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Wednesday, June 1, 2016
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Success Stories T I L L A M O O K C O U N T Y A N D T H E O R E G O N C OA S T
Honor Roll • Garibaldi Charters 607 Garibaldi Ave. Garibaldi (503) 322-0007 garibaldicharters.com • Garibaldi Museum 112 Garibaldi Ave. Garibaldi (503) 322-8411 garibaldimuseum.org • Stratos Wealth Partners 2505 Main Ave N, Ste. D Tillamook (503) 354-5136 stratoswealthpartners.com • The Blue Moon Cafe/ Vintage Nest Second St. and Main Ave. Tillamook (541) 285-5555
Bay City’s Downies Cafe:
Generations of family friendly dining By Joe Warren Publisher jwarren@countrymedia.net
I
n Downtown Bay City, Downies Cafe has been a breadfast and lunch meeting place for locals for years. The cafe which sits next to Center Market on 5th Street, used to be part of Bay City Market owned by Charles Downie, his wife Hazel ran the cafe on the north end of the market. It’s been handed down through the family and now is their grandmother Hazel, who is on it’s third generation of Downie now 97, did so many years ago.” ownership. Taking over the cafe for Jen and “My mom decided to open a cafe Joni seemed like a natural progresbecause she was involved in restausion, and would keep the family rants through her family,” Karen business intact. So after 25 years, said. “Dad remodled the spot on the Karen handed over the business her north end of the store and she had mother had handed down to her, her cafe.” one she nurtured for a quarter of a Back then Hazel prided herself on century to her daughters. her cooking, especially her baking “Both my girls worked for me over focusing on the best pies in the area the years,” Karen said. and the biggest and “Really they are good freshest cinnamon workers, they bought e f a C rolls for miles. the cafe from me in s e i Down th St, The Cafe was passed 2007.” 9320 5 down to Charles and But, Karen would Bay City Hazel’s daughter Karen not give up the cafe Downie and she ran it that easily. She said, Phone: 0 2 2 for the next 25 years, they did a trial run -2 7 7 (503) 3 keeping Hazel’s already for a few months. successful business “She had to make model. sure she was ready to turn it “When mom and dad retired, over to us,” Jen said. Ken (Karen’s brother) took over So, what’s the secret to Downies the store and I took over the cafe,” Cafe success? Jen says they have the Karen said. “My mom started this best cinnamon rolls and pies, and cafe and she could really make pies, their breakfast are cooked to order, her gift was feeding the family, so everything is fresh and purchased lowe’ve always been stuck on large cally when they can. Like the bacon portions because of that.” they buy from Reed and Hertig in When it came time for Karen Warrenton, the same place they have to retire, she brought in her two always bought it.” daughters, Jen Malcom and Joni “Our pancakes are made from Roberton who run it today, but still scratch, it takes two days to make pride themselves on baking the best our hash browns,” Jen said. “That’s pies and cinnamon rolls, just like the unique thing about our cafe — everything is homemade and fresh, our meat is from Tillamook Meats for all of our steaks.” Karen still comes by to visit with the customers and check on her daughters. She says it’s nice to come into the cafe, it feels like home. “We have our daily customers, a lot of mine are gone now and I miss them so much,” Karen said. “I met
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• Tillamook County Solid Waste 503 Marolf Loop (503) 815-3975 www.co.tillamook.or.us/ gov/solidwaste • Downies Cafe 9320 5th St, Bay City (503) 377-2220 www.facebook.com/ DowniesCafe/?fref=ts • Ring Of Fire 496 US-101 Rockaway Beach (971) 306-1112 www.ringoffireglassworks.com
so many people having this cafe, so many good people.” Now that the girls have had the restaurant almost 10 years. They are busy every morning, cranking out plate size pancakes, made to order bacon, fresh eggs, baked goods until after the lunch crowd dies down. “My girls have it all set up,” Karen said. “The staff as been with us for years — Raul Camacho and Shelly Green handle the cooking and Ragan Bradish has been our waitress for a long time. “Everyone is cross trained to do whatever job is needed. Raul is constantly getting recruited by other restaurant owners, but he has been with us for a long time and we love Raul, and Shelly is the friendly tornado, she goes 100 miles per hour — we have a great staff.” Karen admits that it was the groundwork her mother Hazel laid over the years as the biggest reason the cafe is still successful today. “We had a business built up by my mom and I did not change a thing,” Jen said. “Good homemade old fashioned comfort food, but we will make anything for our customers, if they want a burger at 6 a.m. we make it for them — everything on our menu is served all day long, breakfast or lunch.” Jen admitted that having her mom stop in is nice, she said she usually puts her to work. “Mom woks for us sometimes, but
• Kelley’s Place Garibaldi Opening at new location soon • City Of Rockaway Beach P.O. Box 5 276 Hwy 101 S. Rockaway Beach (503) 355-2291 rockawaybeachor.us
she likes to chit-chat so sometimes we have to crack the whip on her... not really,” Jen said. But early on, Jen and Joni almost passed on the business venture. Jen says that if it were not for her Grandfather, Charles, they might not have taken over the business. “We didn’t want to do this at all, but my grandfather told us we couldn’t let it go,” Jen said. “He told us it would always feed your family, so we decided to do it, I’m glad we did and I’m glad we did it together.” And as long as Jen and Joni follow Hazel’s business plan for the place and Karen’s work ethic and drive, it should be around for many more years. “We don’t do a lot of advertising, it’s word of mouth,” Jen said. “We don’t see the ups and downs this place has always been supported by the locals and our steady customers. It gets a little slower in the winter, but not that much.” The cafe is open seven days per week for breakfast and lunch, rain or shine all year long from 6:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. “We have served neighbors during power outages,” Jen said. “When they could not cook, we fired up the grill and cooked for them, we are all family here.”
503-842-7535 • 1908 Second Street, Tillamook, OR 97141 To publish your own Success Story, contact: Jessica Sticklen, jsticklen@countrymedia.net Lisa Browning, lbrowning@countrymedia.net
• Offshore Grill 122 Hwy 101 North Rockaway Beach 503-355-3005 www.facebook.com/offshoregrill/ • Tillamook Hearing Aid Center 1134 Main Ave. (503) 842-9327 tillamookhhearing2013@gmail.com tillamookhearingaids.com • Toylandia 320 Landea Ave. Manzanita OR 503-368-TOYS • The Sustainable Bite 1904 3rd St Tillamook, OR 503-354-2559 • Harmonium LLC 4000 Blimp Blvd, Suite 320 Tillamook OR 503-207-6400 sales@harmoniumllc.com www.harmoniumllc.com
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