The Old Boys Club- a funny entrepreneur story

Once upon a time in a far off land… Ok, more like a in a little town nobody has ever heard of..

We (the ex) owned a little café.   We wound up with this place sight unseen on a handshake with a stranger. That in its self is a whole nother story. (A pretty dang funny one at that! )

TOASTIES CAFE

We won the BEST BUSINESS award for Washington County. I almost wasn’t ALLOWED to accept it.

This little café was smack in the center of town. A tiny town. 96 people. A town where time stood still. Literally.  The home of the ‘old boys club’. A staunch old school German community.  130 miles from Denver and another 60 or so to St. Francis, KS.                                                ~If you wanted food, you were getting it here. ~

  

We worked our rumps off to make this place a success. We had regular customers that would drive 50 miles just for our fried chicken! We tons of truck traffic and catered far and wide. Tony had been a well known chef in Denver before we made the move.  I worked extra hours so we’d have the money to employ the teenagers an moms that came looking for work.  We had a wonderful friend, also an award-winning chef from California come join us, as well as the Mom-in-law.

In our neck of the woods, there were many organizations one could join. However… MEN were the end all-be all of the area. If a woman showed up for say, an economic development meeting, it was “Understood” that it was by Proxy as a stand in for her husband. And that everything would be rehashed with HIM the following morning over coffee.

We were awarded Best Business of the Year by Washington County. This was  for our efforts to attract business and for being the main employer after the rural school. (The elevator had shut down)

Hubby couldn’t make it. He had to mind the café. So I asked my friend Shannon Lewellen to come with me to the dinner to accept the award.  Shannon was also the photographer for the Akron Newspaper.

So, we dress up. And we go. Dinner was good. The company was interesting. I think many of them were a little uncomfortable. It was mostly men, all patting themselves on the back.

They announce the award. I stand up. Shannon is clapping wildly. And…… SILENCE. Utter and complete silence.  The very nice fellow looks around asks when is your Husband going to get here?  I said that he was unable to attend. And he said that if They Had Known , they would have waited until another date.

I popped a cork. And let the Old Boys Club know in no uncertain terms what I thought about that.

I got the award.

Just goes to show… sometimes you have to blaze new trails!

Katy