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A Wall Comes A’Tumblin’ Down, A View Returns
Scott’s Seafood on the River Survives a Siege: Part 1 of 2
By Ed Goldman
Until last week at Scott’s Seafood on the River you could see food, all right, but not the river. A concrete wall, 16 feet high and more than 280 feet wide, ran the length of the restaurant and the next-door Westin Hotel. The wall had been built by the Army Corps of Engineers as it worked to shore up levees along the Sacramento River.
But what it also accomplished was to completely block the restaurant’s views of the Sacramento River, causing the popular eatery to cancel dozens of outdoor events such as weddings, retirements, confirmations, bar mitzvahs, charity fundraisers and conferences, all of which comprise a significant portion of its income.
Alan Irvine at The Wall; photo by Edgy
“I had nightmares throughout the process,” says Scotland native Alan Irvine (pronounced Irvin) who co-owns Scott’s with his wife Sigrid. Their elder son Iain is the restaurant’s general manager and Iain’s younger brother Tristan manages its social media presence as well as creating ads and videos for Scott’s. Other family members do the event planning and administration for the business.
After numerous delays that the Army Corps didn’t feel the need to warn of in advance nor explain while in progress—this government group acts as autonomously as the National Security Agency but without the charm—the wall came down in late June.
I first wrote about Alan and The Wall for this column last September, at which time he had hopes that the project would last only “a few months,” for that’s what he’d been told. But as the project dragged on, Irvine had to face “not only the loss of revenue that threatened the very existence of the business but also the livelihood of the 100-plus people who depend on the restaurant to feed their families.”
At long last, the Army Corps began to dismantle the wall in late June. At the same time, the Westin Hotel, which is Scott’s landlord, was able to stop enforcing mandatory valet parking, which had been made necessary when the Army Corps took over all of the available free spaces running a couple hundred yards along the top of the levee. “Even our Happy Hour business suffered,” Irvine says. “Who wants to pay $8 to park so they can save a few dollars on hors d’oeuvres?” He does express his gratitude to the Westin for discounting what had been a $12 fee.
As I wrote several months ago, and still mean, “Scott’s has the best and freshest seafood in Northern California” with its clam chowder, Petrale sole and variety of oysters with “particular fan faves” being its succulent prawns and very savory steaks.
When he realized what he was facing with the construction of the wall—which meant that the wall was also what his dine-in customers would be facing—Irvine’s art background kicked in.
He’d originally come to America to work on a master’s degree from the San Francisco Arts Institute but took a detour to the restaurant business when an early marriage collapsed. But he’d always maintained his love of art—and before the vista-vitiating wall went up, he contracted with the regional artist Stephanie Taylor to design and execute a mural (actually, individual panels) of fish paintings and proverbs on a rich blue backdrop. It became a lure for customers. (I’d have written that it hooked them, but please). The net result (sorry) was people kept coming to Scott’s but “business went way down” while the events component of the restaurant’s revenue stream made a hard stop.
Through it all, Irvine remained skeptically optimistic, if there can be such a thing. “I know what the Army Corps was doing was essential to save lives and property,” he says. But, he says, “If it hadn’t been for our loyal customers, for a staff that delighted me by working harder, for the welcome attention of the media”—news and feature stories on TV, radio and all over social media really helped—”and the generosity of our landlord, the Westin Hotel, my wife and I would have lost our business and also our dream.”
In the next installment of The Goldman State, we’ll talk about an unusual art installation at Scott’s that’s becoming the talk of the town. Join us. No reservation needed.
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Ed Goldman's column appears almost every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. A former daily columnist for the Sacramento Business Journal, as well as monthly columnist for Sacramento Magazine and Comstock’s Business Magazine, he’s the author of five books, two plays and one musical (so far).
