The following "Northshore Citizen" column appears in the Bothell/Kenmore Reporter newspaper edition of August 4, 2004.

It can be done...

Employees as family at the Maltby Cafe

I’ve wanted to write about the 15^th anniversary of the gang at the Maltby Café for more than a year now. It is truly a remarkable story of how hard work, attention to detail and providing a work atmosphere for “employees as family friends” continues to make the Maltby Café one of the worst kept secrets of success in this area. Have you experienced those long weekend wait for a table lately?

On the 16^th anniversary in June this year, one of the three co-owners, Tana Baumler, commented that of the more than 70 employees of the semi-underground restaurant a total of 15 have been with the café from the start. Tana, Sandra Albright and Barb Peter wandered into the then tavern-restaurant one Sunday afternoon following a soccer game and decided after a brew or two that they could do much better than the absentee operators.

These were true soccer moms – players in their own right. The three were members of a women’s team that played regularly at the nearby Maltby school field and dropped by the café after games to commiserate or celebrate. The restaurant was up for sale. Each “mom” agreed she could bring a specialty to the ownership if they gave it a try.

Tana loved to cook and had a drawer full of recipes. Sandra had a background in hospitality in the hotel restaurant business. Barb had the business and accounting skills to add through her employment in the business office of Northshore School District.

Gourmet and travel magazines today list the Maltby Café as a must-try experience in the Puget Sound region. The Maltby serves breakfast and lunch seven days a week from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. It has become a very popular spot to take visiting relatives. It has its regulars, too, including long-time resident Ron Nardone, who considers himself the mayor of unincorporated Maltby. He holds office hours there over a cup of coffee almost daily. (He’s also the landlord).

Perhaps the most remarkable achievement, however, harkening back to the “employees as family” management concept – the chief dish and bottle washer today was the same chief dish and bottle washer the very first day the soccer moms took over.

“He just loves his job,” Tana smiled.

I first met Tana and her colleagues when we staged a wacky St. Patrick’s Day breakfast and parade at the Maltby a number of years ago. There was a lot of homespun excitement in anticipation of the event. Tana let daughter Tessa go in late for grade school classes that morning and she showed up with green clovers painted on her pink cheeks and was allowed to serve eye-opening drinks called “Grace-hoppers” to all those attending. Time flies. This weekend Tessa adds to the Maltby Café family when she exchanges wedding vows, then will return to the University of Washington in the fall to begin the upper division years in the university’s business program.

Moving on

It was encouraging to learn last week that a church in Woodinville was strongly considering becoming the next host for Tent City 4 when it pulls up stakes in Bothell later this month. We trust the city of Woodinville and residents nearby the proposed Northshore United Church of Christ site will be able to take a more reasoned and deliberate approach to establishing conditions for use and work to allay the fears of neighbors who would prefer to help the homeless in ways other than having them near their backyard. As the church pastor noted after early discussions among members of his congregation, it’s a matter of “walking our talk.”

This move would provide a home for about 80 members of Tent City until close to Thanksgiving; how appropriate.

Writers cramp

As executive trustee and secretary of the Northshore Scholarship Foundation, I have spent the last week preparing 80 checks to be sent this week to recipients of scholarships offered this year through the Foundation on its 20^th anniversary.

What has been most intriguing about this assignment is to see the wide spectrum of intended fields of study and the colleges and schools our Northshore district graduates have selected for the fall quarter of 2004. Students will be matriculating from Azusa Pacific in California…to Brown University in Rhode Island. They’ll be seeking careers from medicine to motorcycle mechanics…from graphic design and multi media to magazine journalism…and from teaching to nursing.

They are a confident bunch. Iliana will pursue a career in environmental science. Leah stated firmly she plans to be a television new anchorperson. Another will become a foreign diplomat. A student with a doctorate in neuroscience is shifting gears to become an elementary school teacher. Patrick wants to become a firefighter, Jenna will study to become an aerospace engineer, Carl is headed for the San Francisco Conservatory of Music and Josh wants to learn welding on his way to a degree in mechanical engineering. Dana will take theater arts in hopes of following in the footsteps of the late Woodinville actor Peg Phillips.

It appears none of these 80 graduates can be considered among those students in danger of being “left behind.”

(The winners are featured on the website – www.ns-scholarship.org).

The
Northshore
Citizen
newspaper would have been
100 years old in 2003
Over the years
it covered events in Bothell,
Kenmore and Woodinville

The weekly
Citizen
gave way in January 2002
to the
Bothell/Kenmore
Reporter,
now mailed twice monthly free to homes
in both communities

with the late Peg Phillips

John B. Hughes
was editor and
publisher of the
Citizen Newspapers from
1961-1988
and now writes
a column for the
Reporter under
the title of
Northshore
Citizen

Hughes serves
as grand marshal
under the name of
Hugo B. Jonsen
of Grace and is in
charge of the town's parades, special events
and celebrations.
For some odd reason, most of the town's planned events have been cancelled of late.

Hugo and
Mayor-for-Life Terry Jarvis
co-publish
The Greater Grace
Daily OnLine
Gazette
from new offices in
Grace Town Hall
P.O. Box 967
Grace, Wa 98072

(425) 482-4076