I grew up just a mile from the Cross River Café in Schroeder. (Don’t look for it now, it burned down several years ago.) I wish it was still there though because I think every small town grows closer together if they have a cafe. Where else do you meet and greet over a cup of coffee? Cafés have a way of making you feel like Norm in "Cheers." (Everybody knows your name.) Walking in can feel like coming home but even better because you know someone else will be doing the dishes. (Although my dad’s favorite threat was to send me in back to wash dishes to pay our bill on more than one occasion.)
At the Cross River Café there was a counter with stools that twirled around until your mom said stop, a front hall with huge windows and a back room for "fine" dining. In the ’50s and ’60s it was called "Smith’s Café" and my mom worked there while she was in high school. When I worked at Lambs grocery store across the river I would take my lunch breaks at the café. Every day I ordered a tuna sandwich on toast with cheese. (Still my favorite lunch to this day.)
When I graduated from CCHS I moved to the campground in Grand Marais and worked at the Blue Water Café. It was my second experience working at a restaurant because I had started out working at Satellites Country Inn the year before. Satellites didn’t have a counter with stools but it did have a customer table where you could sit if you came in alone and wanted to visit. The truck drivers liked to sit there. They taught me to eat my french fries dipped in brown gravy. At the Blue Water Café I soon learned the regular customers’ favorites and I could put in their order with only a nod. One lady had a grilled cheese sandwich dipped in yellow mustard every time she came in. (This I never developed a taste for even though I tried it once or twice.) The cook at Blue Water would also make the best desserts. Lemon bars to die for and pecan pie! I had never in my life tried pecan pie but once I did I was hooked. After a shift there was nothing better than sitting down to a piece of pie and a cup of hot coffee.
Where I live now in Annandale I guess you could say I am a regular breakfast customer at Homestyle Café. I like to meet my friends there on Tuesday mornings. The waitress, Kelly, knows my order by heart … two poached eggs with English muffin toast and hot water – I bring my own tea bags in my purse. Usually at least one other customer greets me by name and says hello. It reminds me of my youth and the friendliness you only get in a small town. Nothing against the coffee houses. I enjoy a good cup of tea at In Hot Water about one day a week too, but I am thankful for cafés and I hope we have them around for years to come. Besides I am betting if I tried spinning on one of the counter stools at Homestyle I might get away with it longer than I did with my mom.
"Strangely enough, the first character in Fried Green Tomatoes was the cafe, and the town. I think a place can be as much a character in a novel as the people."
-Fannie Flagg
Sandy Holthaus of rural South Haven loves to cook. She and her husband, Michael, have three school-aged children. Holthaus is active in the community and has many interests and hobbies. She is originally from near Grand Marais. The Tastes Like Home column appears regularly.
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