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Terri Terry, a longtime Pleasanton restaurateur who founded Cellar Door and served as the downtown association president during the COVID pandemic, died Feb. 28 after a years-long battle with breast cancer. She was 62.
Current Cellar Door owner Scott Larson, who took over the Railroad Avenue restaurant two years ago, confirmed Terry’s death to the Weekly on Wednesday after the news was first shared publicly in a social media post the day before.
“Along with being a community leader and a business owner, Terri had a gift of bringing the best out in people,” Larson told the Weekly. “She will be forever missed and never replaced.”
Located right in between First and Main streets, Cellar Door has been a staple of downtown Pleasanton since 2013, when Terry first opened the business.
“Terri left an indelible mark on all of us in Downtown,” the Pleasanton Downtown Association stated in a social media post Tuesday night. “She was infectious (with) joy and brilliance … we are stronger and better because of her influence.”
Larson said when Terry sold him the business, the two had many conversations — not about transaction or paperwork — regarding the people and culture at the Cellar Door, which he said showed how much she loved her staff, the city, her customers and even her competition.
“She tackled issues in such a positive way that you can only admire and hope to emulate,” Larson said.
Kathy Narum, a former City Council member and longtime Pleasanton resident, told the Weekly about all of the things Terry had done for downtown and the overall community. From helping local nonprofits like Goodness Village and Pleasanton Military Families, to serving on the PDA’s Board of Directors as president, Narum said that even in her final days Terry was still thinking about the community.
“Two weeks before her passing, she drove to Pleasanton to meet me for coffee. She was feisty, still determined to beat the cancer, as she wanted to be at her son’s wedding in July,” Narum recalled. “She also wanted to talk about the next PDA executive director and who she wanted to see get the job. Even as she was fighting the cancer, she was still thinking about the good of downtown and about friends. That’s just the kind of person she was all the way to the end.”
Former PMF president Pat Frizzell said she was saddened after hearing about Terry’s death.
“She was very kind and … always very welcoming and generous,” Frizzell told the Weekly. “Just a sweetheart. I just think she was a wonderful, wonderful person.”
Frizzell said Terry became involved with the nonprofit organization when, years ago, one of Terry’s sons joined the Marines.
From setting up fundraisers where the donations went to the nonprofit, to allowing the nonprofit to hold their support group meetings out in the patio of her restaurant, Frizzell commended Terry for everything the restaurateur did for the organization and for the military families of Pleasanton.
Frizzell recalled one of the last times she saw Terry, saying that despite seeing how thin Terry looked at the time, the former Cellar Door owner remained hopeful that she would beat the disease a second time — Terry had gone into remission after first finding out she had breast cancer in 2001.
“I went up to give her a hug and she said ‘I’m going to be OK,'” Frizzell said. “She just had such a positive attitude and she survived another year or two before it finally got her.”
Terry is survived by her husband, Scott Terry, and their two sons. Her celebration of life will be set to take place at Sunol’s Casa Bella Event Center on April 11 starting at 4 p.m.
