Putting it all
together: Jim Sims has owned and operated the Pastime
Bar and Grill in Genesee since 1992.
Genesee businessman puts his
skills to work
By Shanon Quinn Moscow (Idaho) –
Pullman (Wash.) Daily News Sat., Dec. 12, 2015
Walking into Jim Sims' Pastime Bar and Grill in Genesee
is like venturing into times past - though into what era is debatable.
Gleaming original woodwork sets off a dark red accent
wall and the stage for historic town artifacts - signs of businesses closed 50
years ago, street scenes from the 1890s-1900s, and paintings of muted colors
with peaceful feelings.
There's plenty of evidence of the 1970s and '80s as well.
The jukebox plays everything from Waylon Jennings to Creed while pinball,
foosball and the old standbys of darts and pool wait for players in the large
back room.
While the atmosphere gives the feeling of the building's
history, so does the proprietor.
Sims has operated his establishment for the past 24 years
and is willing to tell its tales - and his own.
Born and raised in Orofino, Sims didn't dream of owning a
restaurant or bar. In the beginning, life was all about basketball.
"I turned out for basketball in seventh grade or
eighth grade and my senior year I was second team all-state. I got a scholarship
to Linfield College and played four years there," he said.
Sims, who played for the Linfield Wildcats from 1967-71,
said his signature move was dunking the ball and hanging off the rim.
"I could jump back then," he said. "We had
one game where we scored 145 points. We had six or seven games where we were
over 100 points. We were in good shape back then."
But it was an experience far off the court that first
brought to his mind the dream of restaurant ownership.
"I started serving doughnuts in a coffee shop when I
was in college. I think it was for the athletic club. I got a kick out of
giving people doughnuts. They were happy to get them and they'd give me the
money and go sit down and enjoy their doughnut. You get some satisfaction out
of that," Sims said.
But when his college graduation came about, opening a
restaurant was the last thing on his mind. First, he needed to take care of his
debts.
After working in construction for a couple of years, Sims
said he quit his job and decided to visit his brother in Monterey, Calif.
"I hitchhiked down to see him," Sims said.
"It sounds crazy now. The '70s were a different time period and there were
a lot more hitchhikers, hippies and stuff out on the freeway. You can't get
comfortable, if you don't know where you're going. But it sure sounded fun back
then."
While checking out California, Sims said he stopped by a
restaurant managed by a college friend.
"I proceeded to have a few drinks at the bar and
started talking to this guy who was the controller of the Refectory restaurant
chain. He said, 'if you want a job come talk to me in the morning,' " Sims
said. "I started work the next week."
Sims worked for the chain for 18 years, he said, and put
his accounting degree from Linfield to good use.
"I worked my way up from management training in a
restaurant to auditing to accounting manager to financial analyst to
controller," he said. "Then Marriott bought them and fired everyone.
That was the end."
It was around that time Sims decided he didn't want to
raise his family or retire in California, where everything seemed so expensive,
and he made the move to Genesee, where he owned a house.
"I worked on my house for quite a while and was
looking for a job. This place was closed and I wanted to own my own restaurant.
We checked into it and into getting it. It was what I wanted to do so it's what
I'm doing now. I just stuck with it," Sims said.
That was where the construction in his background helped
out.
"There's been a lot to do," Sims said.
"When I first got it, it had a false ceiling. I broke out the false
ceiling, put in the lights, painted it and cleaned it up."
Restoring the floor was another battle he fought in the
early days of restaurant ownership, as the former operators drilled holes in
the wood floor to accommodate a leak rather than repair it.
"The floor was all rotted out," Sims said.
Nearly a quarter century later, the business is coming
together, although there is never a lack of projects to work on - such as the
recently remodeled women's bathroom.
While liquor bottles fill cabinets and there is beer on
tap, food remains Sims' biggest priority.
He can count on a full house for Taco Tuesdays and his
menu runs the gamut from simple grilled cheese sandwiches, fries and chicken to
high stacked burgers - hand formed from hamburger from Vandal Meats - and prime
rib smoked out back.
That feeling first experienced in college when he handed
people their fluffy pastries has not deserted him.
"I still get that same satisfaction when people come
in, enjoy their meal and leave happy and say, 'thanks a lot it was great,'
" Sims said. "When somebody tells me that was the best prime rib they
ever had in their life it means more to me than a $20 tip."
Jim Sims: Big-city refugee runs for
small-town mayor
Big-city refugee runs for small-town mayor
By David Johnson Lewiston (Idaho) Tribune Fri, Sept
20, 2013
People
featured in this column have been selected randomly from the telephone book and
cellphone numbers contributed by readers.
GENESEE, Idaho
- If Jim Sims could be president of the United States, he said he'd round up
all Republicans and stick the rascals in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp.
Then he'd get on with fixing the plight of working men and women.
"I
hate Republicans," Jim said, with a hint of serious jest in his eyes.
"They're the ones stalling everything that's going on in the Senate and
the House."
But
he can't be president. So Jim has decided to run for mayor of this Latah County
farming town. If elected in November, he vowed to make sure the doggone diagonal
parking on downtown Walnut Street is eliminated.
"It
endangers everyone who drives down the street," he said.
Call
the issue the politics of parking.
"I
don't think there are any issues," he said, "except the one I'm
creating."
Jim,
who appears on the ballot as James W. Sims, is running against incumbent Mayor
Steve S. Odenborg and hopeful Charley Rennaker. Two city council positions are
also up for election.
"I've
never done anything in politics," said Jim, who owns and operates the
Pastime Bar and Grill on Walnut Street here where patrons, by the way, are
allowed to park parallel in front of the place. Business in Genesee, Jim
lamented, is like most places in America - slow.
"I
don't care what they say about the recovery," he said.
When
he bought the Pastime about 20 years ago, people with disposable income bellied
up to the bar and gathered for lunch and dinner on a regular basis. Not so
today.
"I
think a lot of it is just the economy. My clientele is mostly the working
man," Jim said. "And the working man quit working. He's not working
as much."
Armed
with a bachelor's degree in accounting that he earned while on a basketball
scholarship at Linfield College in McMinnville, Ore., Jim said he was about two
courses short of a master's of business administration at Golden Gate
University in San Francisco when he started working in the food industry doing
auditing, accounting, analysis and eventually becoming a controller for a
management company. Then the city got to him.
"When
I was in the Bay Area, it was an hour and a half to work, bumper-to-bumper
traffic," he said.
Born
in Orofino and having moved around with his family to Grangeville, Moscow,
Clarkston and other locations, Jim's return to northern Idaho was akin to a
homecoming.
"It's
small. It's quiet. There's not a lot of traffic," he said of Genesee.
"Driving to Lewiston is a pleasure. You enjoy the trip. With my
credentials, you'd have to work in Seattle or Portland, or San Francisco. And I
didn't want to do that. I wanted to live here and raise my kids in a smaller
town."
A
father of two and grandfather of three (with another on the way), Jim lives
with his partner of 21 years and potential "First Lady" of Genesee,
Joy Tooley. He suggests that his familiarity with the town (including its
politics), coupled with his education and success in business, should put him
in good stead for holding office.
"I
can do it," he said. "I'm not concerned about it."
If
he had to declare a party affiliation, Jim said he'd probably choose
independent over Democrat, and surely over Republican ... although he
equivocated a tad about jailing Republicans.
"If
there was a good Republican running who had some good ideas and was a
leader," Jim proffered, "I wouldn't have any problems voting for
him."
If
dogged determination is a measure of political potential, Jim might have
already passed the litmus test with the diagonal parking issue. First he
gathered 100 signatures on a petition calling for a change. It got rejected at
the city level. So he sought higher authority.
Latah
County Clerk-Auditor Susan Petersen, a Republican, confirmed that Jim was the
driving force behind the initiative that will appear on the November Genesee
ballot, along with the races for mayor and city council seats. A yes vote on
the initiative will "eliminate the diagonal parking." A no vote
"would make no change."
Of
course, Jim said, he'll have to win the three-way mayoral race to ensure
against shenanigans.
…………..
(Below is a portion of a story.)
Latah County
voters decide variety of council races
Lewiston
(Idaho) Tribune Wed, Nov 6, 2013
Voter turnout was typically low
for strictly local elections in Latah County Tuesday night, as only 34 percent
of registered voters made the trip down to the polls.
In total, 5,226 of the 15,292 registered voters cast their ballots.
In Genesee, incumbent Steve
Odenborg appeared to have eked out a win in his re-election bid, with 125 votes
and 45.96 percent, to 122 votes or 44.85 percent for Charley Rennaker. A third
candidate, Jim Simms got 25 votes and 9.19 percent - the parking initiative
that he championed was also struck down by Genesee voters, 199 votes and 74
percent to 69 votes and 26 percent. The initiative would have returned the
diagonal parking downtown to parallel parking.
……………..
From 1970
Linfield College Oak Leaves yearbook.
Photo shows
Linfield men’s basketball players (l-r) Jim Sims and Mike Smithey.
