TOWER- The place was buzzing as Jen and Bob McDonough officially opened the doors to their next adventure, owning and operating the Tower Café, a longtime mainstay on Main Street that has been closed since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic nearly four years ago.
Excitement in the community had been building for weeks and there wasn’t an empty table in the house on their opening weekend this past Saturday and Sunday. Plates piled high with pancakes, French toast, eggs, and more were coming out of the kitchen two at a time to satisfy hungry diners.
Bob was cooking pancakes and French toast on the griddle, and Jen was overseeing the dining room and manning the cash register. Thirteen-year-old Remy, the youngest of the new owners’ four sons, was waiting tables like a pro. Jen’s mother, 84-year old Marge Moser, was bussing dishes and resetting tables as they turned over. Son Rob, a recent graduate from VCC who is now working full-time for the DNR, was watching the cinnamon rolls bake in the convection oven, waiting to frost them with a big dab of icing.
The smell of the rolls, smoky bacon, and sweet syrup mingled alongside the conversation. Folks stopping in before and after church on Sunday, friends meeting up, families stopping by, and of course, the old regulars who had missed their favorite breakfast spot after the untimely death of the former business owner, due to complications from COVID.
But now the neon “open” sign was shining bright in the front window, and the community of Tower-Soudan was more than ready to have “its” café back in business.
“I haven’t had French toast in ages,” said Robin Majerle, as her granddaughter Cecilia was busy trying to finish up her kids’ portion of pancakes.
“I got full before I finished them,” said Cecilia, “but my dad finished them!”
Robin’s late husband Sheldon was a café regular, stopping by for coffee on a regular basis. The café’s regulars each had their own coffee cups, and those cups are still displayed on the wall. Growing up on Tower’s Main Street, Robin has fond memories of the café, but said she was often working at her family’s business the next block over, the Tower Bakery, so didn’t spend as much time there as she would have wanted.
The Majerles were sharing the café’s long table, often reserved for the coffee regulars, with other locals in town, some who were back on Sunday after eating breakfast at the café on Saturday.
Marge said the opening day on Saturday was “incredible.” And while the rather early wake-up call is something she will need to get used to, she said it’s something she had been accustomed to in her earlier days, when her children had paper routes.
She was especially proud of grandson Remy.
“You’d think he’s done this for years,” she said. Remy, on the other hand, was excited about the tips he was receiving, over $100 on the first day, but he added he was sharing them with the crew in the kitchen.
Dianna and Terry Sunsdahl were the first customers on Saturday morning, coming in shortly after the café opened at 6 a.m.
“We woo-hoo’ed,” said Jen, who said they thought the overnight snow would be slowing people down.
“Between eight and nine we filled up,” she said.
The opening weekend certainly fulfilled the family’s major goal of connecting the community.
Customers ranged from young to old, with even some teenagers and early-20-somethings coming in with friends.
“We tried to have a touchpoint with everyone who came in,” she said. “Everyone had hot coffee right away.”
“We were overwhelmed with how many people were happy,” Jen said. “The amount of energy, enthusiasm, and excitement. People were giggling and snapping pictures. There were so many people.”
Jen said they’ve been amazed at how welcoming the community has been, since they only recently moved to the area.
“We want to respect the history of the café,” she said. “This is a place where people feel welcome.” The café’s new Facebook page now shares photos from relatives of the Joe and Margaret Mesojedec family, who opened the café back in 1950.
Jen said people, even strangers who ended up sitting at the same tables, were connecting, chatting and telling stories.
“They weren’t just enjoying their meals,” she said. “The fact they enjoyed the environment and each other made us so happy.”
Family business
“Doing this as a family is very special,” she said. “With our three generations, it’s over the top!”
The family is working with some mentors and coaches.
“You don’t know what you don’t know,” Jen said. “We are learning.”
Jen, who works as a coach and consultant herself, understands the importance of finding people who do things better.
After each day wound down, the family and their new staff, including chef Chris Glazer and wait staff Kathy Vraa, talked about what went wrong, what they could improve, and what their favorite part of the morning had been.
Bob said he felt good, though tired, after his first weekend in the kitchen. He said cooking for a family of seven is kind of like cooking in a restaurant, but it certainly is different.
Bob is receiving on-the-job training in the kitchen from Chris Glazer. Glazer, who is the chef and a teacher at Vermilion Country School, has years of experience in restaurants, including fine dining. He said learning to do short-order cooking is harder than it seems, with the need to oversee orders cooking all at once, so they are working on putting systems in place to ensure the kitchen is running smoothly.
Glazer helped the McDonough’s finalize their menus, and he is looking forward to adding weekly specials and testing out new items. Glazer teaches culinary arts as well as social studies at VCS, and enjoys cooking foods from around the world, adding new flavors, and assembling meals that are “eye-catching.”
The couple held several practice openings, inviting café regulars as well as area firefighters and emergency workers for free breakfasts in December. Jen is a member of the Vermilion Lake Fire Department. The café even opened for a church service and breakfast for St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church on New Year’s Eve morning.
The current menu features all the classics: a variety of eggs, hashbrown patties, smoked bacon, sausage, pancakes, and French toast plates. The breakfast sandwiches, one on an English muffin, the other a tortilla wrap, are already proving popular. Pancake varieties include blueberry and chocolate chip. For those in the mood for pastries, be sure to get there early because the fresh-baked cinnamon rolls sold out both days. The breakfast portions are quite generous. And those with smaller appetites can choose eggs and toast, or order off the sides menu. The children’s menu includes plain or chocolate chip pancakes.
The McDonough’s purchased the business last July, and the couple quickly began the long process of reopening the business: cleaning and sorting through all the kitchen equipment left in the building, getting the stove and ventilation up-do-date, installing safety systems, getting new coffee and pop machines, making sure they had all the needed permits and inspections, updating the heating system, and doing some serious deep cleaning. The upstairs of the building contains eight rooms, including a small apartment, and they plan to have four rooms for available short-term rentals in the future.
The Tower Café will be open Saturdays and Sundays from 6 – 11 a.m., and is hoping to expand winter hours to include Fridays in the future. Jen and Bob are both working pretty much full-time on weekdays at the moment.