A company that left town a decade ago, Bruegger's, is now talking about reestablishing itself in the Puget Sound area with two dozen or so of its bakery cafes.

Chris Cheek, vice president of franchise development for the Burlington, Vt., company, was in town recently to scout out the prospects of re-entering the Northwest market.

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Last week’s story on the 50th anniversary of Harbor Lights had me wondering how many restaurants and watering holes in Pierce County are still active, 50 years on, at their original location.

I called Anthony Anton, CEO and president of the Washington Restaurant Association, and he was good enough to send me a list - repeated below.

Let me know if there are any others you know of.

Acme Tavern, 1932
Beach Tavern, 1934
Bob's Pier, 1947
Bob's Java-Jive, 1955 (built in 1927 but turned into Java Jive in ‘55)
Burr's, 1956
Cliff House Restaurant, 1925
Cloverleaf Tavern, 1950
Flying Boots Bar & Grill, 1938
Gertie's Grill, 1952
Goldfish Tavern, 1933
Harbor Lights, 1959
Hob Nob, 1950
Jubilee Drive In, (pre-1949)
Knapp's Restaurant, 1943
Poodle Dog, 1953 (actually, I think it was earlier than that)
Frisko Freeze, 1950
The Spar, 1917
The Swiss, 1913

Bruegger's Bakery-Cafes, which once had nearly two dozen stores in the Puget Sound area, is scouting the area for new locations.

Bruegger's pulled out of Western Washington as the company changed hands repeatedly in the late '90s. The company shrank its nationwide profile as it struggled to cope with debt and to revitalize its business.

According to a press release from the chain, the company wants to open 25 franchised locations in the Puget Sound area and 15 in the Portland area.

The bagel chain said it is seeing evidence that business in lower-cost restaurants is growing as families adjust their dining budgets to cope with the recession.

Here's more from my q-and-a with Tully's CEO Carl Pennington, which ran in this morning's paper.

Starbucks has taken a few of their stores and rebranded them so they're named after the neighborhood, instead of the chain. What do you make of that?

I think it's a great idea. I'm really impressed with what they've done on that. It's good neighborhood marketing, and I think it's excellent.

Is this something that Tulley's would ever think of doing?

We like to think now, we try to do that now. When Tom started the company in '92, I think he was looking at some of that. If you go out and look at our stores, we've got different – we've got in-town city stores and the outside metropolitan stores, so I think we've done a lot of that. Tully’s has always been committed to the neighborhoods we share with our customers. In Tacoma, each store is different and meant to reflect the individuality of the neighborhood.

Without having to remove the logo.

Is Starbucks removing their logo? I'm not certain on that. ... We did some of that when I was at Albertsons. When we opened a store we'd use the street name but we never ever took our name off of it.

Plans to renovate the 49-unit Olympus Hotel, 817 Pacific Ave., are moving forward.

The Korean Women's Association bought the affordable housing project in the fall of 2008, and since then it has secured about $500,000 from the state's Housing Trust Fund.

Jeannie Darneille, interim executive director of the KWA, said Thursday that the organization is looking at putting out requests for bids in August for improvements to tenant spaces using that money.

The group hasn't decided what to do yet, but Darneille said it could be anything from weatherization and safety improvements to carpet and painting.

This is the first phase of the KWA's renovation plan for the hotel, which was built in 1909.

"We're looking at 1.1 to 1.2 million dollars in renovations (to get to) the point where we envision to be," Darneille said.

That includes finding a tenant for the basement of the historic hotel, which is about 6,000 square feet. Darneille said about 1,200 square feet of that is being used as preparation space by Paddy Coyne's Irish Pub, which has a ground-floor entrance onto Pacific Avenue.

The basement space is accessed by elevator in the foyer of the hotel.

"We love our relationship with Paddy Coyne's and want to work to maintain that," Darneille said.

The newest duo of developers eyeing downtown Tacoma's historic Elks Temple with plans for its resurrection, first tried and failed to buy the nearby Old City Hall for an updated reuse.

Grace Pleasants, a Tacoma developer and her development partner, Rick Moses of California, say they first focused their energies on the Old City Hall.

That building was scheduled for conversion to condominiums, but that plan ran aground when two office tenants declined to give up their favorable leases and leave the building without considerable compensation.

Pleasants and Moses said they thought they could solve the office issue and convert the old building with the Italianate clock tower into residential units. The owners, Stratford Co., declined their offer.

Thwarted on Old City Hall project, they turned their energies to the nearby Elks Temple at 565 Broadway.

They now plan to buy the temple and the lots adjacent to it, resell the temple to Portland's McMenamins for use as a brew pub hotel and build a five story apartment building with a ground floor grocery story on the next door lots. Under their plan, the City of Tacoma would build a five-story garage as the foundation for the apartment and retail building.

The News Tribune has confirmed that members of Tacoma Elks #174 last night approved the sale of its property at South 23rd and Union streets.

A few weeks ago, we reported that the lodge turned down Wal-Mart's bid to buy the 17-acre property but that the group was close to an agreement with another developer.

A member told us this morning that the developer is planning office space, a McDonald's and a Starbucks.

Check here for more details as we confirm them.

UPDATE: Lodge members on Wednesday night approved a contract with Opus, a Minneapolis-based real estate developer who in 2008 finished Federal Way Crossings, a 21-acre retail development on South 348th Street.

Gary Giambrone, the Elks' special representative who is in charge of the lodge, said Thursday that the contract comprises two phases of development, and that the Elks' Grand Lodge trustees still must approve both phases.

Opus has a four-month contingency on both phases, Giambrone said, which gives the developer and the Elks the flexibility to assess the market before breaking ground.

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Kent Station, downtown Kent's urban shopping center, has announced two new tenants will soon join the mix of restaurants, office users and retailers at the development across from the King County Regional Justice Center.

With the completion of a new four-story office and retail structure at Kent Station, the first tenants are starting to move in. Those tenants are led by Green River Community College with 43,000 square feet of classroom space to augment the college's existing Kent Station classrooms.

New tenants for the structure include the Social Security Administration, which is leasing 14,200 square feet on the building's fourth floor.

On the structure's ground level, Kaiten Sushi will open in a 3,500-square-foot space in September. The restaurant's sushi dishes will be delivered on a conveyor belt which will snake through the restaurant.

The sign on the door said it all. Tacoma’s Black Water Cafe closed on Monday.

No reasons given, no long sentimental goodbyes offered. Just that: Closed.

The popular downtown coffee purveyor, located at 743 St. Helens Ave., now leaves a void. Where will people go to satisfy their needs - assuming those needs include a good cup of coffee from an independent store and a good place to sit and listen to the music of the spheres.

What’s left? Satellite Coffee on Division, Valhalla Coffee on Sixth Avenue, Mandolin Cafe also on South 12th, and Commencement Bay Coffee on Jefferson all come to mind.

So what’s your favorite? Do you have a personal caffeine nest somewhere in Tacoma? Maybe it’s Tully’s or Starbucks. Maybe it’s an actual cafe, somewhere that’s been serving joe since before a cup of same cost more than a turkey dinner at Woolworth’s.

Let the discussion begin. Who takes the place of Black Water?

The Caribbean band Island Jamz will kick off a summertime concert series at downtown Tacoma's Tollefson Plaza on Friday, July 10.

The Summer Lunch Series will continue every Friday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. through Sept. 25, said Vy Dotson, Tollefson Plaza coordinator for the Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber of Commerce.

The entertainment will include a variety of acts from "Shakespeare in the Parking Lot" to acoustic music from local performers.

In addition to the entertainment, food vendors will set up shop to offer lunch fare for downtowners attending the series.

Tollefson Plaza is the triangular pink concrete gathering place with the invisible water feature just south of the Marriott Hotel on Pacific Avenue.

Happy Days is here again.

In Lakewood, on Bridgeport Way. Complete with a new kitchen and refurbished restaurant and lounge. Add a new gaming area.

The Happy Days Casino, Bar & Restaurant – at 11521 Bridgeport Way – this week returned to operation with a soft opening, said Tony Averitt, marketing manager.

With 100 employees and after $200,000 in improvements, the casino will host its grand opening this weekend with a performance by country band Broken Trail from 9:30 p.m. until 1:30 a.m. both Friday and Saturday.

The 11,000-square-foot casino features a range of card games, pool tables, video arcade, dance floor and stage, Averitt said.

The new owner, Douglas Searle, said today that he is aware of problems that faced the previous owner. “The prior tenant just up and left,” he said. “We heard all the stories.”

The original Happy Days opened as a restaurant in 1989 and closed as a restaurant and casino in January 2008. Searle said that he found a cache of old business records and was able to contact some former employees and offer jobs at the new establishment.

The casino is licensed with the State Gambling Commission, according to the commission Web site. The license expires in 2010.

All of you in the Sonic drive-in fan club take heart. The second Puget Sound Sonic location may soon be under construction in Bonney Lake.

That's the word from local Sonic owner David Orem. Orem says he's hoping to pick up the building permits for his second South Sound location this week. He hopes to begin construction on Monday.

The new Sonic site is on a pad near the new Lowe's store.

The first Puget Sound Sonic opened on Meridian in Puyallup April 27 to huge queues of cars waiting for service.

The Oklahoma City-based hamburger chain features roller skating car hops, real limeades and carside ordering.

Orem says he's also narrowing his search for a Tacoma site. He's down to two now. He plans to pick between them for the first Tacoma Sonic soon.