Sella's remains the most satisfying calzone I've ever had. And I now live in a place famous for its Italian food (as non Italian cities go)
Cougar Country Drive In Business Uncertain
- Thread starter CrimsonDisciple
- Start date
I’m not saying I’ve had better somewhere else. But I’ve had better in the past. Cheaper sauce, smaller calzones, more canned ingredients. My last few trips have been disappointing.
I had to Google it to find that. Ace wasn’t there when I was. Safeway was in that space. And that was pretty much the end of town, not “right downtown”.
And seriously, this is a Coug page, so if you’re going to try to give landmarks you have to use bars, not pet stores. You’ve been around here way too long for such a rookie mistake.
Ha! Good point on the bars.
Regarding Ace, you may be right. It may have been Coast to Coast that was downtown. Same side of the street as Rico’s
.I have a very dim recollection that there may have been a Coast to Coast sign somewhere on that block, but I don’t remember ever going there. If I needed hardware, I generally went to Ernst in Moscow.Ha! Good point on the bars.
Regarding Ace, you may be right. It may have been Coast to Coast that was downtown. Same side of the street as Rico’s
So much has changed, just in that Main/Grand area. Pizza pipeline was there, Alex’s, Seafirst bank, Corner Drug, two theaters, Domino’s....and wasn’t there a drugstore mid-block, a few doors down from Rico’s, that still had ice cream sodas?
Ha! Good point on the bars.
Regarding Ace, you may be right. It may have been Coast to Coast that was downtown. Same side of the street as Rico’s
The downtown hardware store was - Pullman Hardware. It may have become Ace or CtC affiliated before it closed. Then Ace opened out in the mini mall out on Southe Grand near McDonalds. It may be closed now too.
Getting back to fast food - any food from any restaurant is totally unhealthy. Fat, salt, cholesterol, calories. Dripping with butter. I don't use salt anymore, and the few times that I go to a restaurant almost always chokes me because of the saltiness. Never eat bar food anymore.
Garbanzos are the wonder food. Buy 'em dry, soak, cook and add 'em to everything. Protein, fiber, taste kind of nutty. Yum yum. Or buy a salt-filled can of them. THAT makes me laugh.
Their fate was sealed when Walmart opened. I'm surprised they survived as long as they did.
Closed until further notice: theft, change of management, etc.
https://www.khq.com/news/pullman-s-...cle_ae305980-2ee2-11e9-a29c-cf01c29c5e9a.html
https://www.khq.com/news/pullman-s-...cle_ae305980-2ee2-11e9-a29c-cf01c29c5e9a.html
Confirmed.
Search committee for new manager has been formed.
Jim Walden was just on KJR touting Paul Wulff as the next night manager of the Cougar Country Drive-In.
Says Wulff was once a customer there and has as much experience as Tony Bennett or Dennis Erickson in running a restaurant.
Guarantees training table attendence...err restaurant attendence will pick up.
Already putting together a staff (expect some familiar faces).....
(Here we go again. The Spokane alums had been gloating lately, thought it was just the basketball job they were after for Wulff and not something important like this)
The owner needs to do some research on communication during crisis. A couple days ago, the owner said that the rumors were not true and that they weren't shutting down......now they are closed. No offense to the owner because it sounds like they were guilty of trusting people that have proven to be untrustworthy, but you don't win over hearts and minds by lying.
I know this one guy who won 40-45% of the hearts by lying his ass off. He’s still doing it and it’s still working.
They will have to condemn the bathrooms unless they get a Porta-Potty just for PW's personal use.
Wulff was the Assistant Manager of Zips in Cheney and sure,they made a profit every year but Zips has always made a profit. Their shakes are unreal and there is little competition in the Cheney Restaurant league. The fact that he is planning on bringing his dishwasher, order takers and cooks who have little to 0 experience outside of Zips gives me little confidence. Now if he had connections to the some of the better restaurants in Spokane and was bringing in some talent from Anthony's, Churchill's etc. I may think he'd have a chance to Make Cougar Country Great Again.
From what I've read in the past day or so, it sounds like the owner is probably a bit of a scumbag who's been skimming the till herself and generally a terrible boss.
No, they are closing because the owners want to retire. My brother-in-law owns an Ace affiliated HW store in northern Idaho, and the owners talk. The Pullman owners have wanted to retire for quite some time, but have been unable to find someone to buy/takeover the store.
And for the record, Walmart is not a significant competitor to Ace. My brother-in-law's business does just fine with a Walmart in his town. The competitor to Ace was the the giant expansion of the Moscow-Pullman Building Supply that opened between the Walmart and the Ace. That used to be a relatively small hardware store next to Pufferbelly Depot. But their Moscow store was gigantic. And then they built a new place, much larger than the old. But regardless, the Ace did just fine.
I was referring to Shopko.
I like Ace. I didn't see them as particularly impacted by Walmart. Different and better products.
Not sure about her terribleness as a boss but very likely (as with lots of mom and pop businesses) the till is just a convenient cash machine. Probably worked fine when she was in the drive in on a daily basis - but there’s one industry that is rough on absentee owners and it is restaurant.
Unless there are strong systems in place (like at most chain restaurants), a no-show owner is going to get cleaned in that business. Cost control is A-number one priority in hospitality. Razor thin margins.
She’d have been better off selling and cashing out five years ago rather than trying to have the best of both worlds. Now her business is troubled and she’s going to get fire sale offers to rid herself of the boat anchor she created.
Taffer would have had a heart attack during my era at The Coug.
More than a little inventory shrinkage.
But they made it up on volume.
