SEQUIM — More pancakes, berry syrups, pizza and pasta are on the way, via two restaurants slated to open this year in Sequim.

An International House of Pancakes will open by late fall, if all goes as franchisee Mohammad Khadar hopes.

Khadar, who lives in Lynnwood and runs five other IHOPs in Washington and Oregon, plans to open a 150-seat restaurant at 1360 W. Washington St., at River Road.

“Sequim is a beautiful area with a lot of potential,” he said last week.

“When I studied the market, I found that there are a lot of Californians who have retired there, and they’re familiar with the [IHOP] brand.”

Khadar predicted his newest eatery will employ about 40 mostly full-time workers.

Unlike some IHOPs, the Sequim restaurant will not be open 24 hours, he said. At first it will be open until midnight on Fridays and Saturdays, and until 10 p.m. the rest of the week.

“We will stay open until midnight seven days a week if it calls for it,” Khadar added.

Maria Olagunju of Copperstone Properties in Seattle is the IHOP project manager. She hopes to break ground on the $2 million building in March and expects construction to take six to eight months.

Former Riptide purchased

On the other side of town, Debbie Seavy and her husband, Ken Cram, are purchasing the former Riptide restaurant and lounge from Carol and Lee Adams.

The Adamses, who ran the Riptide for 20 years, are selling it for $700,000.

Cram and Seavy have owned the Oasis Sports Bar & Grill, 301 E. Washington St., for two years.

“Nothing’s changing at the Oasis,” Cram emphasized.

Buying the Riptide, close by at 380 E. Washington, was an opportunity the couple couldn’t pass up.

They plan to call their new place the Islander Pizza & Pasta Shack and make it a family-oriented spot with games and house-made dough and sauces.

The couple has hired a head chef, Jesse Kincheloe, a graduate of the Western Culinary Institute of Portland, Ore.

“He’s worked in five-star restaurants,” Cram said.

Seavy added that the Oasis employs eight, and that the Islander will put at least that many to work.

The Adamses sold their restaurant once before, in the spring of 2007.

Tailgate Pizza moved in, but only stayed about eight weeks before closing, and the former owners took back the building.

Carol Adams said she hopes this sale sticks, of course — and that local residents will support the new place.

“Times are so tough right now. Everywhere, you see restaurants are failing,” she said.

“The new ones that are coming in are chains. And the only way the locals are going to make it is if the local people support them.”

Carol and Lee Adams have a second home in Arizona and hope to retire now that the Riptide is to turn into the Islander.

“We’ve been trying to retire since 2007,” Carol Adams said.

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Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-681-2391 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.