While the Cable House Canteen at Fort Worden State Park does plan to offer sandwiches, eventually, general manager Carrie Fiore clarified that those are not quite on the menu yet.

“Right now, our store is basically just grab and go,” Fiore said. “We do stock the prepackaged meats, cheeses and breads for folks to make their own sandwiches, as well as charcuterie if they so choose, but we’re not currently making or serving sandwiches ourselves.”

Fiore described the retail shop’s prepackaged snacks and drinks as “picnic” and “beach” fare, but added that the Cable House Canteen plans to open its kitchen and add not only sandwiches, but also burgers, fish and chips, and even soft-serve ice cream and hot coffee “in the next few weeks.”

The current management of the Cable House Canteen opened after working with Washington State Parks “for a few months,” and spending at least a month renovating the space, said Fiore, adding that the agreement itself has been in place for about six weeks.

“We wanted to give this beautiful historical space a facelift, so we went back to neutral color-coding, with the original greens, to create an interior with a vintage camp vibe.”

The business that Fiore is part of also runs Olympic Tours, so they’d already been familiar with the Cable House Canteen from renting kayaks in that same area last year.

“We already had a concession agreement with State Parks, so we put together a business proposal for the Cable House Canteen,” Fiore explained. “Olympic Tours already conducts guided kayak tours of bioluminescent wildlife out at Fort Flagler, so Olympic Tours will also be operating out of the Cable House Canteen at Fort Worden.”

Fiore expressed enthusiasm over Olympic Tours’ opportunity to return to Fort Worden “with a roof over our heads this time,” as they book tours and rent kayaks and paddle boards. Olympic Tours is a year old, having been borne of the former Olympic Kayak Tours, “because we wanted to go beyond just kayaking, into boat and possibly air tours as well.”

“By late June, we’re looking at booking 49-passenger wildlife cruises out of Port Townsend, so we’re already assembling captains and naturalists,” Fiore continued. “The Cable House Canteen has been here a long time, and has a proud tradition of serving burgers and other beach and picnic fare, so we want to uphold that. We’ve already received a positive response during our soft opening period.”

After Memorial Day the Cable House Canteen would be open seven days a week, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Fiore said.