Applegater Spring 2016
A honey of a restaurant
comes to Ruch
BY DIANA COOGLE
Colin Cox, owner-chef of the new
Honeysuckle Café in Ruch, might not
have learned to cook from Julia Child,
but she would have approved of his
style. “You don’t have to cook fancy or
complicated masterpieces,” she said,
“just good food from fresh ingredients.”
That’s precisely what you’ll find at the
Honeysuckle Café.
“This is the template we’ve
been wanting to do for years,”
Colin says, “a breakfast-lunch restaurant
that sources local ingredients.”
It was the source of those local
ingredients in the Applegate that was
the key selling point for the Coxes to
buy the restaurant next to the Ruch
Country Store. Colin, who is originally
from Ashland, along with his wife and
business partner, Monique, moved here
last summer from northern Idaho, where
Colin had been a corporate chef, working
50-60 hours a week. If he had to work
that hard, he thought, he should be
working for himself and have time to be
with his family.
Coming back to southern Oregon
■ WILLIAMS
Continued from page 12
by knowing who has lost or found a
dog, if fire threatens homes, or where
and when cultural events take place.
People can weigh in on projects such as
the Traffic Safety Action Committee’s
strategies for calming traffic in downtown
and other areas of Williams.
The Internet saves time, but the
community heart keeps ticking because
of the in-person meetings that take place.
The town council convenes on issues
of community concern as they arise,
such as spraying roadside weeds, which
threatens Williams’ organic cachet. Like-
minded people get together to solve
problems, raise awareness, and energize
others. A broad spectrum of activities
caters to horse lovers, environmental
preservationists, children, the artistically
inclined, and so much more.
Without the many volunteer
organizations and other public-
oriented services, Williams would
be a collection of isolated families.
Instead, Jo’s List is full of emails from
people looking to move to this vibrant
community. It takes work and dedication
to maintain the elements that make up
Williams’ sense of community, but it
makes Williams a pleasant and, above
all, a civilized place to live.
Gabriela Eaglesome
gabrielas@aol.com
Note: If you would like to write an article
like this about your own community, please
let us know. Email gater@applegater.org.
after 20 years, Colin
looked around the
Applegate and thought,
“Wow! This place has
really taken off—good
farms, all the wineries.
It’s l i k e S o u t h e r n
France!” The restaurant
Honeysuckle Cafe owners Colin and Monique Cox cook from
for sale in Ruch seemed
scratch using fresh ingredients from local vendors.
Photo: Tom Carstens.
the perfect opportunity
to fulfill the template.
He and Monique could lease the building
“We’re trying to get each
and equipment without having to buy com ponent touc hed by the
the business. “We could make it our own Applegate or made by Colin’s hand,”
and do it our own way,” Colin says.
Monique says.
Monique identifies their “own
They give a lot of credit for the
way” as “scratch cooking” and “using restaurant’s success since its opening
local vendors as much as possible.” For on July 14, 2015, to the Applegate
instance, they pickle locally sourced purveyors who supply them with the
carrots for the Bánh Mì (Vietnamese fresh ingredients that make great food:
sandwich) on the menu. They make Rise-up! Artisan Bakery for bread; By
their own molé for Mexican-style dishes, George Farm for cheese; Pennington
their own sauces for the noodle bowls, Farms for berries; Moon Shadow and
and their own hollandaise sauce, which, Do-re-mi farms for eggs; Whistling
Monique says, is so different from the Duck and Wandering Fields farms for
over-salted commercial variety that vegetables; Wooldridge Creek Winery
people don’t even recognize it.
and Guzzo Family Vineyard for wine;
Martha Straube, who raises grass fed-
and-finished Dexter beef, for beef. “We
couldn’t be doing what we’re doing
Voices of the
without these people helping us. There
are amazing resources right here,”
Applegate
Monique says.
Spring Concerts
Monique also makes her own
cocktail mixes. She is glad to make a
Bloody Mary, an old-fashioned, or a
Voices of the Applegate will hold
greyhound, but she and Colin emphasize
its spring concerts on Friday, April
that the Honeysuckle Café is not a bar;
1, in the Old Presbyterian Church
it’s a community restaurant.
in Jacksonville and on Sunday, April
3, at the Applegate River Lodge.
The four-part harmony selections
present a variety of styles and subject
matter from the Beatles to Simon and
Garfunkel and from madrigals to the
old Hebrew song, “Oseh Shalom”
(He Who Makes Peace).
Our community choir is just
beginning its fifteenth year of
performances, and we are delighted
to have Blake Weller as our director
to teach and inspire us.
Find us on Facebook under
“Voices of the Applegate,” and listen
to selections from “The Magnificat”
as it was performed at the Applegate
River Lodge. When you visit
Facebook, don’t forget to “Like” us!
We always welcome new singers,
whether or not you read music.
Each member pays tuition of $55,
which covers the cost of our director,
accompanist, music, venues, and a
few scholarships.
For more information, call
Joan Peterson at 541-846-6988.
13
“We appeal to a broad base
of people,” Colin says: “farmers,
neighbors, folks from the Fellowship,
forest service workers who would
come in during the fires last summer.
We developed a menu to appeal to
everybody”—vegetarian selections as well
as meat, gluten-free bread, or farm-fresh
eggs by request. As for allergies, Colin
accommodates.
The Honeysuckle Supper Club
is another popular community-based
function at the Honeysuckle Café. Once
a month Colin and Monique announce
a date for a dinner to showcase their
specialties. Jim Sartorio, a frequent
Honeysuckle diner from the Little
Applegate, says the Supper Club dinners
are “pretty darn good.”
Colin recognizes that it’s a
“pretty cool time to be a chef,”
but he dismisses the idea of cooking as
art, saying it’s “just a job.”
“It’s a blue-collar job,” he says, “not
an art form. It’s no more glamorous than
being a mechanic.”
Nonetheless, Colin enjoys the “art”
aspect of creating good food. He likes
foods with “strong, punchy flavors,”
foods that rely on freshness. He likes
food with big contrasts, such as Bánh Mì,
where “sweetness plays off the heat.” He
experiments with Mediterranean, Asian,
and Mexican recipes, altering them to
fit his whim. “I don’t have to stick to
traditional Bánh Mì,” he says. “I’m not
Vietnamese. I can change it as I like.”
If cooking is “just a job,” it’s a job
Colin Cox is good at.
Diana Coogle • dicoog@gmail.com
The Honeysuckle Café is located at 7360
Highway 238 in Ruch. Phone: 541-702-
2525. Visit their Facebook page at https://
www.facebook.com/The-Honeysuckle-
Cafe-646255768840407/.
