E AST O REGONIAN
WEEKEND, JULY 6, 2019
Mountain life
Life and business
in Meacham suit
Hermiston couple
By PHIL WRIGHT
East Oregonian
MEACHAM — Dave
Borup gets a kick out of show-
ing diners his new “menu” at
Meacham’s Oregon Trail Store
and Deli.
He explained the “Roadkill
Cafe” takes advantage of Ore-
gon’s law that went into effect
Jan. 1, allowing drivers to sal-
vage deer or elk they strike on
accident. Dave’s menu expands
on that with “Chunk of Skunk,”
“Rack of Raccoon” and “Any-
thing Dead … In Bread.”
Some customers laugh, he
said, others get wide-eyed for
a moment. Then his eyes got a
bit wider.
“I’m waiting,” he said, “for
the day that someone tries to
come in with a dead animal.”
He would fl y to the door, he
remarked, arms outstretched to
keep them at bay. Fun is fun,
but this kitchen is not serving
up someone’s fresh kill.
Dave and his signifi cant
other, Sonya Kestner, hail from
Hermiston and graduated from
the town’s high school, she
in 1984 and he in 1992. They
bought a cabin near Meacham
in the Blue Mountains in the
summer of 2017 and got to
know Dixie Earle, then owner
of the store and deli. Dave said
he told her the business might
pickup if there were a signs out
on Interstate 84 letting drivers
know about the cafe.
Dixie’s
response,
he
recalled, was to the point: “The
place is for sale.”
Dave and Sonya said they
mulled it over. He worked in
construction for 16 years, a
good job with union pay and
Staff photos by Ben Lonergan
Bacon sizzles on the grill in the kitchen at Oregon Trail Store and Deli in Meacham.
MORE
INFORMATION
You can visit the Oregon
Trail Store & Deli at 64364
Old Oregon Trail Road,
Meacham. For hours of
operation and more infor-
mation, call the business at
541-983-2520 or check it out
on Facebook.
benefi ts. Sonya worked for
about 20 years in food service
for the Hermiston School Dis-
trict, or, as she put it, she was
a “lunch lady.” They made the
move and bought the store and
cafe that fall.
“Neither one of us ever
owned a business,” Sonya said.
“We jumped into this thing
head fi rst.”
“It’s hard work here,” Dave
said, but the hardest part for
him was learning to tame his
mouth. The kind of language
and attitudes that might occur
on a construction job won’t fl y
at the cafe.
“This is a family restau-
rant,” he said.
They run the place seven
days a week with help from a
couple of employees. Sonya
handles all the cooking and
Dave takes on other tasks.
“I’ve been fi red from cook-
ing by lots of customers,” he
joked.
Sonya’s cooking, however,
is no joke. The French toast is
hearty, so take it into consider-
ation when she asks if you want
a half or whole order, particu-
larly if you add a side of four
pieces of Hill Meat Co. bacon.
Tuesday afternoons they
offer a special on tacos, and
weekends tend to be the busi-
est time. Dave and Sonya this
week took a small break for the
Fourth of July. Dave’s son and
his family drove from Indiana
to visit.
The breather comes a cou-
ple weeks before the rumble of
motorcycles fi lls the mountain
air. The business is a stop on
the poker run during Pendleton
Bike Week. Perhaps as many
as 1,000 motorcycle enthusi-
asts stop during the third week
in July.
“There’s motorcycles every-
where,” Dave said. “It’s pretty
cool.”
Owning the cafe and store
also means running Meacham’s
post offi ce, which has about
100 mailboxes. “It’s good for
the community,” Sonya said.
“It’s part of the community.”
She also stressed how much
the locals mean to them.
“They help support us ter-
rifi cally,” she said, especially
in the winter.
Longtime Meacham res-
ident Nancy Nyberg comes
each morning to the cafe for a
cup of tea. She said Dave and
Sonya are doing fi ne work but
would not mind if they had a
little more business. Dave said
he’s looking into how to get
those road signs up.
But he and Sonya are happy
here. They spend time at their
cabin but live onsite, so they
don’t drive much to work. Dave
said he could not think of a bet-
ter place to spend his life than
this rustic community. Sonya
said she came down Tuesday
morning and watched six cow
elk outside the business.
“We’re pretty lucky,” she
said. “Not many people get an
opportunity to live and work in
the mountains.”
LEFT Owner and chef Sonya Kestner pours coff ee for diners at the Oregon Trail Store and Deli. Kestner spent most of her career in food service before quitting to buy the
restaurant and store last year. RIGHT Owner Dave Borup serves a cup of tea to Nancy Nyberg, a regular at the deli, who often comes in for a cup of tea or to check her mail.
The Oregon Trail Store and Deli sits along Old Highway 30 in Meacham. Under new ownership, the store
continues to be a fi xture in the community, serving as not only a restaurant and store, but also the com-
munity post offi ce.