For most people, spending much of the year on a yacht cruising around the world would only be possible if they were born to wealth or had a lucrative career that funded a lavish lifestyle in retirement.

Sequim businesswoman Dominique Hall has personally experienced that lifestyle, but you might say she did things a bit backwards in life — at least where “most people” are concerned.

Hall spent almost 18 years working as a personal chef on yachts for what she calls the wealthy “one percent.” That lifestyle is what landed her in Port Angeles and eventually Sequim. She started her own family at 41 when many people her age were becoming empty nesters.

“I absolutely loved it,” Hall said of the almost two decades she had a front row seat to the lifestyles of the rich and famous. “I got to travel all around the world… It was a wonderful, wonderful job, for sure.”

Why did she give it up? Well, as with most things, there was a downside. Day in and day out, sometimes for months at a time, she was basically feeding 100-150 people per day. There weren’t that many people on board, but she was serving breakfast, lunch, pre-dinner hors-d’oeuvres and dinner to the yacht owner and their guests as well as crew members that numbered between six and 12.

“It was very taxing because, believe it or not, the wealthier you are, the pickier you are as an eater,” Hall said.

There were other negatives, too, that wore on her as time went by. You live in a small cabin and have to get along with everyone. It can be lonely. You’re always at someone’s beck and call. Your class reunion is coming up? Tough luck.

“I would have one day off in four months and work 16 hours a day,” Hall said. “There is a lot of sacrifice in that job.”

It was great for a while, but Hall decided she wanted to do something different.

“By the time I was 40 I was, like, I kind of want to do things for myself,” she said of her fork in the road. “I wanted to go home at night. And I wanted a cat and a dog.”

Hall is still feeding people, but at three locations in Sequim and Port Angeles instead of on a rich person’s yacht. No longer is she at someone’s beck-and-call. These days, she’s the boss.

Sequim Gazette photo by Monica Berkseth/ The skills that helped Hall feed some of the world’s wealthy one percent are now enjoyed by locals and visitors alike in Sequim and Port Angeles.

Busy times three

Hall grew up in Kempton Park, a small suburb outside Johannesburg, South Africa. After graduating high school, she worked as a restaurant server. That’s when she discovered a love for the hospitality industry.

Later, she moved to Cape Town, where another passion took hold — scuba diving. That interest eventually led to the yacht industry. She began working as a private chef on yachts beginning in 1997.

Her final yacht, built by Westport Yachts, was based in Port Angeles. What started as a work assignment became something more permanent.

“Port Angeles ultimately became home,” she said.

When Hall left yachting in 2014, she joined the Olympic Lodge, managing the breakfast room. It was there that she met Don Batcheler of Rainshadow Coffee, one of the lodge’s vendors. Conversations over coffee turned into mentorship, as Batcheler introduced Hall to roasting and the inner workings of his growing business.

When Batcheler decided to focus solely on wholesale roasting, he offered Hall the chance to purchase the café portion of Rainshadow Coffee. At that time, Hall’s daughter was a toddler.

“In 2017, I took that leap of faith and became the owner, beginning the next chapter of my journey in Port Angeles,” Hall stated in an email to the Sequim Gazette.

Rainshadow Café already existed as a coffee shop, but Hall steadily expanded its food program and invested in new equipment as the business grew. She leaned into a philosophy that would define the café’s identity.

“My philosophy was simple: never say no,” Hall said.

That openness transformed Rainshadow Cafe, located at 157 W. Cedar St., into a community hub. Sip-and-paint nights, First Friday events, open-mic performances, sourdough bread classes, book readings, and art shows all found a home there. If someone had an idea worth trying, Hall made room for it.

Eventually, Hall opened the second and smaller Rainshadow location at 844 N. Fifth Ave., inside the OMC Medical Building in Port Angeles. The site serves patients, staff and visitors alike.

The cafes serve breakfast and lunch, with offerings that include avocado toast, bagels, paninis, salads, flatbreads and soups as well as pastries and cakes. Favorites include Dungeness Dark Roast coffee beans, the breakfast burrito, the yam salad and the TBA panini, made with turkey, bacon, avocado, Havarti cheese and chipotle mayo on sourdough bread. Hall said it was hard to choose the items most favored by customers because most of what the café sells seems equally loved.

Hall recently embarked on yet another business venture: Spoonbar Sweets. Located at 171 W. Washington St. in downtown Sequim a short distance from Rainshadow, the idea was sparked by loss as much as opportunity.

“When That Takes the Cake closed, it was a definite loss for our community,” Hall said, referring to the bakery once run at that location by Sue and Paul Boucher. “Their absence left a real void.”

Spoonbar Sweets was designed to help fill that gap, offering not just cupcakes, but donuts — handcrafted and hand-dipped — along with ice cream, coffee, lattes, cappuccinos, milkshakes, dirty sodas, floats and Italian sodas.

“All things sweet and delicious, meant to be enjoyed with a spoon,” Hall wrote in her email. “A spoonful of love in every moment.”

All Spoonbar treats are prepared on site by Hall or her bakers, supported by professional-grade equipment and a landlord she credits as tremendously supportive. The shop has been intentionally designed as a place to linger, not simply grab a box and go.

The response has been overwhelmingly positive, Hall said, with donuts, cupcakes, ice cream and coffee among customer favorites.

Spoonbar Sweets, which opened last October at 171 W. Washington St. in downtown Sequim, offers a tempting selection of sweet treats as well as lattes, coffee, cappuccinos, sodas and more. Customers are welcome to enjoy their purchases in a cozy seating area.

‘Crazy hard’

Running three businesses is no small feat. In fact, Hall said, “It’s crazy hard.” But she was quick to credit her team, including manager Heather Rawlings, junior manager Kiana Watson Charles, and a dedicated group of bakers, baristas and donut chefs.

Although her businesses certainly keep her busy, Hall is active with the Sequim-Dungeness Valley Chamber of Commerce and works to support other local businesses and community initiatives. Over the years, Rainshadow Café has donated countless gift certificates to local fundraisers, schools and events, she said.

Beth Pratt, the chamber’s executive director, noted that Hall provides coffee for the chamber’s monthly Breakfast Network and participates regularly in community events such as First Friday Art Walk, showcasing local artists and musicians. She said that Hall’s steps in growing her businesses have been “methodical.”

“I think this sets her up for long-term success,” she stated.

Hall said of Sequim’s Rainshadow, “We’re more than just a café. We’re the ‘Cheers’ of coffee in Sequim — a place where everyone knows your name and feels welcome.”

These days, though busy, Hall has more balance in her life than she had when she lived much of the year at sea. She has a home and a family. Today her daughter is 10 and is already showing talent at decorating cupcakes.

As the Rainshadow locations and Spoonbar Sweets continue to grow, Hall remains focused on what brought her here in the first place: service, connection and creating places where people belong.

“We continue to build on the cornerstones of the great businesses we have today,” she said, “making them beloved gathering places in the community for everyone to enjoy.”

Photo courtesy Dominique Hall Local business owner Dominique Hall, shown here on a yacht during a nighttime crossing of the Panama Canal, loved the years she spent working on yachts as a personal chef.

Sequim Gazette photo by Monica Berkseth/ Rainshadow Cafe employee Maizie Reidel serves up orders at the popular eatery located at 157 W. Cedar St.

Sequim Gazette photos by Monica Berkseth Hall is hands-on at her businesses.

Sequim Gazette photo by Monica Berkseth/ Barista Hemlock Reed steams milk for a cappuccino at Rainshadow on Fifth Avenue in Port Angeles. Sequim Gazette photo by Monica Berkseth/ Barista Hemlock Reed steams milk for a cappuccino at Rainshadow on Fifth Avenue in Port Angeles.