After 29 years a historic landmark has closed its doors.

New and old Cochranites flooded Cochrane Cafe once news spilled out that the restaurant was shutting down.

For Joe and Sue Stienstra who took over Charlie's Cafe in their early 20s, it has been an emotional time.

The two chatted reminiscing about earlier years; watergun fights in the cafe, Christmas parties, and some wilder times. For these two you can tell it has been quite a ride.

The Stienstra's were not expecting such a rush of restaurant goers and more than once in the past couple weeks had to close down early.

"We didn't expect that amount of craziness, it was probably good it was busy we didn't have much time to think about it. All the last week we had to close down around 4 o'clock, we took the phone off the hook; no one was grouchy, everybody was really happy in here."

Everything in the cafe was made fresh to order each day, minus a few menu items. For the trio, including Joe's wife Karen, one of them was always there.

"We never left the place without one of us being here, there was always one of us here. Always."

Long hours, the upcoming minimum wage increase, high rents, and multiple new restaurants coming to Cochrane influenced the Stienstra's final decision.

"I think we couldn't have picked a better time, groceries are through the roof, four or five new restaurants are opening in January so I've heard, and we're getting old."

With increased costs the Stienstra's say they were just covering the bills, but with no extra funds to repair things, some hard decisions had to be made.

"There's no money to repair things, things are breaking down, and you are kind of band aiding them together. The building needs to be renovated, scrape the floors, the mechanical's got to be gone over, there is so much work here. Okay, so you borrow $300,000- $400,000 and you keep it going as restaurant it would take 20-25 years to pay it back."

For the Stienstra's the final nail was trying to figure out the increase in minimum wage which will eventually hit $15/hr come 2018.

"We figured it out, it was another $800 -$900 a month, then with the CPP and UI and all that other stuff, that just did it. They could have done it better."

For now the Stienstra's will fondly remember their regular customers near and far, patrons from Morley and Tsuut'ina Nation, and almost 29 years of good food, laughs, and memories as they take time to figure out their next step.

 

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