free
november2007
V E R N O N I A’ S
reflecting the spirit of our community
volume1 issue5
vernonia
visitors
guide
Pages 12 & 13
A “Long” Dream Come True: Café 47
By Evangeline Doyle
For years we’ve seen a man hard at work renovating the building at 854 Bridge Street into restaurant space. I for one have anticipated his opening
thinking, “If he puts this much intense effort into the building, imagine what his food will taste like.” I wasn’t disappointed.
On October 5th, after two years in the making and much anticipation, Café 47 opened
its doors for business. Owners Bill and Karla Long, their family and friends couldn’t
be happier.
You never would guess that this is the Long’s first restaurant. From the time you walk
in the door until you take your first bite, they definitely have the balance of ambience
and great food.
But this story is as much about a dream,
passion, belief, and creativity as it is the
food.
My interview started with Karla, Bill’s wife
of fourteen years and his biggest fan. She
readily admits that she’s the worrier, “But
not Bill,” explains Karla. “I’ve never met a
more positive person. He’s a very deter-
mined man, he’s passionate about what
he does and has amazing faith. His vision
never ends, it’s throughout him…it extends
to his whole life.”
The rest of Vernonia may have been more skeptical. Working a full-time job, Bill
created Café 47 in his spare time. After nearly two years of hearing anxious towns-
people ask, “When are you opening?” Bill would reply “Two weeks.”
“Admittedly, some people gave up on us this summer, thinking we’d never open. We
really thought that might hurt the business,” said Bill. But, quite the contrary…when
Café 47 opened its doors in October, the reaction from the town was amazing.
Imagining Possibilities
Born and raised in Santa Barbara, California, proprietor Bill Long was introduced to
good food at an early age. It began with his grandmother’s recipes, handed down
through the family, and continued after he returned from the military and began work-
ing in a mom-and-pop grocery/meat market there.
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Growing up in Santa Barbara, Bill
also loved the outdoors and gar-
dening. He took up landscaping
as his profession but never lost
his love for cooking. He contin-
ued to be the main chef at home,
cooking for his wife Karla and
their children Jessie and Austin.
The Longs moved to Oregon
from Studio City, California –
initially landing in the Portland
area where Bill continued his
landscaping career in the Ra-
leigh Hills/Dunthorpe area. But
it wasn’t long before Bill wanted
to move his family out of the city
to a rural community. He started
looking for areas with an easy
commute to Portland.
The house they purchased in
Vernonia had been on the market
just one day before they began
their search. As with everything
else, Bill could see the possibilities. They snatched up the house and moved in Oc-
tober 31, 1997.
So how does one make the transition from landscaping to food? And better yet,
why? Bill explained, “Landscaping is creative work, but it’s also hard physical work. I
knew I wouldn’t be able to do the work forever. So I started thinking – what else could
I do? I enjoy cooking, but, I thought, even more than that I enjoy feeding people.”
In addition to family encouragement, Bill’s neighbor and friend, Rob Williams, said
that he should start selling food – Vernonia needed more restaurants.
Continued on page 14
Local Receives Chopra Certification
After many hours of classes and study with famed doctor and author
Deepak Chopra, Deborah Steffen of Vernonia’s Cedar Mist Studios,
became a Certified Chopra Center Instructor.
Acknowledged as one of the world’s greatest leaders in the field of
mind body medicine, Deepak Chopra, M.D. continues to transform our
understanding of the meaning of health. Through his creation of The
Chopra Center for Wellbeing in California in 1995, Chopra established
a formal vehicle for the expansion of his healing approach using the integration of the best of western medicine
with natural healing traditions which fuses modern science and Ayurveda. Through his partnership with David Si-
mon, M.D. and numerous health care professionals in both conventional and comple-
mentary healing arts, Chopra’s work is changing the way the world views physical,
mental, emotional, spiritual and social wellness. For more information about Deepak
visit http://chopra.com/aboutdeepak.
After six days of intense training and testing each day and over three months of home
study, Deborah reached one of her major life goals to acquire additional skills in assist-
ing others in creating health and happiness in their lives. The Perfect Health Teacher
Training Certification program includes over 250 hours of intense home study and
on-site training. To qualify for this program you must have attended “Journey Into
Healing” and “Seduction of Spirit”, which are each five day prerequisite classes.
Deborah Steffen also is a Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT), Holistic Health Practitio-
ner (HHP), and Certified Hypnotherapist (CHT). “I have always been interested in
being healthy and feeling good”, says Deborah. Deborah has been fascinated with the
alternative and complementary approaches to wellness for over 25 years.
Continued on page 7