The New Year brings some unexpected changes in the Blodgett landscape. The Blodgett Country Café has closed.

On Sunday, Dec. 28, its last day, owner Debbie Scacco served up a special holiday buffet as a send-off to the local restaurant that most of us frequented at one time or another. Many who looked forward to the legendary omelettes on Sunday mornings or burgers at lunch or who enjoyed the weekend dinner specials are extremely disappointed to be losing this favorite gathering place.

Debbie and her husband, Mark Scacco, bought the café in November 2002. They cleaned it up, renamed it the Blodgett Country Cafe and opened for business Jan. 16, 2003, much to the delight of the local community. At first the café was open five days a week, but that soon changed to seven as the popularity of Debbie’s pies and burgers grew. Thanks to the energy of this well-

respected couple, the café was an immediate success.

The Blodgett Country Cafe follows a long line of businesses at that location.

In 1925, when U.S. Highway 20 was still a dirt road, the first commercial venture, a gas station and store, opened on the site. In the late 1930s, owners Roscoe and Leech added sales of Hattie Leech’s homemade ice cream and named the new operation “Coastway.” This popular roadside eatery continued selling its tasty treats until 1954, when the property was sold to Perry and Ruth Downing “for $100, certain cattle and other personal property.”

It wasn’t until 1968, when Loretta and Slick Phillips bought the property, that the idea of a café first materialized. They tore down the old Coastway and built a two-room building on the old foundation and opened the Ranch Café in 1970.

The Phillips ran the Ranch Café for six years before closing it down. After a year of being abandoned, the Ranch was reopened by long-time resident Margaret Cook, who successfully ran the operation for several years before handing it over in 1979 to Patrick (aka Chuck) Hill and Dave Robinson.

Chuck and Dave livened up the décor by digging up memorabilia (most notably the Mobil Pegasus sign) from the building site and hanging it on the walls.

Billy Connor, Ron Ball and Madeleine Lee, in succession, followed Chuck and Dave as proprietors of the Ranch Café until Verlyn Ryan took over in 1988, christened it the Burnt Woods Café and successfully ran the business for more than 10 years.

Running a country café is a tough, time-consuming business, and Verlyn finally gave it up, turning it over to Les Chastain, who operated a short-lived Donut World on the premises.

When Debbie and Mark Scacco bought the property, the café had been closed for more than a year. Debbie initially envisioned a

bakery-type venture where she could sell her homemade pies, jams and jellies. After her burgers and omelettes became popular, the place morphed into a full-time café business.

Like their predecessors, however, the Scaccos found that the restaurant business is fraught with challenges, even if it is popular with the community. Mark gave three main reasons for the closure: First, the recent 45-cents-an-hour increase in the minimum wage along with the fact that Oregon has no “tip wage” law that permits restaurant owners to pay a lower-than-minimum-wage to employees who earn tips. The minimum wage increase is particularly hard on small businesses like the Blodgett Country Café, he said.

The second reason he gave for the café’s closure is the increase in credit card processing fees. The fees take a big bite out of the café’s profits, but the universal usage of credit cards means a business needs to honor them.

And finally, food costs “are going through the roof,” Mark said. He estimated that in order to recoup the losses incurred through rising food costs, credit card processing fees and increased wages, the owners would have to mark their meal prices up 33 percent. He didn’t think such an increase would go over well with many of the customers, particularly those on fixed incomes.

The closing of the Blodgett Country Café is a sad event for most of the local residents who appreciated having a place to congregate and have a good meal without having to drive 30 miles or more. We are grateful to Debbie and Mark for providing us with this opportunity for six years. Hopefully some other energetic and enterprising person(s) will pick up the slack. Mark has announced that the café is for rent and its equipment available for lease.

Nashville resident Kathi Downing can be contacted at ramdown@peak.org or 456-4252.