Despite promises from mayor, downtown Seattle restaurant owner says area is still unsafe

Before the COVID-19 pandemic, there had been a mass shooting in downtown Seattle. Mauro Golmarvi, who owns the Italian restaurant Assaggio, then practically begged the city guides for help and spoke to KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson Show.

Despite promises made by Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan, Golmarvi is still dealing with a dangerous area and has now had to cut his working hours to five days a week, four hours a day. There was another shooting near his restaurant last weekend.

Dealing with COVID-19 would be one thing, Golmarvi noted, but he says downtown is unsafe. This is the time of year people would come on vacation, but there is nothing.

“I hear all these other restaurants say, ‘Yeah, Bellevue is so great, and Kirkland is so busy, Redmond is busy, West Seattle is busy,'” said Golmarvi. “Downtown? … I mean, I used to have 11 shifts. There were five lunches and six dinners, I was only closed on Sundays. I’m only open five days at the moment – it’s Tuesday to Saturday, 5 to 9.”

After 8 p.m. it is too dangerous for most people to walk into the city center.

After speaking to the mayor in January 2020, he says he never heard anything. He was asked if he would like to serve on a task force and he said yes, but has not received a response to his attempts to contact him since then.

Assaggio’s will be in business for 30 years next year, but Golmarvi isn’t ready to retire or move.

“We love what we do, I love taking care of people,” he said. “I don’t want to retire. I want to work. But my hand is tied. “

Seattle restaurant owner says the shutdown is “a very, very scary moment”

He wishes he was somewhere else where they respect their business owners, but he says there are too many memories and too much history for him and his business in downtown Seattle that he doesn’t want to just pick up and move to the suburbs.

“[When] I reopened my restaurant after COVID and said it wasn’t about the money. I want to be a light in downtown Seattle on 4th Avenue because everything is dead, ”he said.

Listen to the Dori Monson Show on weekday afternoons from 12-3pm on KIRO Radio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.