This Green Lake restaurant closed so its owners can salvage their orchards

THE RESTAURANT BUSINESS can be a bowl of cherries, or it can be the pits. In the case of Eight Row, it’s been a little of both.

In one sense, it’s a tale as old as restaurants: When the rent goes up, the business often shuts down. But the reasons that Eight Row announced a hiatus beginning this month are more complicated than that. The owners are temporarily sacrificing the family restaurant to salvage the family orchards.

Wendell Berry once asked: Why do farmers farm, given their economic adversities on top of the many frustrations and difficulties normal to farming? Farmers farm for the love of farming, he concluded. You might say the same about chefs and restaurateurs. They open restaurants because they love restaurants, knowing the many pitfalls. The owners of Eight Row straddle both worlds.

Creating a restaurant to honor an agricultural heritage that stretches back generations was the long-held dream of brothers David and Ian Nichols, who run Eight Row, along with Kate Willman Nichols, David’s wife.

The farm-to-table connection was intrinsic to Eight Row’s concept. The Nichols boys grew up on the family farm in Central Washington and always intended to take it over someday. Ian is very involved on the business side, and they both pitch in for every cherry and apple harvest, working alongside their parents and other farm staff. The orchards and the diversity of farm culture are the heart and soul of David’s vibrant dishes.

The brothers descend from a long line of Northwestern farmers and ranchers on their mother’s side. Their father is “a huge plant nerd” from suburban Chicago, who came of age in the ’70s and “wanted to feed the world.” He studied horticulture at Iowa State and then moved to Pullman for the horticulture Ph.D. program at WSU.

They describe a magical childhood growing up at Sleepy Hollow Farm on the Wenatchee River. The other family property, Eagle Rapids Orchards, lies along the right bank of the Columbia on the Colville Indian Reservation in Okanogan County. “We slept outside whenever the weather allowed,” says Ian. “In high school, David and I bought an old army tent and lived outside all summer.”

As kids, they were required to choose one type of livestock and completely care for it. Ian chose chickens, later adding a goose, peacocks and rabbits. David raised goats, and eventually pigs. (Their sister picked horses.) Their “grumpa” kept cattle and each year gave the family one animal that yielded enough beef to last them all year. “When the cattle were butchered, our grandfather would feed my brother and me warm tartare straight off the animal,” Ian says. “That’s where David caught the cooking bug.”

The brothers say that without the orchards, there is no Eight Row. Pausing the restaurant will allow them to focus on the orchards, which have endured a string of financial losses, including a direct hit by the Pearl Hill fire in 2020, the apple crop lost to a hailstorm in 2022, and cherry crops decimated by consecutive seasons of blossom freeze and heat wave.

While that was going on, Eight Row struggled through the pandemic and grappled with the challenges of a beleaguered restaurant industry in the aftermath. Despite being a three-time James Beard Foundation semifinalist for food and beverage excellence, the restaurant never quite rebounded to pre-COVID business levels.

Last year, David and Kate, who manages the front of the house, had a baby. Though Kate worked full-time in the restaurant while pregnant, and could bring baby Julian to work, a toddler is a different story. So, with the rent going up and the orchards in jeopardy, they reassessed.

Will Julian grow up playing among the fruit trees, like his father and uncle did? Small family farms are no less threatened existentially than independent restaurants. Congress passes considerable agricultural aid, but crops such as corn, soy and wheat receive much of the support, while small farms fight to keep their heads above water. The Pacific Northwest is losing farmland, Ian says, and the average farm size is growing. Their few hundred acres at Eagle Rapids aren’t enough to move the needle anymore. In his view, policymakers on both sides of the aisle continue to reward the well-funded big farm groups and place no value on small-scale stewardship.

Labor and operating costs have increased dramatically, but unsustainable pricing has become “almost the norm for tree fruit,” he says. Fresh fruit doesn’t keep as other commodities do. Part of the path to solvency might be preserving it. The Nichols family plans to build a small production kitchen at Eagle Rapids. They’ll start fermenting and making vinegar entirely from unsold, blemished fruit, as well as produce a diverse range of pickles, salsas and preserves.

Dozens of cider varieties also are in the works. Cider apple seedlings already fill one nursery block, and their father has been sourcing root stock and heirloom trees from all over the country. Boutique fruit trees will provide rolling harvests of peach, plum, pear and cherry trees specifically for restaurant use and possibly for farmers markets. A large vegetable garden is another priority.

Meanwhile, they have a long-term project simmering in downtown Wenatchee, where they purchased the historic fire station. The design by Seattle-based Heliotrope calls for a 5,000-square-foot restaurant on the ground floor with a kitchen fueled by Central Washington fruit wood. A former gymnasium, which still has the original 1929 hardwood floors, will become a separate 12-seat restaurant. Eventual plans include a boutique hotel on the second level. They hope to make the fire station, long a community fixture, a platform and resource for farmers and farmworkers in the region.

Their path forward is far from clear. Eight Row’s final service was on June 29. This month, a series of events will celebrate the growers and harvesters who connect the restaurant to the land. Another location for Eight Row is a possibility but, as David says, “You make plans, and God laughs.”

In the meantime, Seattleites can hope, and, while it’s cherry season, we can console ourselves with his recipe for Sleepy Hollow Cherry Gazpacho.

Sleepy Hollow Cherry Gazpacho
— chef David Nichols, Eight Row
Serves 8

1 pound Rainier cherries, pitted
3 heirloom tomatoes (about 1 pound), chopped
1 English cucumber, chopped
2 cloves garlic
1 jalapeño pepper, chopped
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon cumin seed, toasted and ground
1 teaspoon fennel seed, toasted and ground
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
4 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 cup olive oil
3 tablespoons chopped parsley
3 tablespoons chopped cilantro

1. In a large bowl, combine the cherries, tomatoes, cucumber, garlic, jalapeño and spices. Add salt and pepper to taste. Stir in the vinegar and olive oil, and allow to marinate in fridge overnight.

2. Working in batches, if necessary, transfer mixture to a blender, add the chopped herbs and puree until smooth. Taste and adjust seasoning. Serve chilled.