By SCOTT CHERRY Restaurant Critic on Feb 21, 2008, at 1:47 PM Updated on 2/21 at 1:47 PM
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While interviewing Impressions owner Tom Butcher about his 30 years in the restaurant business, he related this priceless story.
Butcher operated Impressions at 15th Street and Lewis Avenue for 21 years. In the late 1990s, Albertson's had built a grocery store on adjoining property and wanted Impressions out of the way. According to Butcher, the store threatened to put up a fence on the parking lot side of the restaurant and made unreasonable offers to buy his property.
"So we have this meeting with Albertson's attorneys, and I take along my mortgage man, who was a very proper gentleman, suit and tie and distinguished looking," said Butcher. "First thing, he stands in front of the group and says, ´Since we can't seem to live in harmony on that corner and since we haven't received a reasonable offer for the property, we are going to close the restaurant and turn it into a strip club.'
Butcher said his man hesitated, then delivered the kicker: "And we're going to call it Skaggs."
Butcher said he soon received "an offer I could live with."
As most locals know, the store operated as Skaggs Albertson's here in the 1970s.
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