By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com
Michelle Korgan, who has operated her upscale Ona Restaurant along U.S. Highway 101 in downtown Yachats for nine years, has put the business up for sale.
But Korgan insists she is not closing the restaurant before it’s sold and she’s not leaving town.
“I am definitely not closing,” Korgan said Wednesday as she rushed around to prepare for Ona’s re-opening at 4 p.m. Thursday after its usual two-week winter break. “It could take years. I just want to find the right buyer who wants to continue the brand.”
Korgan, who lives in Yachats with her 10- and 13-year-old sons, announced the sale Tuesday via her Facebook page. But the restaurant is not closing, contrary to some rumors.
“We will be open as usual four days a week (Thursday through Sunday) until Spring Break,” she said, then will add hours and days as the tourist season hits. Ona’s popular international buffets will start Feb. 6 and run every first and third Thursday through May.
Korgan is asking $375,000 for her business.
The 5,100-square-foot building, owned by former Oregon Republican gubernatorial candidate Knute Buehler of Bend, is also for sale. Its price is $795,000. Although the sales are not related, both listings are being handled by Coldwell Banker Coast Real Estate of Florence.
Korgan said she has a five-year lease on the building, which includes a second-floor apartment currently rented to one of her cooks.
“A smart chef could walk through the door, get the keys and have an immediately profitable business,” she said.
Ona currently has 20 employees, growing to 50 during the busy summer months.
Korgan said Wednesday that she simply wants to spend more time with her sons before they get too old, write or finish two cookbooks and concentrate more on her concessionaire’s license to run the Heceta Head Lighthouse Bed & Breakfast. The B&B includes a catering business, gift shop – and soon a proposal to renovate, restore and expand the historic facility.
Korgan’s parents had the lighthouse concession through the U.S. Forest Service since 1996. She moved from Portland to Yachats to help them in 1997 and then took over the permit in 2003.
Korgan is also board president of the Yachats Youth and Family Activities Program, a Yachats nonprofit that provides pre-school and activities for children and their families.
“I just want to stop and see what I can do next,” she said. “I just want to see if someone else can come in here and put their own touches to Ona. I’m not going anywhere.”