Cindy Perry Marks 10 Years at The Pine Tree with a Remodel
The Pine Tree Bar and Grill has been a Westport icon for nearly a century. Established in 1925, its sign reads Good People, Good Food, Good Times. Now, as current owner Cindy Perry celebrates her 10 year anniversary, she’s putting the final touches on a major remodel. In addition to running The Pine Tree, Cindy serves as president of the Westport-Grayland Chamber of Commerce, is a proud mom and grandma, and a fierce competitor on the pool table. Her energy and work ethic have earned her a loyal local following, and folks around town are eager to see the bar reopen with its fresh look. The Drift sat down with Cindy to talk about the remodel and her 10 years as owner of The Pine Tree.
Cindy Perry (right) owner of The Pine Tree and Nina Yates-Johnson (left) , employee and artist, showing off the “new” mural in the remodeled Pine Tree
How’s the remodel going? What are you excited about?
So many things! I can’t wait to share a mural we found behind a wall seven years ago. It’s tongue and groove wood and dated 1935! I held onto it knowing some day we would put it back together. My bartender Nina (Yates-Johnson) is also an artist and she recently refinished it. The mural shows the jetty before it became the jetty. And you can see little fishing boats and birds, but it was pretty faded. I think originally the mural went the whole length of the wall but it had been cut off over time. Nina has brought it back to life, and, oh my gosh, it’s amazing! I can't wait for everyone to come in and see it. It's pretty special.
(Nina adds that the “mural had 90 years of nicotine and grease on it. I came up with a cleaning process- a baking soda and blue Dawn dish soap paste. I wanted to keep the integrity of the art and not take any paint off. I had to mix all these colors to try and match 90-year-old colors. I then put a varnish on the top to protect it. I had to look up steamships and schooners from the era.”)
I'm also putting in two pool tables. I’m a huge pool player myself, and it has driven me crazy that I own a bar with no pool table. So that’s exciting. And of course the new enlarged kitchen with a big walk-in cooler. It was so small before and the staff was always running around to get what they needed. This is already a job that’s hard on your body and feet. When you’re trying to provide a service for customers and taking all these extra steps just to get things, by the end of the day you feel more tired than you should be. Now, everything will be efficient, streamlined, and hopefully a much more fun environment for working.
There is also a new entry door that is covered, and I’m really excited about that. I have put a lot of heart into this project. I want people to come in here and enjoy this place for many years to come.
The Pine Tree Motto- good people, good food, good times.
How did you come up with your vision for the remodel?
Well, I’ve always been a goal-setter. My whole life, I've set goals for myself. And I try to work in a five-year plan. So I sit down and look at where I want to be in five years. And what do I have to do to get there? When I was able to purchase the property next door and expand the parking lot that set in motion all the stuff I’m doing now.
I’ve actually been working here for 18 years, and back when I first took this place over, I was doing a lot of stuff for people. I love Westport and I love the people here, and I’ve always focused on what the community needs. When we lost the grocery store and we lost a breakfast place I started serving breakfast and expanded my menu. I offered take-out, to try and help people getting off work that couldn’t get to a grocery store.
Now I feel like I have time to focus on what I want. My goal is to have a great place for people to come and I want to offer good food and good service. I want my pool room and lots of great live music, I’m going to have an outdoor beer garden, and an expanded menu with healthier options. I don’t want to give everything away, but there will be some fun surprises.
You offer a lot of live music and other types of events- can you tell me more about some of them?
We have Bingo every Monday night. We do Open Mic nights, karaoke, live music, paint-n-sips, and themed parties. I love hosting birthday parties- especially for the locals. I’ll ask them if they want a DJ or a band and I’ll book whatever they want. I also plan to add pool tournaments.
What’s your best-selling menu item?
Our burgers for sure. The original thing about our burgers is our goop recipe. We’ve had the same recipe for 80 years. So when I say best burgers in town, I mean it.
What’s your favorite thing on the menu?
I love our wings. I'm a wing connoisseur and when I first started serving wings, nobody in town had them. We were doing a Super Bowl party here. And I was like, well, I'm gonna try wings. So I went to my food vendors and got a bunch of samples and then I picked the ones that I liked the best, which are the ones we serve now. We had all these different sauces and people just went nuts over the wings. So I put them on the menu, and we offer five or six different flavors. Sometimes we create new flavors which is always fun.
Is there a most popular drink?
Not really, but people do love Bloody Mary’s at breakfast—especially during clam digging.
New Sasquatch-inspired door art for the Pine Tree bathrooms
What’s the vibe of The Pine Tree? How has it changed over your 10 years of ownership?
When I first took over this was a rough and rowdy bar- like fights and, basically a bartender's nightmare. I had to work at cleaning it up and getting the rough crowd out of here. I have zero tolerance for bad behavior. If people misbehave they are done. And if they get to come back, they're lucky. But if they do it twice, they're done and will never come back.
I've always worked for the goal that whether you're 21 or 91, I want you to walk in here and feel comfortable. And I think I have achieved that. I get out in the community a lot- at events or the VFW, and over the years people have gotten to know me, so they come to support me. And when they come in and meet my wonderful staff, they keep coming back.
How has Westport changed in your years at The Pine Tree?
So when I first started working here, the real estate was going crazy. They were working on putting that golf course in back at that time. This place was nuts like the whole town was nuts.
And then the real estate market crashed, and this place basically turned into a ghost town for years. I can remember working here and just being like, what happened?
The one thing that’s always kept this town alive is fishing and the surfers. That part of it has never died off. So the real estate went to crap until Covid, and it was just kind of a ghost town. That’s around the time when I got into doing events, to help bring in people and get people out of their houses.
Since Covid, it's busier. It's now getting harder for people to afford housing. You know, even my staff- some of them thought they were gonna have to move away because they couldn't find housing. It's brought a lot of new people to town and we have a lot of new local regulars. I think it’s starting to level out— I’m hoping we have a busy summer.
Do have family in the area and what are some of your other interests?
I have two sisters and two brothers. They all live locally in Grays Harbor. And my daughter and my son both live here in Westport. My daughter works here for me. She's pregnant with her second baby right now, and she's going be moving to Alaska pretty soon. I'm sad, but I'm excited for her.
I like to stay busy. I love working with all the events that we have here in Westport. Pirate days, the art festival, the crab races. All those things are a lot of fun for me and a good way to get out into the community.
Art Appleton is the original mural artist- circa 1935. If anyone knows the artist please reach out to Cindy at The Pine Tree
Do you have any advice for aspiring entrepreneurs?
Just follow your dreams. Anything can be done with hard work and determination. A lot of people lack the drive to put the work in—it is a sacrifice, but also rewarding.
Are you going to get to take a little break after the remodel is done?
I am going to have to jump in for a little while because it's an adjustment for the staff and everybody. I know we're going to get flooded with people because they have been watching this project since the day we broke ground- they are naturally curious about what I've got going on here. I haven’t talked about it too much. I want to see my vision through.