hale’s Ales employees were given a month notice of the closing, and two weeks severance pay.
The mall location that Mike opened with his wife Kathleen Hale wasn’t ultimately conducive to the restaurant, he said, and the brewer couldn’t seem to make the location profitable.
“We never could quite get it to produce the numbers it needed to cover all the overhead,” Kathleen said. “We gave it a college try, kept it going for four years, but we had to squeal uncle.”
“The mall traffic is pretty light, that was probably one of our mistakes of moving into a mall,” she said.
Mike agreed that the mall wasn’t a good fit for the company, but also noted that they tripped up when they first attempted to create a large restaurant out of their pub.
“When we first opened we kind of stubbed our toe and service and food quality wasn’t as we intended,” Mike said. “We attempted to correct that over the years, but people have long memories, and we never were able to recover the volume. It may be that the place was too big to begin with and that it has high rent volume there.”
The Silverdale restaurant is one of two Hale’s Ales locations. The other is in Ballard, where the brewery is, and carries more of a pub ambiance. Kathleen noted that only the Silverdale restaurant is closing and the Ballard pub and brewery remains open and brewing.
Both Mike and Kathleen say that Hale’s Ales is not through with Kitsap, however. They would like to open another Hale’s Ales in the area, perhaps in a more favorable location and with a more friendly pub vibe.
“We’ll regroup. We know a lot more now than we did when we opened this pub,” Kathleen said. “It is my hope that we will be able to open another Hale’s pub, a smaller one, more similar to the one in Seattle. This one was more of a restaurant than a cozy little pub. It was larger, much too large to get that atmosphere. It’s a beautiful place, but not really pub-ish.”
Despite the much-to-large site, the Silverdale locale did garner a steady flow of loyal customers, though not enough to keep it afloat, Mike said.
For the loyals, Hale’s Ales is throwing a party on Sept. 19 at 7 p.m. with discounted meals, giveaways of memorabilia, raffles, $3 beers, free appetizers and other attractions to show its appreciation of customers.
The Hales don’t know what restaurant will come to fill the space they are vacating. Mike, however, feels that the location is more apt for a large chain restaurant, as opposed to small, local pubs like theirs.
Until Hale’s Ales returns to Kitsap, local fans can get their fix at other area pubs, bars and watering holes.
“You can find us at Anthony’s (in Bremerton),” Mike said. “We’re at several places in Poulsbo like The Loft, Tizley’s, Hare and Hounds, and places on Bainbridge Island, Kingston and Port Orchard.”
