The long tenure of the Silverwater Cafe at the corner of Taylor and Washington Street closely tracks the  resurgence of the downtown area.

The fall marked the 35th anniversary for the local culinary fixture, which first opened in October of 1989 before moving to its current location in May of 1996.

Alison and David Hero both graduated from Port Townsend High School during the 1970s, and opened a fish-and-chips shack by the waterfront. It followed David’s stint as an Alaskan fisherman, and Alison starting to cook when she was only 12 years old.

“We were invested in creating a nice gathering place within the community,” said Alison Hero. “But at the end of our lease, we were looking at a rent increase that made it impossible to stay at our existing location.”

The Silverwater Cafe moved into its current location at 237 Taylor St.with a couple of partners, each floor of the building initially going to a different entity. Silverwater acquired the other two floors in 2008, and began leasing the top floor to Rocky Freidman for the Starlight Room of the Rose Theatre in 2011.

“We had one of the largest renovations in the history of Port Townsend in order to meet all the current requirements, including seismic,” Hero said of moving into the building. “We must have hauled out 110 tons of rubble, by hand, from our floor alone.”

Hero recalled how the community pitched in to help move the cafe’s chairs, tables and even refrigerator from its former location to its new space, which had to open while the walls were barely dry, because “we couldn’t afford to stay closed for too long.”

That was also incentive to pay heed to the impending signs of the COVID pandemic in November of 2019, which inspired them to invest in point-of-sale and online ordering systems.

“By December, we’d purchased additional takeout containers,” Hero said. “We still wound up with a gap of a few months in service, before the state started allowing outdoor seating again. The most miserable time was when our people were literally risking their lives to come into work, and checking IDs. It broke my heart to have to turn people away.”

COVID saw a staff reduction from 50 to 25, so Hero was pleased to see the last of the pandemic restrictions come to a close.

“I grew up cooking with my Sicilian grandma,” Hero said. “Feeding huge groups of people is how I show my love. I try to make the world better by making people feel better than they did when they came in our doors.”

Hero also takes pride in how many people the Silverwater Cafe has been able to hire over the years, and estimated the cafe has trained between 800 and 1,000 young employees.

“We’ve hired so many kids for their first jobs, and we always want their families to trust that we’ll treat them well,” Hero said. “We’ve had children of employees come work for us.”

Elann Abeyta, the dinner chef at the Silverwater, came to work for the cafe three years ago, after her oldest daughter started working there nine years ago at the age of 15.

“She started as a busser, and recently was voted best server last year,” Abeyta said. “My son Mason started working here as a busser about four years ago, and is now the lunch manager. Alison and David just hired my youngest, who is 14. I couldn't ask for a better environment for her first job.”

Jessica Weathersby, who’s been working as a server at the Silverwater since June, echoed Abeyta’s description of her coworkers and their work environment as “family,” just as they joined Bethany Mahaffey, the restaurant’s marketing and floor manager, in expressing their admiration for Alison Hero as an employer.

“I love that the Silverwater began as a humble dream, and grew into a local treasure,” said Mahaffey, who started as a bartender there in 2018. “Alison has an entrepreneurial spirit and an admirable dedication. I really look up to her.”

After only a month, host McKaide Fowler declared Alison Hero is “the kindest owner I have ever worked for,” while Bobara “Bob” Alcafaras has worked more than 20 years at the Silverwater, and credited both David and Alison Hero, along with their servers, with “cultivating a community that has thrived to this day.”

Alison Hero cited her employees’ due diligence, long hours and concern for one another, as well as the restaurant’s use of fresh local ingredients.

With a “for sale” sign posted on the building, Hero acknowledged that she and David are “ready to retire,” even though the cafe’s services remain in demand, but she assured her customers and the surrounding community that there’s no rush to sell the Silverwater, since the Heros want to ensure they select the right person to take over.

“We want it to be a community-minded person who will cherish our staff and customers,” Alison Hero said. “We’ve spent too many years on this place not to make sure it goes to good hands.”