Restaurateur spreads her wings with new airport site

Dana's opens second location at GCIA

MOSES LAKE — Dana's at the Port bustles with warmth.

Good cheer emanates throughout the new restaurant — which opened within Grant County International Airport Tuesday — primarily due to the camaraderie of its owner and three-employee staff.

Owner Dana Keele-Andrade said that two of the employees, servers Natalie Massart and Heather Alling, trained at her original locale, still located at 109 W. Third Ave., for a month. The third, main cook Gabby Isherwood, is a long-time veteran.

"I'm here in support of Dana because we've been together for a long time, and she's giving me this place in a couple years," Isherwood joked. "No, when I came back to her, I told her that I wanted to cook. So we decided we were going to be out here and do this together."

Keele-Andrade said that she hopes eventually the number of employees will increase, depending on the response her new location draws in.

The business is open from 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Fridays, although Keele-Andrade said it will be adjusted if need be.

"Just the challenge, I guess," she said of her reasons to add another location. "The Port (of Moses Lake) was looking for someone to come out here, and the more I researched it, I thought, 'There are so many businesses out here and the college, it could be kind of a challenge to see if we can make a go of it.'"

Keele-Andrade said that the differences at the new restaurant — like some new items on the menu and use of disposable tableware — make things interesting for her as well.

As things settle in, she said she will go back and forth between the two locations, in a manner that will be determined once the new locale's operation is established, although she suspects it will run a little smoother.

"This was a blank slate built and put together to be a restaurant," she said. "(The original site) was a restaurant that went into a building that was a bank and we forced it. So some things down there are not as convenient. That just makes this a little smoother to do … but I have a good crew down there now. They're taking care of things."

Only a few days old, the restaurant is already beginning to draw in people. The business was busy Wednesday, Keele-Andrade said.

"Our morning business has been from airport personnel and people who are waiting for planes," she said. "Like there was a plane delayed (Wednesday), so we had several people come in because they had nothing else to do."

Lunch business seems to have consisted of employees from the surrounding businesses, Port people and fans of the original Dana's, looking to check out her new spot, Keele-Andrade said.

She said the Port first approached her with the idea last fall.

"The Port's been great — they've been really supportive since I've been open and they're helping me do whatever I need to do, just really easy to work with," she said.

Now that it's open, Keele-Andrade is finally able to settle down a little bit, noting that in between managing the original site and watching the new location get put in over the last three month, she also got married.

"Originally I wasn't sure, but I think there is a need — not only to offer an option for the people who are up here who, if they want something like this they have to go all the way into town," she said. "I think expanding in any direction in the community, and enhancing it however you can is a positive thing."