Published:
Monday, November 24, 2008
Diamond Knot Brewery opens fourth location
By Dave Clark
SCBJ Assistant Editor
Diamond Knot Brewing Company recently opened its fourth business project in the form of a family-friendly pizzeria at 403 Lincoln Ave. in Mukilteo.
Owners said the new location, just down the road from Diamond Knot Brewery and Alehouse across from the Mukilteo/Clinton Ferry, will help diversify their customer base and give people looking to enjoy Diamond Knot’s famous pizza sauce and home-brewed beers and ales somewhere to go with their families.
Diamond Knot Lincoln Avenue, formerly Riley’s Pizza, has been serving pastas, calzones, sub sandwiches, salads and deserts since it opened in September. Co-owners Andy Eason and Bob Maphet said they plan on allowing kids to arrange their own pizza toppings at the new location, which is offering a discount to customers who place their order online at diamondknotlincoln.gimmegrub.com. In the future, they hope to use a brewery already on site to make handcrafted sodas for all three of their restaurants.
“It’s a different service staff at the Lincoln Avenue restaurant than the boisterous alehouse people we have here,” said Eason. “We focus on children there, which is something we couldn’t do before. Now when we get families coming to the pub we can send them up the street, rather than sending them to other restaurants,” he said.
Their most successful location has been their original restaurant, which was subleased in 1994 to house their brewery operation. They bought the pub (Cheers, Too!) five years later, eventually winning over its loyal customer base and bringing in as much or more business than it had previously.
Diamond Knot’s four owners, including Brian Sollenberger and Pat Ringe, opened their second restaurant last October at 170 Cross Island Road on Camano Island, changing its name from The Camano to Diamond Knot Camano Lodge. It offers the business’s largest menu, which features a robust selection of breakfast options.
The decision to purchase a third restaurant had to be made quickly as the opportunity presented itself, said Eason.
“The Lincoln wasn’t on our radar at all,” he said. “It came up for sale and we said either we jump all over it or not, and we chose to do it. We barely had the cash flow to pull it off. We always knew it was a risk but the price was right.”
Despite the burden of operating three restaurants, along with a production brewery on Chennault Beach Road in Mukilteo, Diamond Knot owners said they hope to find calmer seas in the coming years as they strive to develop their growing ambitions.
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