By Rachel Raskin-Zrihen/Times-Herald staff writer
Posted: 07/10/2009
Erik Raahauge, standing, owner and operator of the new Vik's Wheelhouse restaurant on the Vallejo waterfront, talks with customers Scott and Paulette Langdon during lunch Thursday. Scott Langdon, a Baylink ferry captain, makes a point of sampling restaurants close to his points of destination. (Mike Jory/Times-Herald)
One Vallejo family's seafaring tradition lives on with the opening of Vik's Wheel- house on the waterfront.
The intimate eatery features seafood, steak, soups, chowders, sandwiches and more, eaten inside a remodeled former ferry terminal or on an attached floating patio. One is greeted at the door by a huge ship wheel, and another, from the steamship Vallejo circa 1871, serves as a table by the window, overlooking the water.
Named for longtime Mare Island Ferry owner Vik Raahauge, Vik's Wheelhouse opened about a month ago after five years of work, owner Erik Raahauge said.
Erik Raahauge, 59, has been a ferry pilot since 1970, but the Raahauge family's relationship with the sea began long ago, across the water, he said.
"My grandpappy came here from Denmark right after World War I," Raahauge said. "There were no bridges then, and he starting running ferries in the San Francisco Bay. He ended up running what was called the six-minute ferry between Crockett and where the California Maritime Academy is now."
Robert Raahauge bought the Mare Island Ferry in 1922, and the enterprise has been in the family since, Erik Raahauge said.
He said he is now the repository of most of the family's sea tales. For instance, there's a little- known story of how the 1927 opening of the first constructed bridge in the San Francisco Bay was overshadowed by other world events.
"The day the Carquinez Bridge was opened -- the ribbon was cut remotely, by the president by pushing a button -- was the very same day that Lindbergh landed in Paris, so all there was, was this small story in the paper," he said.
Raahauge recalls tales of the ferry's heyday, just after World War II, when 16 ferries carried 50,000 people daily to and from Mare Island.
"During the war, most of the men who operated the ferries were in the service, so my father had several women train to pilot the boats, but the Department of Transportation wouldn't allow them to take the license test," he said. "But we had a contract with the Navy and they needed the ferries operating, so my father called his senator and Vallejo became the first place in the United States where women were allowed to get a conveyance boat pilot's license."
The building that now houses Vik's Wheel- house was built as the Mare Island Ferry Terminal in 1965, Raahauge said. But it's served several purposes since "Black Friday," the name family members gave to the day in 1986 when they got a letter saying the Navy "would no longer require our services."
The family ran the Wharf restaurant, now The Front Room at the Wharf, and operated a water taxi service from the smaller building for a while, he said. It was a coffee shop and an ice cream parlor briefly, and it was vacant for a long time, he said.
"I started in 2003 to try to create this place," Raahauge said. "There was one roadblock after another; one more hurdle to get over. If this wasn't my family's legacy, I'd have given up."
Raahauge said his concept was to create a rustic, historic, casual eatery, which is transformed with a fireplace, red candles and nautical lanterns into a romantic one by night. Vik's features historic maritime artifacts and paintings, behind which are stories Raahauge knows.
"I'm a maritime guy, like my father and grandfather, and I wanted to open this to the public, so they can have access to the water," he said. "Phase two will be creating a place where public and private boaters can have access to the city."
Live music and outdoor barbecues are planned over the summer, he said.
Prices at Vik's Wheel- house range from $2 for French bread to $18.95 for the largest weekend special dinner.
Contact staff writer Rachel Raskin-Zrihen at 553-6824 or RachelZ@thnews-net.com.
