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From The Sacramento Bee - December 3, 1999

The Firehouse, Dining Landmark, Changes Hands

By Mike Dunne, Bee Staff Writer

Venture capitalist Lloyd Harvego, who in the early 1960s tended bar at The Firehouse to help finance his education, has bought the landmark Sacramento restaurant.

The sale marks the first time the Old Sacramento monument has changed hands in 40 years, when in 1959, an earlier entrepreneur, Newton Cope, bought the brick home of Engine Company No. 3.

Cope then began to restore the 1853 building as well as a cluster of outbuildings into one of Sacramento's more ambitious and successful restaurants.

Cope opened the place as The Firehouse in December 1960, initially as a tavern, then added food service a few months later. In 1967, he put in a stately courtyard, long before outdoor dining became the rage it is today.

Catherine MacMillan, Cope's daughter, has been overseeing the restaurant for the past several years for Cope.

"He's a little sad," MacMillan said of her father's reaction to the sale. "It's been 40 years for him."

Cope is keeping a couple of paintings from the restaurant, but large portraits of Phoebe Hearst and "Little Egypt," along with architectural artifacts he rescued from landmark residences and businesses about to be razed, will remain, she said.

At its most popular in the 1960s and 1970s, The Firehouse was a favorite destination for governors, legislators, jurists and Hollywood celebrities passing through Sacramento. Many of their pictures hang on the restaurant's walls.

Neither Harvego nor MacMillan would disclose the price. The sale was completed Thursday.

Both MacMillan and Cope live in San Francisco and have found it increasingly difficult "to spend as much time as we would like at the restaurant," she said.

"I'm very comfortable with Lloyd. He's a very trustworthy person who has the ability to ensure that The Firehouse continues in the fashion it has been run."

Harvego, meanwhile, said he looks forward to a change of pace.

"After 20 years with one company, it will be nice to do something different," said Harvego, who, with the exception of his bartending days, has no restaurant experience.

He's been a Sacramentan since 1964, when after graduating from the University of Idaho in Moscow with an engineering degree, he joined the California Department of Water Resources to work on the California State Water Project.

In 1980, Harvego founded his own engineering and management consulting firm, Resource Management International (RMI), which grew into a 400-employee international energy, water and telecommunications firm.

Harvego left RMI in April to launch a second career as a venture capitalist, investing in two start-up high-tech Internet companies, an education enterprise, real estate and now The Firehouse, all under Harvego Enterprises LLC.

"I've always liked The Firehouse. . . . I've negotiated a lot of contracts in the wine cellar, and my daughter had her wedding reception there," said Harvego.

MacMillan indicated to him about three years ago that she might be interested in selling, a suggestion pursued seriously when he left RMI.

Harvego said he will keep intact the restaurant's management team, including executive chef Raymond Salladarre, general manager Dan D'Orazio and banquet manager Mario Ortiz.

Harvego said he doesn't anticipate any immediate or drastic change in the restaurant's style of food.

"There will be some subtle changes over time," he said. "Fifteen years ago, The Firehouse was really the elite restaurant in town. I'm not sure it has that position today. I'll be drawing on my business experience to work with the restaurant's team of managers to come up with a plan to take The Firehouse to the next level."