Landmark was going to be an Irish pub
By Edward Stratton
The Daily Astorian
The former Cafe Uniontown, a local landmark that was most recently the site of a failed Irish pub, has been sold to the owner of the Holiday Inn Express & Suites Astoria.
Blue Heron Properties, run by David and Linda Weber, purchased 210 W. Marine Drive last month for $200,000 from Jim Wilkins.
Caroline Wuebben, the general manager of the Holiday Inn Express, said in an email that the plan is to use the restaurant as a complement to the hotel’s meeting space and as meal service for guests.
Wilkins bought the building in 1992 from the late Rae Goforth, who was nicknamed the unofficial mayor of Uniontown. Goforth ran the Fiddler’s Green Irish restaurant there until 1980. She founded Cafe Uniontown in 1982.
Wilkins ran Cafe Uniontown until 2007, but the property has since struggled to hold tenants. A four-leaf clover on the entrance canopy still looks out at traffic on Marine Drive, as do the green and gold accents painted on by the owners of the short-lived Workman’s Irish Pub. The pub held a dry soft opening in June and was ultimately denied a liquor license by the state.
Wilkins, on his fourth round selling the building, said he’s happy to have a stable buyer. “Each time I sold it, the people failed to perform, and I had to take it back,” he said.
A block or two west on Marine Drive is Mary Todd’s Workers Tavern, another Uniontown landmark up for sale. The business and building at 283 W. Marine Drive are listed for $595,000 on the Clatsop Association of Realtors website.