A symbol of Hope: The iconic Seaview Cafe and Bar, closed this summer, is for sale

HOPE — A couple blocks from the Seaview Cafe and Bar, Cherryl Stavish has come to expect certain inquiries this summer. Visitors have been dropping by the museum of the Hope and Sunrise Historical Society, which she directs, to ask about the tiny town’s most iconic business.

The Seaview, which has long been a community hub and visitor draw in summer, is closed this year.

“We get a lot of questions,” said Stavish.

Housed in buildings constructed when Hope was a gold rush boomtown more than 125 years ago, the Seaview has for many years proven a favorite stop for Alaska’s road trippers and independent travelers drawn to its history, live music events and pub grub. For many of the 200 or so people who live in Hope year-round, it’s a place to celebrate birthdays, weddings and graduations when it’s open, May through September.

“This summer, it’s been difficult for a lot of locals,” Stavish said.

Renna Martin, the Seaview’s owner, said the business didn’t open as usual because she’s selling it. Martin, 65, aims to retire after 24 years overseeing the Seaview. She said she’s considering the community as she plans to step away.

“We’ve had lots of interest,” she said. “We’re just kind of really looking for the right fit, you know? We want to preserve the spirit of the Seaview and its historical value.”

History on Main Street

The Seaview sits where Hope’s small road network meets the Turnagain Arm mudflats on the north edge of the Kenai Peninsula. Its evocative “Cafe” sign, stark against the rust-colored roof and nestled nicely beneath the mountainous landscape beyond, is Hope’s most definitive scene.

Martin first leased the Seaview in 1999, then took ownership with her then-husband a year later. She has been its sole owner since about 2003, she said. Most summers, she’d have 10 to 15 full- and part-time employees on the payroll. Martin has had a short commute. She lives in an apartment above the cafe in the summer. Most offseasons, she lives in Girdwood, across the Arm.

From the Seaview’s deck on a misty July afternoon, Martin thought back to when she first took over the time-tested property.

“It was a disaster when we got here,” she said.

The original construction of the Seaview followed the start of commercial gold mining in the late 1880s, which by the turn of the century had drawn thousands of Outsiders to the Cook Inlet region. For a short time, Hope bustled in a way that requires imagination to picture now.

“Hope had two boat landings, two general stores, two saloons, a brewery, a pool hall, a restaurant, a hotel, an assay office, a deputy recorder’s office, a post office, a school, a social hall, and a sawmill,” the historical society explains on its website.

The Seaview’s main building comprises two structures that were once blocks apart. Hope Historic District plaques mounted at the entrances say both were built in 1897. The bar building had once been a residential cabin, Martin said. The cafe building was once an Alaska Commercial Co. location and a general store.

Hope businessman Iver “Doc” Nearhouse operated his general store there from 1959, according to “Snapshots at Statehood,” published by the Kenai Peninsula Historical Association.

“Cats crawled between the cases of (Nearhouse’s) homegrown potatoes and carrots,” the book says. A photo of the proprietor in the historical society archives shows him dwarfed by the piled goods. “The present owner … confesses that the delivery of an occasional item may be delayed due to the necessity of searching for it,” the caption reads.

The building that would become the Seaview’s bar was one of nine buildings that were moved inland after the disastrous magnitude-9.2 earthquake of 1964, according to Hope and Sunrise Historical Society informational signage nearby. Before then, much of the town center existed on land that is now tidal mudflats.

Some longtime locals and visitors say the Seaview’s bar once had a rougher frontier vibe. Martin made many changes over the years, including rewiring the building and the 25-space RV park, rebuilding the foundation under the bar, completely revamping the kitchen, building a deck, adding a walk-in cooler, and reconstructing a breezeway between the two main buildings.

“All I ever wanted to do was just keep making it better,” Martin said. “You can’t even compare it to what it was.”

The bar, which once served liquor, switched to serving beer and wine only before Martin’s tenure. She said she worked with chefs who helped her realize that a good menu can boost business and make the Seaview a more desirable destination for out-of-towners. Chowder, halibut fish and chips, and Reuben sandwiches were some of her best-sellers.

“We would have people flying in from Anchorage for the evening for our fish and chips,” she said.

The work was more a lifestyle than a job. Martin regularly drove to Anchorage for food, kegs and other supplies. She handled payroll, accounting, scheduling, washed dishes and bused tables. ”You got to back up your crew when you own a business, because when they see you working, they want to work just as hard,” she said.

Martin retained what customers had come to love about the Seaview: an unpolished, homegrown appeal that welcomed visitors without feeling touristy.

“The cool thing is we didn’t get the big tour buses. We didn’t get the cruise ship people who just unload and walk around,” Martin said. “The majority of our clientele has been Alaskans.”

After a few years, advertising became unnecessary, Martin said.

“People think, oh, you buy a business and then you hire people and you don’t have to work too much. And it’s like, so the opposite,” she said. “You work more than anybody else, because your heart is in it and you want it to succeed.”

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Spirit of the Seaview

With the bar and cafe closed this year, locals say Hope is a different place. Some are bracing for change.

Dru Sorenson, owner of Sourdough Dru’s Gifts, reminisced on her shop’s front porch a few doors down. “We have had a lot of good times down there, listening to the jukebox, holding each one of our kids as they grow up in our arms,” she said.

Susan Anderson, a Hope resident for 45 years, said the Seaview has been an important Hope gathering spot, a place you might run into neighbors you hadn’t seen in a while.

“It kind of breaks all of our hearts,” she said of its closure and sale. “Unless somebody buys it that understands the community.”

As of late July, the Seaview’s list price was $850,000. The listing includes 1.9 acres, the main bar and cafe building, a cabin, the 25-space RV park and a tent campsite. There are two buses too, which have served as employee living quarters. Artifacts hanging in the wood-plank walls of the bar will remain, including historic photos and the sign that reads, “Guns and knives to be turned into bartender.”

“This is just so rich in history,” said Clark Saunders of Raven Real Estate, Martin’s agent, while giving a tour. “When you’re walking the planks in that bar and realize that miners were stomping on those floorboards, eking out a living in conditions we couldn’t even think of, you just feel it.”

Saunders said he has heard the community’s concerns repeatedly.

“I’ve gotten a whole bunch of, ‘You better not sell it to a major corporation. You better keep the spirit of Hope. We’re watching you,’ ” he said.

Interest is high, he said. Saunders gets a half-dozen inquiries each week and has done more than two dozen showings so far. “People have flown in from New York, from Oregon, from Washington, California, looking to invest in a remote Alaska property,” he said.

Some inquiries come from daydreamers with a small-town Alaska fantasy, he said. Some lose interest after a realization: to own it in absentia would prove financially complicated, considering the cost of employing a manager onsite.

“To think you’re going to come in here and buy it and build up the business and then hire someone to run it for you, it’s probably not going to work,” Saunders said. “It’s not a restaurant sitting in the middle of downtown Anchorage, and it’s seasonal.”

Hope’s limited housing may also prove an obstacle for a potential owner willing to relocate.

Both Martin and Saunders say they understand, and share, the community’s concerns. Ultimately, a new owner is free to make changes, Saunders said. Though the Seaview’s buildings are considered part of Hope’s Historic District, they have no protected status and are not listed on national or state historic registers, he said.

“I think community pressure is the only control that would exist, legally,” Saunders said. “And that would be huge.”

But there are a couple reasons the Seaview’s current character may survive intact, he said.

“The reason (Hope) has escaped the overpopulation of tourists, if you will, is that 15 miles, 16 miles really, each way is just enough to make it not pencil out for the big boxes to come rolling down,” Saunders said, referring to the town’s distance from the Seward Highway, Southcentral Alaska’s major traffic artery.

Martin, who plans to build a home on a small piece of property next to the Seaview, also has a say over who the next owner will eventually be. And she’s choosy.

“We’ve gotten offers from people who have never been in the business,” she said. “They want to buy it because of what it is, but they’ve never run a restaurant, they’ve never been in tourism. And so for that, I think we’re kind of saving them from themselves.”

“Anything that comes along, as far as a potential buyer, would have to pass the criteria financially, from my point of view of course,” Saunders said. “And she wants good neighbors, and so she can accept or decline any offer that came through.”

Martin said she’s in no hurry to sell. Offers have been made but none yet accepted as of late July. This summer she’s operating the RV park and campground as she plans to start her new-home construction close by.

“I’m not under the gun by any means,” she said. “I’m not going anywhere.”

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Change is coming

The Seaview isn’t the only restaurant, bar and entertainment venue in town. The Dirty Skillet bar and restaurant and the Creekbend Cafe are busy nearby this summer. As Martin plans to build her home in Hope, she said she hasn’t yet turned wistful about selling the Seaview.

“It’ll be interesting how I feel afterwards, but right now I haven’t even thought about that,” she said.

Her favorite memories, she said, include looking around on a busy summer evening as the place buzzed with energy, seeing people dancing to live music and enjoying their food. “That’s the most gratifying thing, just to make people happy,” she said.

Though the bar and restaurant are closed this season, Martin is allowing Hope residents to gather at the Seaview occasionally. Each Thursday, she unlocks the space for their potluck, even though she can’t attend because she’s minding the RV park.

Kristy Peterson, an administrator and EMT for Hope Sunrise Emergency Services who has lived in Hope for 11 years, said change is hard for many folks in town. She’s concerned, but hopeful, about the Seaview’s future.

“If someone comes in and it retains its character, it’ll be a success,” Peterson predicted. “If not, all they’re going to have is uphill struggles.”

“But everything evolves,” she said. “And we have to evolve with it.”