What is the future of the B-B Cafe?

The B-B Cafe has been slated to close it’s doors on September 1, 2016 as the owner of the restaurant is no longer going to be keeping it open for business.

Only the First National Bank and the Hardware Store are businesses in McIntosh that are older than the B-B Cafe. The Cafe was opened in 1932 by Art Berg and Caryl Bovee. Both young men, had a vision and courage during the bleak days of the depression and shared a common interest in cooking and serving food. With $70 in their hands, they set forth and purchased the cafe, naming it B-B. 

Over the next 80 plus years, the cafe has changed hands and made it’s way to the current owner who is struggling to keep its doors open. 

The Cafe owner has asked the City of McIntosh to take over and run the restaurant. so that the doors won’t close on another McIntosh Main Street business. 

The City currently holds the debt for the business in the sum of roughly $42,000, and the loan would be defaulted on if the cafe should close it’s doors.

The City Council of McIntosh is having a Public Meeting on Monday, August 29, 2016 at 7:00 pm to discuss the future of the cafe and the City’s involement in its future.

As small towns keep losing their small businesses to larger companies in bigger cities, there is a need to address what happens as our City’s Main Street businesses shut down one after the other. 

The move to shopping local, supporting your neighbor, is sometimes ruled out by simple economics. In the ever increasing competitive business world, what are small towns to do?

A staple of most small town Main Streets is indeed the local cafe. A small restaurant has a difficult time keeping the doors open for the coffee drinkers and a periodic lunch crowd. As The Depot in Winger struggled to keep the doors of the restaurant open, the owners of that restaurant found that there was not enough business in a small town atmosphere to support a family run cafe.

There are options available, including the simple truth that the doors may just close.

Please help by coming to the Public Meeting that will be held at the McIntosh Community Center on August 29, 2016 at 7:00 pm to discuss this issue with the City Council.