Memories Café by Greta Rybus
Memories Café is the only café in a “one-café town”. It is known in Corvallis, Montana as the only place for strong coffee, a hearty breakfast, and good stories.
Owner Carla Reich guesses that she serves over one hundred customers per day. According to US Census, Corvallis has a population of about 450 people. This makes Memories a café of locals.
“They are all kind of regulars,” she said.
The café is aptly named, because it is perhaps most infamous for the memories and stories its customers share.
Bob Smyth, 83, has gathered a small following as the local historian. He comes to the café daily, if not twice a day. Many people know his name. If they ask, he will tell them stories about being raised in the Bitterroot Valley.
Around the café are old black-and-white photographs, some are framed and some are makeshift wallpaper.
“Here,” said Smyth, pointing to a photo of the blacksmith shop by his childhood home. “I learned my first bad words watching them shoe an ornery horse!”
He talks nostalgically of how things were when his family raised sugar beets and how things have changed in Corvallis. But as he speaks, a waitress makes him laugh, and others stop by to listen or say hello. It is clear that Bob Smyth has found a community in a café.
“I like working here”, waitress Lori Magliulo said. “I work seven days a week. It’s more like a little family.”
To support her work family, she bought all the regulars personal mugs for Christmas last year. She selected each mug to match their personality and their humor. The mugs hang on hooks below the kitchen’s counter. This year, Magliulo decorated frames and plans to give the group photographs of the regulars.
Dave Camper, “The Egg Man,” comes to Memories often. He is known for bringing eggs from Montana’s Hutterite Colonies. But, he is most proud of is his Kwik Kurb business, and he made the curving curb around the Memories Café lawn.
Neil Howard comes usually comes into the café twice a day. He says he usually comes alone and will then meet a friend. One day, he caught up with Bob Beneke and James Hollander. They swapped swap rambunctious stories about hard work, truck driving, and wild women. They laughed, hard.
“When I was 15 or 16, I came through on a bus, and Corvallis was filled with cute girls. It still is!” said Howard.
There is a table where some of the regulars tend to sit. It is long enough to accommodate lots of diners and conversationalists. A copy of the newspaper and a pair of community reading glasses never leave the table.
The feeling of community in the café may be in the building’s history. According to owner Carla Reich, Memories was once a community hall, bookshop, flower shop, and a church. It has been a café for about 10 years.
In a town where the only other dining establishment is the gas station deli, it could be easy to say that Memories Café customers come for the food. It is undeniable that beefy hamburgers, large plates of bacon and eggs, and Maligliulo’s baked apples keep customers coming. But, the real reason they come to eat and to chat is all in the name: the memories.