Popular Bellevue eatery to close public dining operations Feb. 1
By Eric Valentine
When Vicky Walker opened her South Valley eatery 18 years ago on Valentine’s Day, her labor of love never got tied down to one particular business model or menu or fad. The focus instead was on a quality product—lunch foods that split the difference between homemade and gourmet—and the ability to pivot when weather or inventory or customer schedules or market prices became the variables of the day.
“What kept Oak Street afloat all these years was a fluid business plan,” Walker said, just 48 hours after announcing on social media that as of Feb. 1 the restaurant she and her husband launched nearly two decades ago would not serve walk-in, dine-in or take-out customers ever again.
Numerous privately held restaurants across the country have gone under during the COVID-19 pandemic. And while Walker acknowledges there were business ups and downs the last two years, the lockdown and social distancing restrictions only made other parts of her business stronger. One example, her role as an artisan food provider for Kraay’s Market & Garden, a south Bellevue farm offering home delivery to customers in the Wood River Valley.
“When the lockdown happened, Kraay’s absolutely boomed,” said Walker, who had been providing pre-made foods like chicken enchiladas, spring rolls, eggplant parmesan, and salad dressings to the farm for roughly the last six years.
The farm, which launched commercially in 2015, had been humming along just fine, slowly growing its user base. Pre-pandemic, however, it’s easy for the market (i.e., food buying customers) to react to a business like Kraay’s as a sort of specialty item. In other words, the delivery of locally grown, organic produce and local artisan specialties—there are more than two dozen providers other than Walker—are special occasion nice-to-haves for the working class and perhaps even flaunting if you’re self-consciously wealthy.
Enter a full-scale lockdown and the mandates and restrictions that followed and suddenly you have an entire Valley a little leary of grocery store crowds and a little tired of ordering takeout even if it’s done in the pandemic parlance of “curbside pickup.” It turned Kraay’s from a nice idea you hope works out into the right idea at the right time, perhaps even a necessity.
For the 64-year-old Walker, all this meant it wasn’t time to retire since her product was still in high demand. It did mean it was time to retire the idea that going even another year with Oak Street Foods as a traditional eatery made little sense. So the longtime Bellevue resident pivoted.
“I will continue to be completely involved in creating meals, soups, sauces, dips, snacks, and sweet treats via Kraay’s,” Walker wrote in her social media post. “(Kraay’s) is an incredible and unique business in our Valley and I encourage everyone to use this resource. It is so convenient and brings so much locally sourced deliciousness to your home. You will be able to order all that Oak Street Foods has to offer and have it delivered to your home.”
So what does that mean day in day out for Walker?
“Semi-retirement,” she joked.
Putting “semi” in front of retirement is hardly accurate for an artisan and entrepreneur like Walker. She estimates that she’s worked about 12 hours a day, six days a week the past 18 years.
“I did the math when it comes to Kraay’s and I’m probably looking at working just under 40 hours a week,” Walker said.
Walker had some parting thoughts for the community as she steps forward into new ground. When it comes to your shopping and eating out habits, it’s fine that so much that has changed because of the pandemic remains. But never forget to “go local” and support the businesses you want to see around next year that you know must be struggling.
“Choose to help someone out,” Walker said.