Harbor View Café celebrates 44th season with new chef

Sue Grossardt

Contributor

July 22, 2024

PEPIN – When the Murray siblings – Wendy, Chris and Missy – purchased Harbor View Café (314 First St.) from the original owners in 2021, they said they collectively decided to continue many of the tried-and-true practices of the café, along with its decades-long traditions.

Missy said the seed to one day own the Harbor View Café was planted years ago when she was an employee waiting tables.

“I worked with the previous owner years ago and loved it,” she said. “I always said if I had an opportunity to purchase (the restaurant), I would.”

This notion was coupled with a trip to Seoul, Korea, by both Missy and her brother, Chris, to visit their sister, Wendy, who was on active duty in December 2019 before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Chris asked us, ‘what do you guys think about buying the Harbor View Café?’” Missy said. “Wendy and I had talked about it previously – so, our response was direct, ‘okay.’”

Missy said the original owner, Ruth Stoyke – who had been with the café for 32 years (16 as an employee and 16 as owner) – along with her partners, Steve and Deb Berghs, had a buyer for the café that fell through.

“Ruth reached out to us and said, ‘you probably won’t get another (opportunity) for sale again,’” Missy said.

She said that was enough for her to make some phone calls, one to Seoul and the other to Chicago, asking her siblings if they were ready to be café owners.

“The conversations went something like this: ‘Wendy, are you in?’ And she said, ‘yeah,’” she said. “Then we (got together and) called Chris in Chicago and asked, ‘are you in?’ He said, ‘yeah.’”

Missy said Wendy completed her service in the military, retired after more than two decades and shifted to working full-time for Harbor View Café, which is open from March to November. 

She said she and Chris hold other full-time positions and help at the café part-time. 

Each of the Murray siblings have their talents and work history they said they bring to the business.

Chris said they work well together.

“Missy is a social person,” he said. “Wendy’s previous job in the military serves us well as she oversees the inventory, ordering and maintaining the business. I focus more on the financials, including payroll.” 

The Murray siblings said working with family members is different from working in a corporation, or in Wendy’s case, working in the military – but Missy said it also has many benefits.

“We know each other, both our strengths and weaknesses – which can be a bonus and a challenge, but we’ve found a way to make it work,” she said. “It’s been a learning process. We are in our third full season, so it’s taken a while, but I think we’ve finally gotten there.”

The transition

Missy said the transition to ownership was seamless because they did not have plans for any big, sweeping changes.

“It would be completely ridiculous to go in and make changes,” she said. “We hoped we came in, and we, along with our customers, didn’t even know there (was) a change in ownership. The business was well-established.” 

The Murrays said they have maintained many of the original components of the café, including the selection of books brought on by the book-loving first owners along with the hand-written iconic menu chalkboard, which Chris said is the original.

“Our waitresses are the ones who do the handwritten (menu items) regularly,” he said. “It gets updated every day, and to their credit, we have immaculate handwriters. They get that experience not only with us, but a lot of our waitstaff are teachers.”

With the chalkboard still an active part of the operation, Wendy said customers won’t find menus at the Harbor View Café – except for the kids menu and the wine list. 

What’s new?

Though they maintained many of the traditional aspects of the business, Missy said a new chef has been added to the team.

“In addition to learning our entrees we have established for years and are loved by customers, Head Chef John Flicek is also introducing new items for us – which have been fairly popular,” she said. “John is an established chef from the area. When he came to us, he also had a following of people who liked his food.”

Chris said they have also made some technological updates.

“We’ve made some improvements by going the electronic route and have added a point of sale (POS) system, which has helped our timing for service, as well as the job of the waitstaff as they become even more efficient (when compared to) writing every ticket,” he said.

Chris said it has also allowed for a more robust back-end reporting process.

“Waitresses now do everything on an iPad,” he said. “That was a huge discussion between the three of us. There was a little bit of a learning curve in the beginning, but now I think everyone has gotten the hang of it.” 

Wendy said there are many benefits derived from owning your own business. 

“Retiring from the military after 23 years, and then coming to this, I have found some of the things are the same,” she said. “I love I am free to do whatever I like to do in the wintertime. I can be at home with my family for things I’ve missed throughout the years.”

Local suppliers, sustainability, staff

Missy said they get many of the café’s products from local farmers.

“We go to local farms down the road from us for our lamb,” she said. “We also use a local dairy farm, and we have our own little garden in the back of the restaurant we try to keep going every year. We try to source locally as much as we can, including a wide variety of mushrooms.”

Menu items, Chris said, include a wide range of entrées from pan-fried halibut and lamb burgers to ratatouille and balsamic-braised pork shank.

Missy said the café is also cognisant of maintaining a high level of conservatism when it comes to both waste and frugality.

“The food people don’t eat goes into a compost bucket,” she said. “We have a pig farmer who comes and takes it to his farm for feed, and each week, he brings the buckets back. The bread we make daily that is unused by the end of the night is cut up and repurposed and ground into our lightly breaded fish and chicken.” 

Though the café struggled a bit during and shortly after the COVID-19 pandemic, Missy said retention of staff is not an issue for them.

“We have a waitress who has been here for 30-plus years,” she said. “One of our line cooks has also been here for more than 30 years. Workers start at 14 years old, and they come back year after year through college. Some even return while in their professional lives. It’s a family environment – which is something the original owners established way back.” 

Wendy said as owners, the level of gratitude they have for their team is immeasurable.

“We say this over and over how appreciative we are for everyone on our staff,” she said. “We want to make sure they know that without them, this (running a successful business) isn’t something we can do.”

The Harbor View Café is open 3-8 p.m. Monday, Thursday and Friday and noon to 8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

The café is closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

For more details, visit harborviewpepin.com.