Steven P. Yaw Sr., the grandson of the founder of Yaw's Top Notch, once among Portland's most popular restaurants, died last week of complications from lung disease, according to family and friends. He was 70.
Yaw, a Reynolds High School graduate, grew up in the family business, eventually overseeing Yaw's final expansion and closure, as well as a pair of high-profile attempts to revive the brand.
In its heyday, Yaw's Top Notch was perhaps Portland's most famous restaurant, growing from a 14-seat lunch counter and soda fountain to a sprawling, double-block-sized restaurant serving burgers, pies and gravy fries to generations of eastside teenagers. Portlanders of a certain age will remember Bob Svilar, the so-called "Tootsie Roll Cop," an off-duty Portland police officer who handed out candy while directing traffic in and around the Hollywood neighborhood restaurant.
"It was a wonderful restaurant," said Matthew Kruggel, who worked at the restaurant for several years in the 1970s and remembers Yaw. "Sometimes people say they work somewhere, but they wouldn't want to eat there. With Yaw's, that simply wasn't the case."
Founded in 1926 by W.P. and Grace Yaw, the same year as the nearby Hollywood Theatre, the Yaw's name continues to evoke a bygone era for longtime locals, a time of poodle skirts, letterman jackets and cruising convertibles. Along the way, Yaw's claimed a number of difficult-to-verify firsts -- the first hamburger bun, created in collaboration with Franz Bakery; the first thick milkshake; Portland's first air-conditioned restaurant; one of the city's first drive-ins.
Yet unlike institutions such as Franz Bakery or the Hollywood Theatre, Yaw's couldn't stand the test of time. After the business expanded to four metro-area locations, plus a bar in Raleigh Hills, sales began to decline. The original Yaw's Top Notch closed in 1985. Steven Yaw, who had taken over from his father, Page, blamed the closure on traffic re-routing caused by the construction of TriMet's light rail.
During the 1990s, Steven Yaw ran restaurants in Heppner and LaConner, Washington. In 2003, the Yaw family helped raise money for the Hollywood Theatre's marquee, serving thousands of burgers to longtime fans.
"We went out in the parking lot next to the theater and sold some exorbitant amount of burgers for four hours, with lines around the block," said daughter Cassie Yaw. "It was 90 degrees out. I remember talking to a couple who bought two burgers, had them freeze-dried and sent them to Pendleton for their parents, who met at Yaw's."
In April 2007, Yaw and daughter Heidi agreed to lend their family name and menu to Mark Lindsay's Rock & Roll Cafe, a new venture from restaurateur Bill Hayden, Meier & Frank's Gerry Frank, music marketer Kent Hartman and Lindsay, the one-time frontman for 1960s band Paul Revere & The Raiders. The restaurant, which featured memorabilia from the Oregon Music Hall of Fame, aimed to be Portland's answer to the Hard Rock Cafe.
But just before the restaurant's opening, the Yaws filed suit, arguing their agreement had never been finalized and seeking to strip the family name from the restaurant's menu and decor. A countersuit was filed. By November, the Yaw's burger was gone. By July 2008, the restaurant was too.
In September 2012, Steven Yaw sought to revive the Yaw's brand again, this time with a 6,500-square-foot restaurant at Northeast 111th Avenue and Halsey Street. But problems beset the enterprise from the start. By November, the new Yaw's had racked up 18 employee complaints and nine claims of unpaid wages, according to news reports.
The Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries investigated, eventually directing more than $9,000 toward 11 affected employees from the taxpayer-backed Wage Security Fund, which protects Oregon workers from wage loss when insolvent companies close. According to the bureau, the state has yet to recoup those funds. The new Yaw's shuttered after failing to pay rent in July 2013.
This week, family members chose to remember Yaw for his love of family and his passion for boating, blaming Yaw's final business chapter on his encroaching illness.
"He loved boating and skiing, loved the country and horses," Cassie Yaw said. "Deep sea fishing was a passion. There's no one that I would go across the ocean with but him."
Yaw is survived by his wife, Linda, and children Heidi Yaw, Steven Yaw, DeeDee Burhus, Cassie Yaw, Shane Yaw, Nicole Ernst and Fred Ernst. No public service has been announced.
-- Michael Russell
