Once known for bottomless cups of coffee and a vast array of pies, Shari’s Cafe & Pies is becoming synonymous with restaurant closures and legal battles across multiple Washington counties as well as in Idaho and Oregon.

A News Tribune analysis of court filings in Washington state shows debt collection cases involving either Shari’s Management Corp. or Shari’s Non Oregon Holding LLC filed in at least 11 counties since 2020.

Since January 2024, more than 10 debt collection and/or unlawful detainers (commercial eviction cases) have been filed in the state, according to a review of online Superior Court case search portals.

Meanwhile, three tax warrants from the Washington state Department of Revenue were issued to Shari’s between October and December 2023: owing more than $708,000 in October, nearly $300,000 in November and more than $288,000 in December.

The Department of Revenue told The News Tribune in response to questions that while warrants filed with the court are disclosable, current amounts owed are not.

In Pierce County, there are lawsuits regarding four restaurants over unpaid rent at locations in Tacoma and Puyallup going back to early in the pandemic.

There’s also upheaval in neighboring Kitsap County, where the chain is facing eviction in Silverdale over unpaid rent.

On Aug. 26, NBC affiliate KGW-TV in Portland reported that the Idaho State Tax Commission has six tax liens against Shari’s Management Corporation for roughly $220,000 in unpaid taxes, as well as owing various vendors including marketers, construction firms and plumbers and facing an eviction fight in Bend.

Attempts to reach attorneys and corporate representatives involved with Shari’s were unsuccessful. An automatic reply was received from the email listed in its corporate LLC filings that simply stated to “please expect a delay” in receiving a response.

The offices for Shari’s Management Corp. in Beaverton are listed as “temporarily closed” online in its business listing on Google.

For at least one industry consultant, none of this is surprising.

“Full-service concepts have had a difficult time raising money,” said Aaron Allen, founder of Aaron Allen & Associates, a global restaurant consulting firm. “You want to be able to maintain some sense of nostalgia and history, and so it’s hard when these places start to go away.”

“In many cases that the costs of both labor and food and even occupancy, which are the three biggest costs for a restaurant, all three of those have gone up at rates that are faster than what they’re able to increase their menu prices,” he said.

For places like Shari’s, it’s also tough if you are dealing with an older clientele, he noted.

“When you have an older brand like (Shari’s), they have kind of a generational clientele, and there’s a bit of nostalgia, and there’s also a lot of price sensitivity, because we all kind of tend to lock into our mind what the cost of bread or whatever it might be from some historical point, and then you get sticker shock,” said Allen.

Slow decline, then a pandemic

Shari’s Restaurants started in Hermiston in 1978 as a family operation. It was acquired in 1999 by Fairmont Capital for $60 million. It had just under 100 sites across seven states.

Through the years, different investors bought into and later sold their interests in the chain, and eventually Gather Holdings LLC, became Shari’s Management Corp.’s parent company, with Samuel Borgese at the helm.

Corporate filings with the state of Washington show that Shari’s Non Oregon Holdings, an entity based in Farmers Branch, Texas, and affiliated with Borgese, was registered with the state in April 2024, and also appears as the defendant in recent area debt cases.

Borgese has noted in court filings the effect the COVID-19 pandemic had on its sites, leading to the closures of many Shari’s locations.

In contrast, Shari’s Oregon presence appears to be hanging on via the Oregon lottery.

Last year, Shari’s announced it received an undisclosed investment in Shari’s 42 Oregon restaurants from affiliates of MGG Investment Group to support the “video lottery gaming operations” at those sites.

Borgese said at the time that “we look forward to leveraging their expertise as we continue to provide the delicious meals and entertainment our loyal customers expect.”

‘Change is tough’

At this point, industry consultant Allen isn’t sure of Shari’s path forward, predicting that the brand “will stay around, there will still be some units, if they don’t all totally shutter, but it will probably keep shrinking.”

Unlike the former video chain Blockbuster, the chain won’t vanish, he added, but likened it more to Sears’ slow withdrawal from the commercial landscape.

“People still have a reverence for the company name,” he said. “There are still always people who will continue to be supportive of them. But change is tough to deal with.”

That change has been harder for some than others.

Announcements of closures on social media have drawn a mix of harsh critiques of recent visits along with melancholy over what’s been lost, with some of the sites closing after decades of service.

“I’ve met some of my very favorite people at Shari’s, people I consider family,” wrote one commenter on Facebook to The News Tribune’s reporting of the 72nd Street Shari’s closing. “It’s always sad to see a business close, large or small. I don’t know about you but it makes me nervous that an industry appears to be dying and people are just … being mean.”