Thursday, March 29, 2007

Hello, This Is Bonnie from Connie’s

Love Notes

by Marianne Love

for The River Journal

March, 2007

If LaQuinta Inn manager Bonnie Eng has her way, Connie’s Cafe will reopen as soon as possible.

“I’m doing everything within my power to get Connie’s reopened,” Bonnie told me last week. “I’m even trying to do things not within my power.” Knowing the restaurant’s unofficial guardian angel who, like Connie’s, is a bona fide Sandpoint treasure herself, I can tell you that if Bonnie has set her mind to see that it happens, Connie’s will reopen. The only question is when.

The well-known Sandpoint restaurant at the corner of Fourth and Cedar closed a couple of months ago when its lease with Sand-Ida Service, Inc. expired. For decades, Connies, named for former owner Conrad “Connie” Balch, served as a popular eatery/coffee shop and informal meeting place for Sandpoint locals and visitors. In fact, in response to a blog entry I wrote for my Slightdetour blog about the restaurant shortly after it closed, one reader summed up Connie’s community importance.

“I used to say if you wanted to know how a school levy or some other issue on the ballot was going,” the writer stated, “go into Sandpoint, eat breakfast at Connies, stop in for afternoon coffee, mind your business and listen to the conversations around you.”

Recently, Bonne told me that the publicized suggestion that Connie’s was shutting down forever is incorrect. Since before the closure, she has been hunting for someone to take over the lease. During this search, Hospitality Associates, which now owns the restaurant/lounge/motel complex, has done extensive work to spruce up and repair basic infrastructure, including kitchen equipment.

“We have been cleaning and cleaning and cleaning,” she says. “We had all the old wall paper taken down, textured and painted. We ripped up all the old carpet and replaced it. I had some slate installed in both entry ways as well as the entry into the public bathrooms. It looks very nice. Bill [Bowman] would approve.

“When I am alone at the cafe, at times I truly can feel Bill’s presence,” Bonnie says. “He’s making sure I do it right. Quality control from beyond.”

Lured to her present position nearly 30 years ago when the late Bill and Lorraine Bowman decided to expand their business to include both the restaurant and a new motel, Bonnie has both sentimental and professional reasons to see Connie’s re-open.

First of all, the telephone keeps ringing. People keep appearing at the door. She says folks in the community don’t believe everything they read in the papers. They know it will reopen. Besides its obvious employment value, the cafe provides an important complement to LaQuinta.

“Connie’s Cafe handles all the room service for LaQuinta Inn, and we value that amenity greatly for our guests,” Bonnie explains. “Our guests want the cafe open, and they want it open as soon as possible. That is one thing we all agree on.”

A Sandpoint native, Bonnie is no stranger to the restaurant business, especially on Cedar Street. Her childhood was spent working and playing in her family’s Chinese restaurant, Lee’s Cafe, just down the street. She peeled French fries and filled buttercups. She also sold cigarettes before she could read by memorizing the packages and who smoked which brands. On Saturday’s the banquet room at Lee’s (now Sullivan Homes Sandpoint office) turned into a bedroom for Bonnie and her three siblings.

“The cafe stayed open for the bar crowd, and all four of us kids spent every Saturday night sleeping [there] on rollaways and cots,” she recalls. “”We had all our games and toys and TV back there . . . Occasionally a drunk would wander back looking for the bathroom. My mother always headed them off at the pass. . . .”

Birthday parties on Sundays when the restaurant was closed remain another special memory.

“I’d invite many friends and Mom would fire up the grill and cook hamburgers and fries for all the kids,” Bonnie recalls. “We had the cafe to ourselves. How fun would that be now. It was just a way of life back then.”

Prior to her professional involvement with Connie’s, Bonnie, now a mom and grandma, worked for a local bank and Safeco Title Co. Bill Bowman asked her to come to work in 1980 to manage the motel.

“The motel and office was still under construction so I worked out of a guest room (125),” she recalls. “My first job was to create a system for reservations . . . he handed me a shoebox full of napkins and scratches of paper. My job was to decipher it all and get it down in some sort of book or file.”

From there, Bonnie learned all aspects of the business through mentorship from Bill and Lorraine, whom she greatly admired. Once, they even sent her to the North Shore (now The Coeur d’Alene Resort) for a week to shadow their front-office manager and learn everything she could. She also participated in all aspects of the restaurant/motel business, always paying close attention to Bill’s principles.

“I learned Bill’s motto in the restaurant and lounge,” Bonnie says. “‘If you can lean, you can clean.’ I heard his commitment to customer service and quality food. I love Connie’s Cafe and Lounge. It’s been around my entire life.

“Connie’s Cafe is owned by the company I work for, but Connie’s Cafe really belongs to the community,” she adds. “It’s very much a part of Sandpoint’s past, and it is important that it remain a part of the community.”

With that passionate spirit in mind, Bonnie Eng continues to work diligently at getting those doors open again soon, so that she can once again answer the phone with “Hello, this is Bonnie at Connie’s.”

When that happens, a portion of Sandpoint’s soul will once again be restored. And, that is a good thing.

Note from Bonnie, regarding the sign: The Connie’s Cafe sign is still up because Bill and Lorraine Bowman could not afford to buy a new sign when they purchased the cafe in 1972 from Connie and Donna Balch. Later there was no way they would ever change it; it was a true landmark. A few years ago we filed the papers to register the sign as an historic sign. Prior to Connie’s Cafe it was “Fred’s Diner,” and prior to that, a gas station.

Finally: For up-to-the hour news on the reopening of Connie's, keep checking www.slightdetour.blogspot.com. When Bonnie has some news, she'll share it with slightdetour readers and (www.riverjournal.com) first.

3 comments:

Word Tosser said...

When that announcement is made that the doors will open and when.. Look out... the crowd will be there for 2 hours ahead... to be the first one in... It will be standing room only for the first day.

Anonymous said...

Great update, Marianne!! By the way, do you have the dirt (pun intended) about the new nursery that says "open soon" on HWY 95 in the big red barn just north of Ponderay? I'm very curious- it's a great location for all of us who live North of Sandpoint. Thanks! -Betsy

MLove said...

I'll do my assignment, Betsy. Give me a day or two, or maybe someone in the "know" will write in and report.