Rita DelCruto serves a couple of breakfast orders Oct. 17, 2024, on her last shift at Shari’s Cafe & Pies in Pendleton just hours before the restaurant shut down.

PENDLETON — Rita DelCruto worked her final morning shift Thursday, Oct. 17, as a server at Shari’s Cafe & Pies in Pendleton.

That was the restaurant’s final day.

The night of Oct. 15, Shari’s employees received a message from their manager on their group chat that the restaurant was going to permanently close Oct. 17, resulting in 20 employees losing their jobs.

Willamette Week in Portland reported Oct. 21 that all Shari’s Cafe and Pies restaurants in Oregon are closed

KGW TV in Portland reported in September the dining chain faced allegations of unpaid rent and taxes, as well as eviction notices. At least seven restaurants closed in Idaho and Washington during the past few months and the company faces numerous lawsuits, mostly in state courts.

DelCruto, of Pendleton, has worked at Shari’s for 13 years. She and her boyfriend of 27 years have two children.

She spent the early part of her last shift setting up the tables with sugar packet caddies, ensuring everything was clean and orderly as she attended to the few customers who trickled in for breakfast.

DelCruto jotted down her customer orders on her small notepad, took their menus, punched in the orders in the computer system and walked behind the diner counter to fetch a fresh cup of coffee for her tables.

“This being the last day that it’s open seems kind of unreal,” DelCruto said.

Several hotels — Motel 6, Hampton Inn, Red Lion Hotel and more — surround the family-style restaurant at 319 SE Nye Ave. near Exit 210 off Interstate 84.

DelCruto said most of Shari’s customers are from out of town.

Father and son Mike and Grant Halbrook, of Damascus, southeast of Portland, sat at one of the restaurant’s forest green booths. Mike said it was tradition for the pair to eat at Shari’s during their hunting trips.

“It’s kind of sad to lose an established place that you know real well,” he said. “It’s unfortunate.”

Occupying the booth next to the Halbrooks were Lori Stephens and Lucetta Spader, of Utah, who stopped in for breakfast on their trip to Washington.

“It’s sad. I really feel bad,” Spader said. “It kind of makes it hard because I know some of the hotels offer breakfast, but we always preferred to come over here with the kids and that’s because they had a wide variety.”

Glass display cases that once showcased Shari’s pies now only showed the labels for strawberry rhubarb delight, Oregon marionberry, chocolate cream supreme and Dutch apple pie.

Justin Cleveland, of Pendleton, is a single father who worked at Shari’s for 17 years. The server popped into the diner during his time off, grabbed a cup of coffee and sat at one of the green stools at the counter that faces the kitchen.

“We were all hoping that it was gonna pick up, you know, but you still hold on to hope,” Cleveland said. “I loved doing this, honestly. This place is going to be missed, that’s for sure. I’m trying not to get emotional and shed a tear.”

Cleveland and DelCruto expressed their deepest gratitude to their customers.

“We appreciate our customers,” DelCruto said. “We appreciated their business. We’ll miss them.”

Later in the day, DelCruto finished her shift and went home to her family.

Although Shari’s management said they were going to shut down at 10 p.m., they officially closed their establishment at about 4:30 p.m.

Employees piled the diner counter with stacks of dishes and utensils from the kitchen in preparation to box them and haul them out the next day.

This is the second chain restaurant that closed in Pendleton within a week. Denny’s closed Oct. 14, resulting in 25 layoffs.