On August 1, 1948, the Igloo Restaurant in Vancouver opens to the public. For the first few years, the eatery is called the Ran-Lou Igloo, which combines the first names of owners Randall M. "Randy" Potter and his wife Louise. Initially it occupies a small standalone space with a take-out window, but the diner later moves to a new two-story building at 3128 E Evergreen Boulevard, where a building remodel in 1954 adds indoor seating. It will remain in the same location for nearly 70 years, serving untold thousands of milkshakes, burgers, and fries to hungry Vancouver diners. After the Potters sell the business, the Igloo will change hands numerous times and survive vandalism, at least one fire, and a deadly accident in which a car crashes onto the restaurant’s patio, killing three occupants. In 2018, Igloo owners Jorge and Andrea Estrada will decide not to renew their lease, and the building will sit vacant until 2020, when Paul Vyner Properties buys it for $700,000 and turns it into office space.
The Ranlou Igloo
Vancouver residents Randall M. "Randy" Potter (1916-1974) and his wife Louise opened the Igloo Restaurant on August 1, 1948, in a glass-fronted building with a walk-up window for food orders. In 1950, the Potters erected a small building at 3128 E Evergreen Boulevard in the Edgewood Park neighborhood. The restaurant occupied the first floor and the Potters lived in a small apartment on the second floor. To call attention to the new eatery, a neon sign was installed outside the building, advertising the business as the Ran-Lou Igloo, an abbreviation of their first names.
In the 1940s, Edgewood Park was largely rural, sitting just outside Vancouver’s eastern boundary. Then came World War II "and in 1942 employees of the newly created Kaiser Shipyard began to fill in the area, particularly an eastern section of Edgewood Park that neighbors still refer to as 'Wauna Vista Neighborhood'" ("Edgewood Park: Homes and History"). Some of the homes were occupied by a cadre of doctors who moved to the area to provide medical care to shipyard workers.
With its mix of working-class homes and small apartment buildings, Edgewood Park’s family-friendly vibe was a good match for the Igloo, and the Potters ran the business for about 20 years, serving burgers, fries, and milkshakes. In 1954, the couple remodeled and enlarged the building, adding indoor seating, and the diner became firmly embedded in the community: "Everybody knew the Igloo ... It was the neighborhood place. They supported us and we supported them" ("It’s Lights Out ..").
After the Potters, the Igloo was managed by a succession of owners eager to try their hand at running the diner. Larry Lund, who had previously owned Vancouver’s Stage Coach Inn from 1971-1989, managed the Igloo from 1991-2000. In 1999 Lund expanded the menu to include spaghetti with meat sauce and deep-fried oysters at a cost of $4.95, which included soup or salad and a side of herb-seasoned toast. The eatery, now called the Park Place Igloo, might have been "a bit worn at the edges [but] still serves tasty and quick meals that won’t put much of a dent in your wallet" ("Neighborhood Diners Love Igloo").
Supporting the Community
Lund died in 2000 and his widown sold the business to Evergreen Eatery Inc. A complete overhaul in 2002 gave the Igloo a flashy 1950s diner look with chrome pedestal stools, new dining booths, lots of glass, and splashes of purple both inside and out. "The new Igloo shines as bright as a sardine box, and far more alluringly" ("On the Table: Bring Your ...").
The next Igloo owners were Ida and Eric Cuomo-Jones, California natives and veteran restaurateurs. In the 1990s, the Joneses joined the northward migration of California residents moving to take advantage of Washington’s more reasonable housing market. When they arrived in Vancouver, they liked the city’s potential. "Not much was happening downtown … but we thought this was a neat little location. We saw potential, people working here" ("Building a Little Empire"). Over the next eight years, they opened four Italian-themed restaurants in Vancouver and Portland, as well as operating the Igloo. In 2004, the Vancouver Business Journal named them Entrepreneurs of the Year.
Igloo diners soon found out that Ida grilled "a mean Denali Burger flavored with her signature bacon-onion butter … A string of other burgers are featured, including the Eskimo with red onions, pickles and cheddar; the Snow Dome topped with blue cheese dressing and crumbles; and the Golden North with guacamole, Swiss cheese and Cuomo-Jones’ Mayo sauce. As a concession to stemming the tide of the growing girths, lighter-appetite burgers sized at a quarter-pound rather than at one-half-pound are part of Igloo’s offerings" ("On The Table: Bring Your ...").
The Edgewood Park neighborhood provided a built-in clientele for the Igloo. Harney Elementary School was across the street and the Washington State School for the Deaf nearby. The diner was close to the freeway, downtown, and a community park.
The Joneses gave back to the community in many ways. "Besides donating gift certificates, gift baskets and food to local schools, churches and the YWCA, the business owners also provide hundreds of hamburgers and buns for picnics put on by neighborhood associations near the restaurants" (Nicole Gress). All seemed to be going smoothly until January 2005, when diners were surprised to find the Igloo closed and a note posted on the door: "Thanks to our loyal customers, but there weren’t enough of you" ("Daily Roundup").
Birth of the "Boom-Bam-Smackle"
Less than six months later, Mark Greco, former manager of Stanford’s Restaurant & Bar in Jantzen Beach, Oregon, bought the Igloo and reopened it in June 2005 with assistance from his son, two daughters, and girlfriend. Greco put his own personal spin on the menu, inventing a "boom-bam-smackle" – Igloo-speak for a combo meal consisting of a one-pound burger, milkshake (or soda), and fries. Intended to be a marketing tool, the odd-sounding combo seemed to pay off: Within a week, the Igloo was averaging 120 boom-bam-smackles a day. Diners who finished the entire meal got their picture on the wall.
Greco’s Igloo ownership lasted less than two years, and in 2007, Scott Sadler, a resident of Salem, Oregon, took over. Responding to a more on-the-move clientele, Sadler added deli sandwiches and salads in a grab-and-go case as well as lunchtime deliveries if the order were large enough. A room on the second floor became a rental space for meetings and parties, and outside, the property was spiffed up with tiled pathways, picnic tables, even a barbeque grill.
End of the Igloo
The Igloo’s last owners were Jorge Estrada and his wife Andrea, who bought the diner in 2013. The Estradas wanted to return the Vancouver mainstay to its glory days. They streamlined the menu and brought back an Igloo favorite: 48 different types of milkshakes. This time, though, Estrada featured one flavor per week, maybe black licorice or candy cane, to keep costs down. Vanilla, strawberry, and chocolate milkshakes were always available.
Several disturbing incidents hampered the Igloo in its final years. In 2017 a fire that started in the rental apartment on the second floor caused about $75,000 in smoke damage to the diner, and in May 2018 three men were killed (and one man seriously injured) when their BMW crashed into chairs and tables on the restaurant’s patio space.
The Estradas chose not to renew their lease in 2018, citing health concerns, and the Igloo sat vacant for a few years while its owners, Keys Limited Partnership, decided whether to lease to another restaurant operator or convert the space to offices. In 2020, the two-story, 2,200-square-foot property was sold to Paul Vynar of Paul Vynar Properties for $700,000. Vyner renovated the space and moved his heating and air-conditioning business, Precision Air, there. In 2024 a wellness center occupied the former Igloo space.
