When Dominic and Stephanie Svornich opened Cellar Door about seven years ago, they envisioned a delicious eatery operating during regular business hours. Instead, they gave birth to an eclectic music venue.

“We opened as a restaurant,” Dominic said Sept. 30, the last day the venue was open for business before closing permanently. “We had no interest in being a late night spot. We never had plans on doing live music. That was not part of our business model.”

But, soon after opening, several other music venues closed in town including the Upstage, the Undertown and Middletown Dreams, leaving a vacuum to be filled.

“We had a number of local musicians and younger groups playing in town asking us about doing music,” Dominic said. “We inherited the late night scene. Then we started opening later and later and staying open until 2 a.m. on Fridays and Saturday. We are really the spot for late night.”

Stephanie recalls it as a relatively quick evolution from a dinner house and bistro into the late-night hot-spot they have run for the last five years of their seven-year stand.

“With the number of other establishments that have opened up to serve the late-night scene since then, we’re okay with letting the Cellar Door sunset,” Stephanie said. “We sort of fell into being this sort of venue, where you had the option to go and imbibe and be seen. We didn’t set out to make that our path, but like parents with a child, we’ve given all that we could. Now, it’s time for that scene to be raised by someone else.”

As a live music hotspot, the Cellar Door was open until 2 a.m. seven days a week.

That, Dominic said, gets old.

“I have spent plenty of my life partying and enjoying those kinds of nights, but that wasn’t really what I was looking for. We have enjoyed it a lot. It has been great, but we didn’t want to be at that place.”

Peak Port Townsend

When asked to describe the musical scene of Port Townsend, Stephanie and Dominic agreed on the word “eclectic,” although they disagree about whether the Cellar Door’s embrace of such eclecticism had benefited its business.

“Be ready to adapt,” Stephanie said. “What probably kept us alive as long as it did was that we followed the ebb and flow, whether it was styles of music or types of cocktails.”

“We tried out every style, and didn’t just focus on jazz or folk or punk,” Dominic agreed, before adding, “But we probably would have been more profitable if we’d simply picked a lane and stuck with it.”

Stephanie conceded that acts from Seattle or Portland took a few shows to find their footing in Port Townsend, but she attributes that to how much Port Townsend “vets” musicians who go on to become successful, as well as how much Port Townsend embraces its own local musicians.

“You could have a packed bar all night for a local band who played here three weeks before,” Stephanie said. “It didn’t matter if they were post-punk or a jug band.”

“Port Townsend fans are music fans in general,” Dominic said. “That’s why even our open mic night emphasized different disciplines, like spoken word and poetry, rather than just having a bunch of guys with guitars. We did Gong Shows nine times here. If there’s anything Port Townsend loves, it’s the weird.”

Still, Dominic said, if the couple had a chance to go back and do it over, they would have focused on just one genre.

“We consistently had a jazz night every week since halfway through our first year. We have consistently had hip hop nights. We have consistently had dance parties, metal shows, punk shows and folk. We have had everything that could ever be done.”

While such offerings whet a wide variety of appetites, regulars it does not make, Dominic said.

“You lose the consistency of a small town. A lot of people are used to coming in for jazz and then they come in on a Friday and there is a metal band and it freaked them out, so they don’t come in for six months. Or you have a couple of really good punk shows over a few weeks and then you have friends that come in on Thursday and it is smooth jazz. They are like, ‘What the f*** is this?’ and they take off.”

The bread and butter customers know what they like and that is what they want, Dominic said.

“My advice to people who have been looking at Cellar Door or who own their own venue or late night spot: find your target and stay true to it unless you have something that is so special it is going to bring people in no matter what you are doing.”

While it is hard to walk away from all their hard work — they extensively renovated the space which had formerly housed Necesito Burrito — they have been ready for some time now, Dominic said.

“We have been sort of checked out and wanting to do other things for the last couple of years.”

When the business started, he was also the manager for the Kitsap Bank branch office in Port Townsend. Now he is a loan officer for an area mortgage company, which requires a more flexible schedule, he said.

“I really have to be more available on weekends. It has become more and more difficult to operate the bar.”

And, there are other considerations, Dominic said.

“We started a recording studio we started building out about a year ago. We want to have a kid and do other stuff. Life goes on.”

A musical legacy

Since opening, Dominic estimates the Cellar Door has hosted more than 1,500 shows and hundreds of individual bands and musicians.

“We have built so many connections with bands and musicians in town and all over the country that come on tour and stop at Cellar Door every single time. They do it because they love Port Townsend, they do it because we have treated them well and they know they are going to have a good time. We have been really proud, humbled and happy to do that.”

Perhaps Dominic’s favorite show, featuring The Messthetics, was held earlier this year. The Messthetics is an instrumental trio formed by bassist Joe Lally and drummer Brendan Canty, former Fugazi members, along with guitarist Anthony Pirog.

“Fugazi is one of the most important bands in my life,” Dominic said. “It was kind of amazing. The drummer’s sister works in Port Townsend. They came through when she was having a birthday and she recommended us. They played and that was completely unparalleled.”

Will the legacy continue?

The role for the Cellar Door in Port Townsend has changed over time, Dominic said, and it is unknown whether a new owner will continue on the trail blazed by the Svornichs.

“We don’t have any firm offers in yet, but at least two of those three have indicated they are going to be making an offer. Hopefully it will still live on in some kind of reincarnation.”