A6
BUSINESS
Wallowa County Chieftain
Wednesday, September 22, 2021
Old Town Café is ‘turning a page’
OLD TOWN CAFÉ
BIZZ
BUZZ
WHERE: 8 S. Main St., Joseph.
WHO: Jacob and Olivia Losby.
PHONE: 541-432-9898.
By Bill Bradshaw
EMAIL: oldtowncafejoseph@gmail.com.
JOSEPH — A longtime
presence on Joseph’s Main
Street is “turning a page”
Oct. 3, as that day, own-
ers Jacob and Olivia Losby
close the Old Town Café for
the last time.
The Losbys sold the busi-
ness in April after operating
it for eight years.
“A lot of people are sad
to see it go, but it’s a time
for us to turn the page in our
lives,” Jacob said. “Ideally,
it would’ve gone to some-
body who was going to con-
tinue it. We’re the third or
fourth owners of this busi-
ness as it is. Ideally some-
body like us would’ve come
along to continue it, but we
had it on the market for over
a year and somebody came
along and it was the right
opportunity for us, so we
had to go with it. It’s sad to
see it go, but it’s also excit-
ing to see what it’s going to
become.”
He said he understands
the new owners plan to
continue it as “some-
thing with food,” and it’ll
reopen sometime next
year, but he’s unsure of the
particulars.
Jacob said he and Olivia
are just ready to move on.
Just in their 30s, the couple
is far from ready to retire.
“We’re sticking around
here,” Jacob said. “We’ve
got a lot of diff erent projects
we’re involved in. We’re not
HOURS: 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.; closed Wednesday.
previous owner (Tammie
Couch),” Jacob said. “That’s
kind of how we got into this
position.”
Olivia’s familiarity with
the café was instrumental in
their success.
“Olivia had a pretty good
understanding of what this
place was about,” Jacob
said. “We wanted to elevate
it even further.”
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa County Chieftain
Olivia and Jacob Losby stand in front of the entry to the outdoor seating area of the Old Town
Cafe in Joseph on Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2021. The couple is closing the business Oct. 3 after
having owned and operated it for eight years.
entirely sure. We’re going
to take the fall and decide
what’s next.”
Olivia agreed, saying it is
just time for a change.
“It wasn’t our lack of
success,” she said. “We
were looking for something
diff erent.”
Started young
Jacob said that when they
took over the café, they both
were 22 and had goals for
the restaurant.
“We set up a bunch of
goals and we accomplished
them,” he said.
Those goals included
upgrading the outside seat-
ing, updating the infra-
structure and getting a
foundation under the entire
building, he said.
Olivia said they made a
few changes to the menu,
but mostly just improved on
what it had been.
“Yeah, I don’t think we
took much out,” she said.
“I don’t think the breakfast
menu has changed at all,
we’ve just changed things to
make things a bit more effi -
cient in the kitchen or things
that weren’t made in-house
before are now. We make all
the crepes, biscuits, French
bread.”
Jacob said they now
make “a lot of the stuff that
used to be bought.”
“We make all of our
soups and we expanded the
lunch menu quite a bit just
because of the lunch crowd
in the winter,” Olivia added.
“We needed to fi nd a way to
make a good place to go for
locals as well as for folks
from out of town. We tried
to expand the lunch menu.”
The café has regularly
employed about a dozen
people during the tourist
season, with two or three
staying on during the winter
months.
“We’ve had a lot of really
good employees over the
years and a lot of seasonal
employees coming back,”
Jacob said.
In fact, they got into the
café as employees.
“Olivia had worked
here in high school. It was
her fi rst job and she had a
good relationship with the
Feeding many
Catering primarily to
breakfast and lunch cus-
tomers, the small café
seats 35-40 people at a
time, including the three
inside tables and the garden
outside.
“Because of COVID,
we’re still doing counter
service so we had to change
the inside seating a little bit,
so there’s only three tables
in there right now instead
of seven,” Olivia said. “Out
here (in the garden) it’s
pretty much the same as it
has been in the past.”
“At our peak in 2018, we
were open all but four days
that year, but we’ve defi -
nitely pared back, both for
our sanity and just because
of COVID regulations,”
Jacob said. “We can churn
a lot of people through this
small space. I don’t know
how we do it.”
& Skylight
Gallery
But now it’s time to move
on.
“It’s time for some-
thing else — a new chap-
ter,” Jacob said. “It’s time to
evaluate what we want to do
next, and we’ve got plenty
of stuff to do.”
“We’ve appreciated our
customers and their sup-
port throughout the years …
because we truly couldn’t
have made it this far without
them,” Olivia said. “We’ve
met a lot of awesome peo-
ple who made our time at
the café really meaningful.
This was an incredibly diffi -
cult decision for us, and we
spent a lot of time discuss-
ing it with each other and
family and friends before we
accepted the off er.”
As for the future, the Los-
bys may not be done.
“We also wanted to add,
there may be a recipe book
in the works for some favor-
ite soups and sweets that
we’ve made at the café,”
Olivia said, adding that
people can follow them on
social media for details in
coming months.
———
Bill Bradshaw is a
reporter for the Wallowa
County Chieftain. Have a
business tip? Contact him
at 541-398-5503 or bbrad-
shaw@wallowa.com.
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CLUES ACROSS
1. Testy response to “What
a fun puzzle!”
5. Sixth sense, for short
8. *Juice pouch brand
13. Boy, in Bolivia
14. Sound of relaxation
15. “How curious ...”
17. Hypothetical situation
19. Short trailer
20. Thing to discuss
21. Fade (out)
23. For example
24. Tiny queen’s subject
25. Got a bit closer
28. Fanny
29. Embarrassing misstep
33. Venue for a facial
35. “White” or “Red” follower
36. “Wow, that’s neat!”
37. *What casts short shadows
39. *Some lie on top of
blankets
40. Laptop part used for
shortcuts
41. Jardin ___ Tuileries
(Paris park)
42. Catan resource
43. Inauthentic person
44. Quinoa and teff
46. Scatter
48. Early programmer
Lovelace
51. Unrefined
54. Secret supply
55. Goods
57. Estevez in “Repo Man”
59. Beach trip essential, or
any of three squares in this
grid that affects the starred
clues’ answers?
61. Be overly fond of
62. It might need a massage
after getting bruised
63. Muslim prayer leader
64. *Vitamin D source
65. ID on an IRS form
66. “Rent” actor Diggs
CLUES DOWN
1. App that has stories, for
short
Joseph United
Methodist Church
Grace Lutheran
Church
3rd & Lake St. • Joseph
409 West Main - Enterprise
10 AM Worship
Online AND In Person
SUNDAY
WORSHIP
For More Info
541-432-3102
JosephUMC.ORG
at 9am
Pastor Cherie Dearth
Pastor John B. King Jr
phone (message): 541-426-4633
web: gracelutheranenterprise.com
Enterprise
Christian Church
St.
St. Patrick’s
Patrick’s
Episcopal
Episcopal Church
Church
85035 Joseph Hwy • (541) 426-3449
We have ‘In-person worship” @ 9:00 am
(Guidelines observed)
Sunday School at 10:30
Parking Lot Radio/Facebook @ 9:00
100 NE 3rd St, Enterprise
NE 3rd & Main St
541-426-3439
Worship Service
Sunday 9:30am
David Bruce
Pastor, Enterprise Christian Church
Lostine
Presbyterian Church
Summit Church
Discussion Group 9:30 AM
Worship Service 11:00 AM
at the Cloverleaf Hall in Enterprise
Childrens program during service
Blog: dancingforth.blogspot.com
2. Send after, as an attack dog
3. Clumsy
4. “Beloved” author Morrison
5. Musician’s asset
6. Cry directed at a boat
7. *Arizona NBA player
8. Referenced
9. Had a healthy diet
10. TV ad for a good cause
11. “Dress for Less” sloganeer
12. Lightbulb, in comics
16. *Partner of “various”
18. Grp. co-founded by Helen Keller
22. Casual top
26. Writing assignment
27. Chips that may be loaded
28. Bombed
30. Author Jonathan Safran ___
31. Golfer’s heads-up
32. Chi-Town trains
33. Guitarist’s opportunity to impress
34. Plants’ places, perhaps
36. Desert haven
37. Go out early?
38. Mockery
39. Big embraces
41. *Summer shifts?
44. College app stat
45. Novice, in gamer lingo
47. Word after “rolling” or “stepping”
48. Candy store’s smell, e.g.
49. Radioactive process
50. “I’m an open book!”
51. *Feature of the Krypton skyline
52. “Famous” cookie man
53. Currently dating
56. Landed
58. Hawaiian graduation gift
60. Prefix for “smoking”
107 E. Main • Enterprise • 541-426-3351
www.bookloftoregon.com
Sundays at 10 am
Pastor: David Pendleton
541.398.0597
Hwy 82, Lostine
www.summitchurchoregon.org
Stephen Kliewer, Minister
Cloverleaf Hall • 668 NW 1st St. • Enterprise, OR 97828
Wallowa
Assembly
of God
702 West Hwy 82
Wallowa, Oregon
541-886-8445
Sunday School • 9:am
Worship Service • 10:am
Pastor Tim Barton
Visit Us on
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Church
Pastor Terry Tollefson
Church Office: 541-263-0505
Family Prayer - 9 AM
Sunday School - 9:30 AM
Worship - 10:30 AM
723 College Street, Lostine
Seventh-Day Adventist
Church & School
Enterprise Community
Congregational Church
305 Wagner (near the Cemetery)
P.O. Box N. Enterprise, OR 97828
Church 541-426-3751
School 541-426-8339
Pastor David Ballard 503-810-9886
Join us at the
BIG BROWN CHURCH
Worship Hour
10:30 a.m. - Noon
Sunday Worship 11:00 am
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301 NE First St. • Enterprise, OR
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