PORT ANGELES — Car horns honk happily and people wave when they drive by the building at 1026 E. First St.
It seems like everyone in town is watching as the Fanaticus Sports Grill becomes a reality.
Port Angeles native Warren Taylor, owner of Taylor Made Construction LLC, and his wife, Marissa, a respiratory therapist, are transforming the building (it’s about 7,500-square-feet) into a family restaurant and haven for sports fanatics — hence the name Fanaticus, Latin for “fanatic” or, in its shortened form, “fan.”
“My main purpose for doing this is, I felt there was a gap in the community for family dining and sports viewing,” said Taylor, a former waiter at Port Angeles’ upscale C’est Si Bon restaurant.
“This will be a sports-themed family restaurant.”
The Taylors hope to open Fanaticus in mid-May after pouring more than $500,000 into renovations of the building, constructed as a shipping warehouse in the mid-1940s.
They expect to employ about 30 people and generate a $250,000 to $300,000 annual payroll.
Plans are for Fanaticus to be open from 10 a.m. to about 10 p.m. daily.
Twelve TVs, plus igloo-shaped fast cooker
Twelve televisions will adorn the walls, anchored by two 180-inch projector screens in a 140-seat dining room topped by a 19-foot barrel-vault ceiling.
Recycled tongue-and-groove flooring covers the ceiling and softens the height.
Taylor designed the interior, which when it opens will have bar seating for between 40 and 50, a 75-seat banquet room and a game-arcade room for kids and kid-like adults.
Taking center stage as patrons walk through the 8-foot front doors is an igloo-shaped, gas-fired, brick pizza oven that will cook a half-dozen pizzas in 2½ minutes.
At a pizza bar, customers will watch the pizzas being made, just like Taylor raptly did as a child when visiting the Shakey’s Pizza once located near East Kolonels Way.
But the Taylors caution that pizza — Fanaticus won’t be offering take-out — will comprise just 15 percent of the menu.
“It just happens to be that the way we cook it is more public,” Taylor said.
“We just happen to find that cooking it in a brick oven is more advantageous to the flavor, and [it] made more sense to put it in the dining room rather than hide it in the kitchen.
“We are making a statement on how different we are — and how fun it is to come in and see the production.”
The facade of the structure includes thousands of stones layered as a new building face-front thanks to a $10,000 city facade-improvement grant.
The city grant requires at least a 50-50 match from recipients.
“Without that grant money, it would have been hard for us to justify that extra cost,” Taylor said.
The Taylors are leasing-to-buy from the building’s owner, Edna Petersen.
Petersen also owns the Necessities & Temptations downtown gift shop and is president of the Port Angeles Business Association.
Her Sea Ridge Realty business had been there along with offices housing Apria Healthcare and, at one time, the state Department of Motor Vehicles office. It’s where Taylor obtained his driver’s license.
After graduating from Port Angeles High School in 1989, Taylor moved to Arizona to pursue a career as a pilot when the job market for those skills was bleak.
General contractor
He moved back to Port Angeles, becoming a licensed and bonded general contractor.
His skills blossomed as his custom-homes construction company grew, and now he employs his own workers to realize his budding, long-held dream of running a restaurant.
“It’s always definitely something that’s been in my idea bank,” Taylor said.
Once Fanaticus opens, Taylor will set aside his tool belt.
He plans to hand over the day-to-day operations of Taylor Made Construction to his lead carpenter, Jacob Tweter, and manage the restaurant.
“We all fall into certain positions in life,” Taylor said.
CORRECTION: An article in Sunday’s (March 15) print edition gave an incorrect address for the building. The correct address is 1026 E. First St. in Port Angeles.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-452-2345, ext. 5060, or at pgottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.
