October 2013
Luncheon Speakers Jefferson County Chamber of Commerce luncheon meetings are held at the Port Townsend Elks Lodge, 555 Otto St., at noon each Monday, federal holidays excluded. Everyone is welcome!
Oct. 7 - City Council Forum
Michelle Sandoval, Bob Jautz, Patrick Moore, Catharine Robinson, Pamela Adams and Harold Sherwood answer questions. Sponsor Port Townsend Library
Oct.14 - No Meeting Columbus Day holiday.
Oct. 21 Home Rule Charter
Advocates for and against the Home Rule Charter proposal for Jefferson County exchange views. Sponsor KPTZ.
Oct. 28 - Erin Brown, Julia Danskin Brown, Financial Counseling Supervisor and Compliance Officer for Jefferson Healthcare and Danskin, Jefferson County Public Health Manager, explain the new Washington Health Insurance Exchange program and the Get Covered Jefferson County campaign. Sponsor Seaport Landing.
Ajax serving fun with fine food The Ajax Café, housed in Sam Hadlock’s original 1880era home on the Port Hadlock waterfront, has remained virtually the same for 36 years. Joe Rudder opened the café in 1977 when he and his band needed a place to play music. Current owner, Kristan McCary, was aboard her father’s crab boat when he took her to the abandoned waterfront and up the dock to the Ajax for dinner. She was nine years old and enchanted. As a young woman, she went to work at the Ajax as a waitress and with two other waitresses, Eileen Stemle and Laura Ferguson, bought the business in 2004, from then-owners Tom and Lynda Weiner and Kathy Williams. Becoming sole owner in 2007, just as the economy crumbled, Kristan has had astounding success (and rave reviews) as a restaurant owner. She employs 23 people, hires local musicians and buys a majority of her inventory from local seafood and beef purveyors and from growers, cheesemakers and brewers on the Olympic Peninsula. She’s also made improvements to the property, recently installing one of Ann Raab’s “Green Pod” buildings to host “Bill the Wine Guy’s” tasting room, and is renovating garage and office space behind the building. The Ajax Café is rooted in the local collective imagina-
Kristan McCary was aboard her father’s crab boat when he took her to the Port Hadlock waterfront and up the dock to the Ajax for dinner. She was nine years old and enchanted. Now she owns the place. Photo by Jan Halliday. tion, not only because of its hidden location. Whether you arrive by water or by land, you are suddenly in the 1800s, to the remnants of what was once a prosperous waterfront that failed in the early 1900s after mill closures. Only a few buildings remained by 1977: Sam Hadlock’s old house, two structures now hous-
ing the Northwest School of Wooden Boatbuilding and a row of seven cabins built in the 1920s. Hadlock’s two-story home also known as The Galster House, was used for various purposes until Joe Rudder opened the Ajax in 1977. Almost everything in the Ajax, all the old hats, art and
posters on the wall, the album covers used as menus, the mismatched painted wooden chairs, the salt and pepper shakers and the goofy tableware–have been donated by locals along with their stories. Just the other day, someone brought in a treasured 50-year-old Payson Utah ReContinued on Page 2