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Seattle architect Arne Bystrom designed three restaurants in the Seattle area for the San Leandro, CA-based Straw Hat chain, this one in Redmond, one in Everett, WA, and one in Burien, WA. The free-standing franchises in Puget Sound all had a consistent overall design. Begun in San Leandro in 1959, the Straw Hat Pizza chain expanded under its original ownership until 1974, when Saga Corporation, a food service management conglomerate headquartered in Menlo Park, CA, purchased it. (At this time, Saga--which had started at Hobart College in NY-- owned the Velvet Turtle, Refectory and Stuart Anderson's Black Angus restaurant brands in addition to Straw Hat.) Saga developed the chain to its fullest extent by the late 1970s-early 1980s, when approximately 450 franchises existed on the Pacific Coast. (In 1984, however, Straw Hat made the decision to drop its out-of state franchises, to concentrate on its core 209 CA outlets.) In 1987, another chain, Pizza Hut, seeking to move into new West Coast territory, bought all of the of Straw Hat's company-owned locations. Independent franchise owners balked at the Pizza Hut purchase, and, instead of selling out, banded together to operate on their own. By 2010, 58 of these restaurants remained in business.

The Straw Hat location operated here from 1978-1981. In 1981, a cafe, Mario O'Sullivan's, serving Italo-Irish cuisine, succeeded it. This restaurant failed and was replaced by an Arby's franchise which remained in operation in 2010.

PCAD id: 15843