HEADLINES & HISTORY SINCE 1879 Goldendale, Washington
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2023
Vol. 144 No. 50
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It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas
Golden Ridge residents urged to take action LOU MARZELES EDITOR
Joyce Taylor and most of the residents of Golden Ridge Village in Goldendale are fed up. They’re taking action to draw public attention to the apparent lack of attention from the owner of the facility. The mobile home village is adjacent to the New Life Assembly of God Church on Columbus Avenue. The owner is a company called Hurst & Sons; it owns about 90 such places across the Pacific Northwest. Some of its other locations report similar complaints. The company to date has ignored appeals from Six Rivers, a conflict-resolution agency, and residents. It has similary ignored requests from The Sentinel for comment. Here’s one that happened at Golden Ridge: Hurst & Sons announced to residents that it was going to do some construction on the road into the village. It’s the only road in and out. Because of the construction, Hurst told the residents they were going to need to park elsewhere—oh, say, at the
PHOTOS BY LOU MARZELES
RIGHT DOWN CANDY CANE LANE: Top, the tree on the courthouse lawn in its Christmas finery. Above and right, scenes from Saturday’s parade.
D’Avanzo’s sweeps top Gorge awards
See Residents page A8
Vandalism, park safety issues are tip of the iceberg
LOU MARZELES EDITOR D’Avanzo’s Italian Restaurant in Goldendale is a year old now and has established itself as a premier eatery. And that’s not just in town—the restaurant just won three prestigious consumer awards: Best Restaurant in the Gorge, Best Chef in the Gorge, and Best Lunch Spot in the Gorge. The designations are awarded based on responses to polls conducted in each of those categories. D’Avanzo’s was up against hundreds of restaurants throughout the Columbia River Gorge. “Gold,” Shannon D’Avanzo states proudly. “First place. Not silver.” Shannon says the signs were clear early on that the restaurant was going to catch on. “When we first opened, we wanted to keep it real minimal,” she recalls. “We had very limited hours. We were only open Tuesday through Saturday, and Tuesday through Thursday we were only open for lunch. Fridays and Saturdays we were open for lunch and dinner, and we were doing counter service. We realized it was such a huge demand right off—lines were all the way out the door. People wanted to have the full service so quickly that within less than a month we started full service where you can sit down and order. I think it was March when we opened for lunch and
TAMARA KAUFMAN
FOR THE SENTINEL CONTRIBUTED
MARKING ONE YEAR: Shannon D’Avanzo cuts the ribbon at a celebration of D’Avanzo’s Italian Restaurant’s first-year anniversary. The eatery has become a draw across the Gorge, winning three major Gorge-wide awards that Phil D’Avanzo holds proudly. dinner Tuesday through Saturday. Then people started asking us about breakfast, and with winter it slows down with the tourist season.” Yes, you read that right. Goldendale has a tourist season. “This is actually a pretty touristy town,” Shannon continues. “We get a lot of traffic in here on Fridays and Saturday nights from out of town–people from all over the world. People in town for the Observatory and a lot of people coming specifically for the restaurant. We have people come from The Dalles, Yakima, White Salmon, Hood River. So we started opening for breakfast a couple months ago, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, from 8 to 11.” Next on the restaurant’s horizon is a new juice and smoothie
bar, prompted by D’Avanzo’s husband’s dietary proclivities. “We were going to do it inside the restaurant,” she says, “but this place opened up”—she refers to the old Rakow office building just next door—“and we thought maybe we should just do it over here.” The bar will have healthy juices, smoothies, and salads. Shannon says they’re planning to have it open by the end of December. She’s proud of their accomplishments in one short year, beginning with building a fiercely loyal customer base. She positively beams when she talks about her staff and how the restaurant’s foods are made. She began cooking when she was 10 years old. Her husband, Phil, is the son of an immigrant born in
Italy. Acquiring Italian-cooking skills was a natural choice. “We’ve gone through a lot of changes,” she says, “and we’ve kept the same core staff. We have a very talented pastry chef, so we have really good gourmet desserts. We bake our own sandwich bread in-house. All of our dishes are made from scratch. Even for our salads, we cut our own romaine, we shred our own carrots. All our salad mixes are organic. Over half of our pasta dishes are vegetarian. Our soups are gluten-free and made from scratch with organic broth. We start in the morning to prep everything, so our food comes out hot and quick. You usually don’t have to wait more than 10 minutes for your food.” All D’Avan-
See D’Avanzo page A8
What started as a discussion at a Goldendale City Council meeting in October about how to address vandalism and safety issues at Ekone Park due to drug use and disposal of waste has grown to include houselessness, substance use disorders, mental health, family values, and how it all affects the fabric of the rural community. Over 80 people participated in-person and online in the December 5 meeting including Klickitat County commissioners, members of the Goldendale city council, law enforcement, Washington Gorge Action Programs (WAGAP), Recovery Cafe, other human service providers, and the general public. “This issue on homelessness and drugs, and mental illness, these are actually nationwide issues,” Goldendale Mayor Mike Canon said. “This is not something particularly for Goldendale or Klickitat County. It’s everywhere, and it’s going to take
See Homeless page A8