The Times sent Heffter to do a story and she reported the owner was thinking of closing anyway, and doesn't particularly want to stay in that spot even if Safeway doesn't buy the land:

A community effort to save The Silver Fork restaurant is in full swing, but the restaurant's owner said she was thinking of closing it anyway.
"I was relieved when I found out, to be honest," said Johnson, 51, who took over running the restaurant from her ailing parents five years ago. "It's been really, really, really stressful for me, doing this."
Johnson's mother, Estella Potts, opened The Silver Fork in March 1989 after years of operating a diner in the Central District. There was talk about a decade ago of buying the building, at the corner of Rainier Avenue South and South Charlestown Street, from the family that owns it, but the decision was to stick with a lease.
[...]
Johnson plans to meet with Safeway representatives, at their request. She doesn't blame them, she said. Why wouldn't they want to expand their business? That's what they do.
The grocery chain says the gas station is not a done deal, but the property has been on the market for two years. Safeway spokeswoman Sara Osborne said the company was told Johnson planned to retire.
"We don't want to buy a property and then evict somebody who wants to be there," she said.
The sale is not complete. The Seattle Department of Planning and Development is accepting comments about the gas-station proposal through Wednesday. A gas station is consistent with the land's commercial zoning, said spokesman Bryan Stevens.
The property's owners could not be reached Friday. Johnson is upset she didn't know sooner about their plans to sell. Still, she doesn't want to stay in the restaurant's current location.
She would consider moving, she said, "but only if it's beneficial to me."
"Everybody's pushing me to keep it open, but ... I don't know if I would want to stay here if Safeway did back out," she said. "I understand everybody wants to have The Silver Fork. It has made me feel so good, because what has kept me coming here seven days a week ... is my customers."

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/lo…

G.G., Goldy talked to Ms. Johnson after the Seattle Times piece ran—see paragraph three:

"...The Pottses' daughter Margie Johnson, who's been running the restaurant since her mother's stroke, recently told the Seattle Times that she'd been thinking of closing the restaurant anyway, but she tells me she would put in another 15 years, even relocated. 'I love this place,' says Johnson. 'I don't want to see it go down just like that.'"

Gus @1, Margie certainly has mixed emotions, but I feel that the Seattle Times overemphasized the negative ones. Margie told me that she had been considering closing the restaurant, maybe in another two, three years, and that she wasn't 100% sure what she was going to do. But while she said she was "devastated" when she first heard the news, she did not sound to me like she was ready to give up:

"If I can give it another 15 years I would love to do that, but I have to see how this works out for me." Margie told me on Monday. "I'm really hoping that everything works out, because I really don't want to see the Silver Fork, go this way."

Make of that what you will.

@2, 3, thanks for directing me to that part - I read it too fast (while pretending to be working).

"I can tell you from personal experience that the selection and service still falls far short of Safeways located in more affluent neighborhoods."

Service falling short in a store in a less affluent community? Whose fault is that? The store, or the workers?

@5 It's management's fault. They run the store. Either they're not adequately staffing the store, or they're not holding the staff up to the same standards they would in a more affluent neighborhood, or both.

Safeway is working with Larkin Potts and Margie Johnson on this matter. We respectfully request that if you want to know Margie Johnson's true feelings about the entire situation, visit the restaurant and ask her.

GOLDY, you're a decent writer, and I'm sure a nice man, but sheesh, the causes you get after. You're chasing windmills (again) dude; though I'm certain that you chase windmills in a very nice, polite, non-violent, green fashion. Yes, a nice, old spot, but not some embodiment of all that is good in existence. I'm born and raised in Seattle, and nothing is forever, dude. There are other wonderful eating joints, and many more yet to be spawned. Change happens. A Safeway will have much more of a positive economic impact than a nice little diner, in a neighborhood that could use the jobs, although I'm sure that you'll cite a trillion reasons why they're horrible jobs. Yet, nevertheless, they are real, paying jobs, with benefits in a neighborhood that dearly needs them. There will be another nice eating shack. Trust me.

@8

I think one of the things that comes up in the South End (which is where I live) that you don't see in the north/mid parts of Seattle as much is that things don't get replaced by like things. A great, family eating spot will shut down, the lot will stay empty for many years, eventually become new living spaces, a yoga studio, a mid-to-high-end restaurant, none of which are *bad* things, but the South End is still out an affordable place to sit and eat. Its why there's so often an emphasis on keeping what's around-- the idea that "there will be more places that pop up like that one" isn't something we can take for granted.

The Safeway is already there. I don't know how many permanent jobs the gas station will provide-- 2? 4? or whether it will create them or Safeway will simply redirect employees from other stores.

@8 If you ever visited the area, or even read the article, you'd know that the Safeway is already there. The existing store wants to add a gas station.

Also, you'd understand that the Silver Fork is more than just an "eating shack." It is a cornerstone of the community.

@8 - The previous commenters are right. The Silver Fork is a very important neighborhood hub that is core to the social fabric of the community. It is where people interact, where life happens - just a great place for people, many of them working class, who live in a neighborhood where many residents (aside from a couple blocks in Columbia City) have been priced out and/or classed out of the Seattle mainstream. New development opportunities are more likely to lead to some corporate gas station or an upscale, hipster/yuppie eatery, or a hot yoga place geared solely towards wealthy gentrifiers.

The Silver Fork served the long-term existing community that has been in the neighborhood for years, along with newcomers and everyone else. All were welcome and the community thrived there. Its loss is truly devastating and makes me wonder just how much longer working-/lower-middle families in Seattle will have any businesses geared towards them.

Great article, by the way, but I gotta say the title betrays the real heart of it. "Seattle needs more grits not gas stations" sounds like some ironic hipster cry. As you say, this is about a cornerstone of a community being ripped apart because of a selfish property owner and a cold, calculating coporate entity that has no vested interest in the community and people who live in it.

@12: As the editor of the piece, I wrote the headline and kicker, and I can assure you, I do not mean it in any way ironically.

I live in this neighborhood and shop at the Safeway at least once a week, and yes I'm just a working class guy like those who apparently frequent the Silver Fork. I've also visited the Silver Fork on more than one occasion and I've given up trying to find its redeeming qualities. When I go out to eat, I'm usually not looking for a cornerstone of the community; I'm usually looking for a decent meal in a nice atmosphere with good service. The times I've been to the Sliver Fork I've found none of those things. The food I've had has been mediocre at best, the service consistently bad, and the atmosphere pretty much non-existent. When I have to explain to a waitress how to make iced tea and the only decor was very loud music played from a single speaker behind some sort of partition, the place doesn't meet my minimum requirements for going out for a basic meal. I'm sure I'll be told that I'm missing the point of the place, and that may be. But, it hasn't provided what I need out of the community, and hasn't become a gathering spot for me. If the place moves, it seems as if it could still be the same type of gathering spot.

A business doesn't need to exist in a dirty run-down building in order to maintain community spirit. Look at the Starbucks at 23rd and Jackson; even though it's relatively new, it could easily be considered a cornerstone of that neighborhood. Oh, and it's corporate too. It's the people within a place that make it a community spot, not the fact that they sell grits.

I have never been there but it's always sad when a good place (restaurant) is going to be replaced with a gas station. They are so many anyway.