Happier times at the Paseo restaurant in Fremont. Flick photo via Jeremy Keith.
Happier times at the Paseo restaurant in Fremont. Flickr photo via Jeremy Keith.

We were as shocked as everyone when the beloved Cuban sandwich shop Paseo abruptly closed its doors this week, filing for bankruptcy and leaving customers wondering what happened.

The news especially stung here at GeekWire, since the main sandwich shop was located just a few blocks from our offices in Seattle’s Fremont neighborhood. (The restaurant’s famous Cuban sandwiches are mixed in with GeekWire lore, since we actually provided one of the delicious concoctions on stage to Paseo-lover and then Hulu CTO Richard Tom at the first-ever GeekWire Summit).

But some crusading Paseo fans are not letting the closure of one of the top sandwich shops in Seattle get them down. Nope. They’re turning to high-tech fundraising platform Kickstarter to try to save their Paseo pulled pork.

A sign at Paseo notifying customers of its closure. Photo via MyNorthwest.com/Alyssa Kleven)
A sign at Paseo notifying customers of its closure. Photo via MyNorthwest.com/Alyssa Kleven)

As Josh Kerns at MyNorthwest.com reports, Seattle entrepreneur Greg Gans of mobile restaurant ordering startup Savvy Orders is looking to raise $250,000 on the crowdfunding platform to resurrect Paseo.

Gans, who tells MyNorthwest that they want to make Paseo a “better place to work,” has a long way to go to meet his goal. At present, the “Save Paseo” campaign has raised just over $20,000 from 151 backers.

And, as Gans writes in the Kickstarter pitch, the $250,000 probably would not be enough to buy and operate the restaurant.

Nonetheless, he’s undeterred, saying he’s been working with lawyers to make a strong bid.

“Paseo is more than a sandwich shop. It’s part of Seattle culture,” he writes in the Kickstarter pitch. “Help us save this Seattle Institution.  Be a part of Paseo forever!”

The other challenge facing Gans is that Paseo’s owner Lorenzo Lorenzo reportedly guarded the rubs, sauces and ingredients that went into the sandwiches closely, meaning it may be tough to get the intellectual property that led to Paseo being voted on Yelp as the second best sandwich in the country.

More info on the lawsuit and bankruptcy that led to the closure of Paseo in this story from The Stranger, with some former employees blaming their co-workers for creating a “poisonous” atmosphere. Four employees of the restaurant have sued Paseo over wage theft and racial discrimination claims.

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