Pelican Brewing hopes to have sixth Oregon coast location in Yachats up and running this summer

By GARRET JAROS/Lincoln Chronicle

YACHATS – Pelican Brewing’s owners say they hope to have their new Yachats location – the company’s sixth on the Oregon coast – open by summer.

Founders Mary Jones and Jeff Schons closed the deal to purchase the former LeRoy’s Blue Whale building on Wednesday after making a stop at the Yachats city council meeting to make the announcement official.

“The city welcomes you,” said Mayor Craig Berdie. “We’re glad you’re here.”

The couple told the council they were drawn to Yachats initially because of a family connection that made them regular visitors over the years. They talked about that connection and their plans with the Lincoln Chronicle prior to the meeting.

“Jeff’s mom lived there for about 15 years or so and we would go down and visit with her,” Jones said. “And interestingly enough, we would have breakfast or lunch at LeRoy’s Blue Whale with her. And when we kind of started looking around for what might be a natural location for us to be, that was near the top of the list.”

Schons echoed that sentiment in a press release issued later in the day, adding “I think mom would be really pleased to know that we will be the new owners and that we’ll be remembering her and those great times in that special place.”

The location also offers good visibility along the U.S. Highway 101 corridor, they said, and the building size is a good fit for their smaller-sized establishments.

“There are just a lot of favorable aspects to it and we always keep our eyes open for things that fit the Pelican,” Jones said. “And it just seemed like it was a great example of where we want to be.”

The couple opened the first Pelican Brewing restaurant in Pacific City, where they’ve lived for the past 35 years, in 1996. They opened a production brewery, where beer is canned, bottled and kegged, along with a taproom inside the brewery and accompanying patio in Tillamook in 2013. In 2016 they opened a location in Cannon Beach and in 2022 on Siletz Bay in Lincoln City. In October they opened a smaller location in Rockaway Beach.

“We are going to do a renovation, so we plan to open this summer sometime,” Jones said. “Construction is always a tricky thing for timing so we can’t make any promises of when this summer we would be open, but sometime in the next four or five months.”

The deal came together quickly, so everything is still early in the planning process, Schons added.

“We are trying to catch up and get things rolling as quick as we can and figure out what everything is going to look like and what the plan is,” he said. “But we’re not quite there.”

Pelican purchased the property from Crystall and Robert Morigeau, who closed their Whale’s Tail Diner & Pirate Pub on Sunday afternoon. The Morigeaus bought LeRoy’s Blue Whale last April from Don and Angie Lindsley of Waldport, who had operated the restaurant for 45 years.

There are no plans to increase the footprint of the building, which is about 3,000 square feet.

“This is kind of a new format for us,” Schons said. “We have our little taproom in Tillamook, which is quite a bit smaller than this building. It’s about 1,500 square feet on the inside. And then Rockaway we have only about 2,000 square feet, and it seems like it’s being received really well.”

The menu will be paired down from the larger “flagship” locations because the equipment needed for things like the salmon entrée will not fit at the Yachats location, Schons said.

“So, generally a smaller menu and a little less complicated frankly,” he said. “But it seems like a real nice way to become a part of these smaller communities and still run a real nice viable little business.”

Once open, the restaurant will operate seven days a week from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. in the winter and 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. in the summer.

Jones and Schons reached out to the city to discuss the possible purchase in February and said there was no pushback or concerns from city staff, who they say were cooperative, informative and helpful.

City manager Bobbi Price acknowledged she did have some concerns when first approached about the venture.

“My initial concerns fell within the fact that it’s a large, well-known business with multiple outlets,” Price said. “And my vision immediately went to those larger locations that they have and concern about how that would fit into the ethos of Yachats.”

But she said her concerns were alleviated after talking with them and looking at how they implemented Pelican Brewing in Rockaway Beach with a much smaller and low-key community taproom combined with their genuine care for the community and longtime ties.

“Hearing their backstory made me feel like they have a nice connection to Yachats and care about Yachats,” Price said. “They really stressed the importance of that community essence. And investing into the communities they’re located.”

Pelican gives to hundreds of organizations and participates in community events along the coast even where they have no presence. They do give-backs with beer sales to various charities and even helped repair habitat for the Silver Spot butterfly through sales of their Silver Spot beer. They also encourage employees to volunteer for different events, giving them time off and sometimes paying them for those efforts.

Pelican Brewing Co. does not disclose its annual revenue, but produces about 40,000 barrels of beer annually and distributes to four states.

One of the differences between Pelican and other companies with multiple outlets besides their local roots, Jones said, is that she and her husband are very involved with daily operations and available to anyone who wants to reach out to them.

They will be reaching out to the former employees of the Whale’s Tail for job interviews, but say they will need even more people. They are also hiring at their Siletz Bay location.

“We are really excited to be a part of what we see as a beautiful little community on the coast,” Jones said of Yachats. “We love everything that we’ve seen. We’ve visited here many times over the years and are just really excited to become part of the community.”

“We’ve been part of the Pacific City community for 35 years and the other communities for a long period of time and we enjoy that opportunity to get to know people and to be integrated and really participate in being good community members,” Schons added.

“So those expectations should be there for us and we hope to live up to them and be good employers providing good jobs with good benefits. And hopefully, some good food and good beer.”

• Garret Jaros covers the communities of Yachats, Waldport, south Lincoln County and natural resources issues for Lincoln Chronicle and can be reached at [email protected]