community
Birkenfeld Store and Café
and said, ‘Did you see the store is for
sale?’ and one thing led to another,” said
Mike, when asked how a former phone
company lineman ended up as the pro-
prietor of a country store.
Mike is originally from San Di-
april13
2010
9
continued from front page
of the café.”
The café has been successful
serving breakfasts and lunches and fea-
tures hand-pressed burgers, hand-sliced
meats for their sandwiches and real
milkshakes as well as a nice selection of
northwest beers and wines.
“We’ve tried to make
the area a destination and cre-
ate an atmosphere here, offer-
ing good quality foods,” says
Mike. “You have to be able
to change. And of course, this
year we’ve branched out into
the music and started bringing
bands in.”
That live music on
weekends has been an added
feature that has grown in pop-
ularity, from just a handful of
The deck at the Birkenfeld Store and Café.
people to a packed room on
some nights. Birky’s can seat
ego and is retired from Northwest Bell/ about fifty people comfortably and still
Quest. He currently runs the day-to-day leave room for a band and a small dance
operations of the store while Wendy is floor. “Lock, Stock and Barrel” have be-
getting ready to retire this year and join come regular favorites and Birky’s has
him. Mike had lived and worked in brought in a nice mix of other perform-
Eastern Oregon outside of Hepner for ers. “The music sounds good in this old
about twenty years before finding his building,” says Mike. “It has a nice tone
way to Birkenfeld. Wendy grew up in and the bottles on the shelf don’t rattle,”
the Vernonia/Jewell area.
laughs Mike.
“Jack had started to dabble in
Mike says he’s encouraged that
the restaurant end of things when we more small local establishments in the
took over,” explained Mike about how Vernonia area are taking the risk and
Birky’s has changed since he and Wen- providing live entertainment. “People
dy took over. “He had more of a deli. out here like to have live performances,
And we saw the potential for it to be but they need to know it’s risky for the
more than just that, so we turned it into owners to pay someone to come out and
a café-- put in the grill, changed some perform,” he says. “People need to re-
things around and then started adding to member that if they want these kinds of
the deck. We started decorating because things, they need to support them.”
Jack was kind of funny that
way-- he didn’t like a lot of
stuff on the walls. Of course,
we’re country folks, so it has
a nice country feel. We’ve
tried to keep some of the
character of the store without
changing too much.”
The Ingrahams have
expanded the café space and
cut back on the store space,
giving them more versatil-
ity with what they can do.
“We’re trying to develop
some different facets that can
be changed at a moment’s
notice,” says Mike. “We’re
going to do a wedding this
summer and we’ve been ap-
proached about doing private
parties out on the deck, and Two members of “Lock Stock and Barrel” performing
an acoustic music set.
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Being in such a remote
area offers the expected challeng-
es-- business is slower in winter,
and generally has a smaller base of
customers to pull from, but there
are also positives. “With the log-
ging industry having its challenges,
those become our challenges too,”
says Mike. “We’re all neighbors
out here, we all work and play to-
gether and the economy is just
tough right now. The locals want
to support us and they do as much
as they can. We feel fortunate that
we’re in an area where all our cus-
tomers know us and we know all of
them by name.”
Summers bring a whole
new perspective with motorcyclists,
people on their way to the beach, other
travelers and road trippers and visitors
to Fishhawk Lake-- which is just down
the road. “We get people out here from
all over,” says Mike. “We’ve had people
stop in from Germany, Australia, Ja-
pan... You never know who you’re go-
ing to run into out here.”
Mike has also gotten involved
in a few side projects in the summer
months. The Ingraham’s have a large
piece of private property a few miles
down the road where they have played
host to “Run 21,” a large gathering of
motorcyclists that is organized by the
Southeast Chapter of A.B.A.T.E. That
event includes national name musical
acts. Mike and Wendy also organized
the “Birkenfeld Blues Revue and Festi-
val” last Labor Day weekend. They are
planning to organize that music event
again this year, which is a fundraiser to
help local timber workers and their fami-
lies and last year brought in performers
through the Cascade Blues Association.
Mike says he appreciates the
support his business has gotten from
around the region, especially from
Vernonia-area businesses. “Everyone
around here tries to help each other out
and I really appreciate what we all do for
each other.”
The old Birkenfeld Store and
Cafe continues to survive and find ways
to reinvent itself. Whether you’re in the
area for lunch, live music, or just picking
up supplies for the weekend, you will al-
ways be welcome at Birky’s.
