10 • OCTOBER 2019
COAST RIVER BUSINESS JOURNAL
BUSINESS NEWS
Delicious dream fulfilled
New restaurant open
on LB’s main beach
approach
The Chowder Stop
Casey Barella, owner
203 W. Bolstad, Long Beach
11 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily
360-560-4795
LUKE WHITTAKER
LONG BEACH — After
helping launch several success-
ful restaurants across Southwest
Washington, Casey Barella now
has a kitchen to call his own.
Casey officially opened The
Chowder Stop at 203 W Bols-
tad in Long Beach before dozens
of cheering family and friends
on Oct. 1. Classic coastal com-
fort foods will be served up fresh
daily.
kitchen equipment at an auction
from a former Portland hotel,
including two fryers. The fryers
— one designated specifically for
fish and one for French fries —
will allow Casey to cook several
orders simultaneously.
“I’ve been in a kitchen a long
time and I’ve never seen a fryer
this wide,” Casey said.
Coastal comfort food
Started with a stand
It all began with an outdoor
burner and a dream.
A couple years ago Casey and
his wife Gail were at a career
crossroad.
“We started thinking about
what we could do as a side hus-
tle to bring in a little more money,
and instead of squandering the
money we started investing in the
stand,” Gail said.
The first investment was a
mobile outdoor double burner
and a couple soup pots. It was
enough to start selling chowder
at local farmers markets and sea-
sonal events in Long Beach and
Ilwaco.
Meanwhile, Gail left her job in
Astoria and opened Barella’s Bar-
bershop, with help from Casey
and the community in downtown
Long Beach in February 2019.
Casey credited the rapid suc-
cess of his wife’s barbershop busi-
ness in Long Beach for allowing
The Chowder Stop to grow from
a temporary stand to standalone
business.
“The barbershop gave me the
chance to do this,” Casey said.
“There’s no way this would have
happened without it. The barber-
shop supplied all the money for
equipment.”
Gail credited Casey and the
community for her success with
the barbershop.
LUKE WHITTAKER
Casey and Gail Barella embrace after a ribbon-cutting ceremony in front of cheering family and friends on Tuesday, Oct.
1. “I couldn’t have done it without her,” Casey said. “I couldn’t have done it without him,” Gail added.
“When we moved here we
always wanted to open a bar-
bershop slash restaurant, but we
didn’t think it was going to hap-
pen in less than a year, but people
believed in us,” she said.
An opportunity
Over the course of his 17-year
professional cooking career,
Casey served as a sous chef at
the Hop-N-Grape in Longview
and helped reopen a prominent
county club restaurant, assisting
both to become successful, estab-
lished businesses. He’s now eager
to invest time and effort into his
own establishment.
“This is my opportunity,”
Casey said.
The location, layout and
included kitchen equipment —
particularly a walk-in refrigerator
and pre-installed $30,000 stain-
less steel hood system— made
the deal especially attractive. A
side room separate from the main
dining area can be reserved for
LUKE WHITTAKER
After helping launch several successful restaurants across Southwest Washing-
ton and gaining nearly 20 years experience, Casey Barella now has a kitchen to
call his own. “This is my opportunity,” he said.
business meetings or intimate
dinners featuring a special menu.
The location was formerly occu-
pied by Starvation Alley, a cran-
berry juice production company
that shuttered after about 10 years
of operation.
Casey purchased some of the
The menu will feature home-
made clam chowder, fish and
chips and panini sandwiches,
including Cuban, club, Reu-
ben-style varieties among others.
“I wanted to make coastal
food, something everyone would
like,” Casey said, adding that he
experimented cooking for fam-
ily ultimately developing his own
chowder recipe over the years.
“But it was only once in a
while and always a great treat,”
Gail said.
The community has been
quick to praise the new business,
with dozens turning out for the
ribbon-cutting ceremony in the
middle of a Tuesday afternoon.
“Within the past week I’ve had
300 new ‘likes’ on our Facebook
page,” Casey said. “And I haven’t
even posted anything, that’s just
the community.”
The last remaining hur-
dle involves getting a beer line
installed, which Casey plans to
have North Jetty flowing from the
taps.
The dessert menu features pies
from Simpli Edibles owner Marci
Bennett, affectionately known
locally as the Pie Lady. Casey
became acquainted with Bennett
during Friday and Saturday farm-
ers markets in Long Beach and
Ilwaco.
“I’m going to keep it as local
as possible,” he said.