Back in May 2023, the Samoa Cookhouse and Danco Group announced that the old and beloved restaurant was to temporarily close, and unveiled renovation plans for “Camp Samoa,” an overnight tourist destination. While preserving the 133-year-old establishment’s “distinctive character,” Danco promised a spiffed-up restaurant with a hostel upstairs, cabins and campsites outside, and a picnic area and dog park nearby. 

The plans came with no specific timeline, and more than a year after the Cookhouse closed its doors, there is no indication that the sweeping renovations mapped out by Danco are underway. 

A banner posted on the building says that an “updated dining experience” is coming in 2024, and the Samoa Cookhouse Yelp page says the business is scheduled to reopen on May 10, 2025. Fans of the restaurant have taken to commenting on old Samoa Cookhouse Facebook posts to ask when it’ll reopen, without luck. 

In a recent phone call, Danco owner Dan Johnson told the Outpost that it’s looking more like 2026, and that construction is yet to begin.

Why the wait?

Architects continued tweaking the designs for months after the restaurant closed, and Danco didn’t submit a permit proposal to the Humboldt County Planning and Building Department until a few months ago, Johnson said. The proposal was initially denied because it didn’t meet the California Coastal Commission’s conditions of approval, and Danco is now revising it. Johnson guessed it will be approved in two or three months.

Danco will probably break ground in early 2025. Johnson said the work will take 18 months, pushing the opening date to around spring 2026. The building requires “quite a bit of an upgrade,” he said, not to mention the construction of 40 new cabins.

“It’s been a bit of a challenge to get to this point,” Johnson said.

The cookhouse property – along with the rest of the town of Samoa – is owned by the Samoa Pacific Group, of which Johnson is a principal owner. But the Samoa Pacific Group didn’t own the Samoa Cookhouse (the business, that is) until a couple of years ago. It used to belong to Redwood Restaurants – a company that owns Fresh Freeze, a 50’s diner in Eureka, and Café Marina, over on Woodley Island – which sold the business to Danco a couple of years ago, a Redwood Restaurants representative told the Outpost. 

But Johnson said it wasn’t so clean: the former owners didn’t renew their lease, he said, and “basically by default gave up the restaurant.” 

The Samoa Pacific Group is “not really excited about being in the restaurant business,” Johnson said. The new owners opted to close the Samoa Cookhouse for renovations after running it for six months or so. 

Cookhouse staff told the Outpost at the time that they were blindsided by the temporary closure. Employees learned they were out of a job the same day Danco announced the news to the public, and the restaurant closed immediately. 

“All the employees were well taken care of in ensuring that they had good severance packages,” Johnson said, adding that Danco will likely consider rehiring former employees (if they’re still interested three years later, that is). He also said selling the business might be on the table, if a good opportunity pops up after the grand reopening.

Although Danco announced detailed plans for Camp Samoa just last year, intentions to glam up the cookhouse property have been sitting on the company’s backburner for more than a decade. The renovations are a part of the Samoa Town Master Plan, Danco’s blueprint – first drafted up in 2002 – to build up Samoa’s commercial offerings, update its housing stock and expand its public spaces and facilities. In 2010, the California Coastal Commission required Danco to add low-cost visitor serving units to the plan, identifying the Samoa Cookhouse as a site for that development from the outset.

Camp Samoa will include 75 accommodations: 40 cabins, 15 campsites and 20 hostel rooms, which will lean into the second floor’s former brothel look, Johnson said.

As for changes to the restaurant? A liquor license, Johnson said, and more options on the menu. 

Mill workers ate every weekday meal at the Samoa Cookhouse back when it opened in 1890. For the most part, the restaurant honored that dining experience throughout its ongoing service in the century-plus since – offering family-style meals with just one option for breakfast, lunch and dinner every day. Before it closed for renovations, the Samoa Cookhouse was – or is? – the only lumberjack cookhouse left in the United States. 

When the Samoa Cookhouse announced its impending renovations on Facebook, commenters begged the restaurant not to change too much. Johnson said the goal is to hold onto the cookhouse’s famous family-style experience. “It’ll generally be the same,” he said.

At any rate, it’ll be a couple of years before dedicated Samoa Cookhouse customers can make that judgment for themselves.