Ona Restaurant and other Businesses Dating Back to the 1930s
131 Highway 101, Yachats, OR 97498
The Tavern 1935
Ona Restaurant & Lounge 2019
Hotel Wheeler ~TBD
Hotel Wheeler ~TBD
The Tavern 1930s
Yachats Hotel 1940s
Yachats Hotel 1940s
Club Yachats 1950s
River House Restaurant 2008
Entering Yachats from the South ~DTB
Highway 101 1940
Highway 101 2019
The Yachats Hotel Fire
Many businesses have been at this location since the early 1900s.
At 2:30 am on Sunday, August 7, 1949, Jim Johnson was woken up by people yelling from Yachats Hotel.
"I looked into the street and saw four or five ladies wearing nothing but sheer negligees and heavy make-up stumbling up and down the street in high heels screaming incomprehensible words at the top of their voices. I also noticed several fancy-dressed male city slickers, who appeared to be totally lost and confused."
Jim finally made out the word "Fire!"The fire siren wailed, and volunteer firemen arrived, but without any fire fighting equipment. Their axes and other tools were on the new fire truck that had been delivered the day before, a fire truck that had been delivered without, of all things, fire hoses.
The fire did an estimated $35,000 in damage. Jim Gross, who had purchased the hotel just a year earlier, had spent $12,000 in improvements to the then almost twenty-year-old building.
The second floor was destroyed before the fire was contained, but the bar on the ground floor was still somewhat intact and gave away free beer most of that Sunday.
The building built in 1930 was razed and a new one was erected on the foundation. Many businesses, including Ona, have been there in the ensuing years.
Today it's Ona Restaraunt. It serves locally sourced food and dishes, many inspired by owner and Executive Chef Michelle Korgan's travels to Japan, Italy, South East Asia, and the surrounding Pacific Northwest. The name Ona was inspired by the Chinook word for shellfish.