Customers rally after fire at Lake Hills restaurant

Customers talked about old times and the new owners talked about how they plan to reopen as they all looked over the blackened shell of a longtime Lake Hills restaurant Thursday.

Known for its close community of customers, the Stamos Cafe drew a half-dozen friends who came to help in the aftermath of Wednesday's fire.

The inside of the restaurant was destroyed by the blaze, reported by a passer-by shortly before midnight Wednesday.

Some 34 Bellevue and Redmond firefighters responded. The flames were rapidly controlled, but about $200,000 damage was done to commercial cooking equipment and other fixtures, said Bellevue Fire Department Capt. Bruce Kroon.

The fire was attributed to a failure in a gas line serving a commercial range, Kroon said.

It is expected to be three to four months before the restaurant can reopen, said owner Charlie Seok, who bought the restaurant about a year ago with his wife.

The couple purchased the business from Stella and Stamatios "Sam" Palios, who had run it since 1980.

"All the food is the same. All the customers are the same," Seok said. "Mostly seniors here. We're like big family."

The cafe has been part of the Lake Hills Shopping Center at 156th Avenue Southeast since 1980, although the building dates to the 1950s.

As Seok was removing debris from the building and consulting with his insurance adjuster, Sam Palios arrived to check things out.

Palios, 69, and his wife started the cafe after 15 years in New York, he said. He worked his way up cleaning tables and cooking before finally opening his own business.

"I miss a lot of friends," he said of his former business.

Seok said he and his family were looking for a business when they came to the United States from South Korea about two years ago.

He and his wife found the restaurant through word-of-mouth in the shopping center, part of one of the Seattle area's earliest suburban developments in the post-World War II era.

Some 50 years ago, the building was a drive-in restaurant called Maxi's, recalled Chuck Dodge, a longtime customer, and the drive-up order line was where the Stamos front door is now.

"Maxi's was here in 1956, '57, '58," said Dodge, but it later changed to inside service and became the Stamos Cafe.

"The food was good. It doesn't follow the trends of all the chains around," he said.

"I come here frequently," said Rob Lee, explaining that he was a close friend of the Palioses.

As he held under his arm a pile of menus rescued from the fire, Lee described how the restaurant offered a sense of belonging that's not easy to find.

"The community has just accepted them as family," he said. "It's like 'Cheers,' where everybody knows your name. It's not the corporate structure."

Peyton Whitely: 206-464-2259 or pwhitely@seattletimes.com