New ideas for old Nebraska
A stroll along North Market Street in the business district of Hillyard in northeast Spokane is hardly an antidote for the blues.
The railroad era that gave the community its name has faded, jobs have disappeared and the economy has stagnated.
Of course, there are still businesses along the street, the obligatory espresso shop for example. But North Market is now an almost one-note commercial district. Most of the storefronts display antiques and/or secondhand goods.
And most of the almost-steady northbound traffic on the one-way street keeps right on going.
In the middle of this, in the old Nebraska Hotel Building, at 5012 N. Market St., you can find Carter Deshler, a woman with ideas and the energy to implement them.
Deshler is the executive trustee of the Nebraska Hotel Historical and Restoration Trust, an investment group. She grew up in Mullan, Idaho, but has lived in Spokane for the past 15 years.
“I like Hillyard,” she says. “It has the feel of a small town.”
Her focus in Hillyard is a two-story building constructed of formed concrete block that was completed almost 100 years ago, in 1907. In its day it served as a boarding house for railroad workers and, perhaps, a brothel.
Ma Barker’s Cafe, which opened in the building last November, is Deshler’s most apparent effort. But there’s more to it than that.
The cafe is open seven days a week, featuring “down home country cooking” with hearty breakfasts guaranteed to “git that body a movin’.”
The extensive menu ranges from those body-movin’ breakfasts to salads to the old favorite, chicken fried steak.
The cafe also offers Family Fun Night on Thursdays, Elvis Tribute Night with Steviemix and karaoke on Fridays, and dinner music by various groups on Saturdays.
And on your way home, you can pick up your Ma Barker T-shirt and an 8-ounce package of the cafe’s special coffee.
The remodeled cafe, which features lacy curtains in the front windows, newly tiled floors, an expanded kitchen and upgraded lighting, occupies just part of the building’s ground floor.
The other half contains the Crystal Chandelier Room. This room is already used for the cafe’s other musical entertainment evenings with various musical groups and pizza nights at the movies on a 120-inch screen.
The room, which will have four chandeliers, is wired for Internet use and is available for business luncheon meetings and banquets.
Now, to the second floor. The Morning Glory Inn, a bed and breakfast, is scheduled to open on June 10, Deshler said. The B&B will have 10 rooms and two suites, all with shared baths and appropriate 1907 decor.
The Morning Glory package will include both dinner and breakfast. And, Deshler adds with a laugh, those who dress in the styles of 1907 will be given a 20-percent discount.
As for the cafe’s name linking it to the notorious Depression-era Midwestern woman, Deshler said, “It just popped into my head.” Despite her actions, Kate “Ma” Barker was a woman who cared for her family and had the initiative to help them when times were hard, she said.
Initiative. That’s a key word here.