Cochrane Cafe to close its doors

After nearly 29 years as the Cochrane Caf é, this Friday marks the final day of the diner's fare service … if it doesn't run out of food beforehand.

“The local support has been amazing - especially this month since people found out we were closing, ” said Sue Stienstra, who has owned and operated the business with her brother Joe since January of 1988.

Since 1963 - or 1964, depending on who you talk to - Charlie's Caf é (turned Cochrane Caf é once the Stienstras took the reins from Charlie Quon) has been feeding the local lot typical Chinese and Western diner grub.

“I remember eating here as a kid … here and the A-1 Drive In were your choices, ” Joe reminisced, adding that he will miss the conversations with regular customers in between food service.

With the recent minimum wage increases (more to come) and the continued rising food costs, the Stienstras decided it was time to pack it in and bid farewell to a lifetime of pouring coffee and flipping burgers six days a week.

Both also acknowledged that retirement from the industry has come due - as three decades is a long stretch at anything.

With four now-grown daughters between them, Jen and Jaycee (Sue's daughters); Brianna and Julie (Joe's daughters) and Joe's wife Karen, the pair watched their families grow up in the restaurant. Both families lived above the restaurant when they were younger.

“It's kind of sad, ” said Jen Harbidge, Sue's daughter, adding that she will miss “all those familiar faces and knowing everyone who came in. ”

All of them continue to work at the restaurant to round out the staff roster of roughly 14 full and part-timers. The early days saw the family run off their feet seven days a week - turned six days in more recent years.

“The kids have been a life saver - especially when other staff members couldn't make it in to work, ” said Sue, who runs the books while Joe keeps the fridges stocked.

Both work the back of house manning the grills while their kids sling coffee and serve mounds of ginger beef, wor wonton soup, homemade burgers and all-day breakfast to regulars.

While the Stienstras did a major overhaul in the early days, removing orange booths and green bathrooms, recent years have seen little renovations and reveal a little blast from days past.

The Cafe matches the profile of every small-town, heart-winning Canadian clich é - from the Pepsi signs, western artwork, and cashier till to the old-fashioned booths, silver napkin dispensers and ketchup packets lining the brown booths.

Up until roughly 10 years ago the Stienstras would also provide three square meals a day on Sundays for those who occupied the Cochrane RCMP holding cells.

“I think small towns across Canada have ‘that' Cafe … I'm sad to see it go, ” said Leslie Deans, a 21-year Cochranite who said it's a toss-up between whether she will miss the ginger beef or beef dip the most.

Deans said the Chinese/Western Cafes that dot the main street of prairie towns are “as Canadian as it gets ” and that the whole culture of that dining style seems to be going away.

Photographer Tim Hall has lived in Cochrane his whole life and well remembers skipping school to eat at the diner.

“The Cafe will be a hard habit to break, ” said Hall, adding that the ginger beef combo dish is at the top of his comfort food list.

“My earliest memories of the Cafe are the milkshake machine, through the eyes of a six-year-old in the ‘70s that machine was pure magic … as the years passed I adopted the Cafe as my favourite spot, whether I skipped a class in high school and snuck away for a plate of fries and gravy or to taking a friend there to introduce them to the ginger beef combo. ”

Joe said the milkshake machine, which still runs like a charm, is “unbreakable ” - unlike appliances made today.

Hall said his “hat is off to Sue and Joe for the years of amazing food and the memories ” and he is sorry to see a part of Cochrane's history close its doors.

The main area of the restaurant will become the new home of Stellar Nails & Tattoo, who take possession Feb. 1 and will open its doors May 1.

The Stientras, who own the building, remain uncertain what the secondary dining room will become.