A shake up last week at Grant House has left The Restaurant at the Historic Reserve as the building's sole tenant.
The Club at the Historic Reserve suspended operations Oct. 30, moving all of its furniture from the second floor of the Victorian-style manse on Vancouver's Officers Row to a storage facility.
Restaurant owner and general manager Suzy Taylor claimed Club representatives did not a respond to recent requests to negotiate new terms on its sublease, which expired in September. Both establishments leased the space from the International Air and Hospitality Academy, an organization Taylor partly owns.
Club president Randall Lofstrom told the VBJ this week that declining membership caused by the economic downturn made continuing operations at the location unfeasible. "The Grant House is a fabulous venue, and all of us felt it should last forever," Lofstrom said. "But we were not able to keep it going."
Despite the loss of The Club, the Vancouver National Historic Trust, which manages the property for the AHA, indicated last week that it wanted to keep a food service venue at the site. "It's a great service for our tenants, visitors and it can be a great compliment to future development in the Vancouver barracks," said Mike True, chief financial officer at the Trust.
For Taylor, a daughter of Club founder Arch Miller, the loss of a Vancouver institution still weighed heavily. "It's the hardest thing because it was his vision," she said. "Unfortunately, the goals of the restaurant and the club were not aligned."
