The Pioneer Bar and Bamboo Room Restaurant is advertised for sale.
Bob and Christy Fowler are aiming to move on from the downtown landmark that’s been in Christy’s family since 1953. The couple has owned it since 1991.
Christy said this week that family priorities are behind their decision. “I haven’t had a summer off since I was 11. I’ve never been to Haines. That’s how it feels. I’ve never been to the Hammer Museum or Glacier Point. I’d love to do what our visitors do and enjoy myself here. You hear about that.”
She said husband Bob couldn’t make it to the Lower 48 before his grandfather died last summer and his mother was hospitalized twice recently. “He’s taken really good care of my mom for years. It would be nice for him to have the flexibility to spend time with his own family.”
Fowler, who holds a degree from BerkleeCollege of Music, said she was only planning to operate the business for six years when she took over 25 years ago. “It’s been a great place to raise our kids. It’s been like a family farm. The boys have worked alongside us all these years.”
At the same time, it has consumed family time, she said. She recounted a moment a few years ago when she was working alongside son Chevy in the restaurant’s prep room. “He turned to me and said, ‘Mom, do you realize we’ve never been on a family vacation?’”
“It was a hard decision to make, and telling the staff was hard, but the business has had a lot of owners. It’s somebody else’s turn,” Fowler said.
Fowler said she was hoping to write as her next profession. She has a website, poetictributes.com, and has an offer to write a friend’s biography. “Really, I want to write. That sounds like a luxury, but life’s too short not to do what you’re meant to do… You get into this pattern, and if you don’t pay attention, then you die.”
The property is listed with Alyeska Realty Co. of Skagway. The building, plus two adjoining parcels including a parking lot, are assessed at $255,00 according to the Haines Borough website.
The sale includes the bar’s liquor license, Fowler said.