Logan Steps Up to the Mic

 Every Thursday night there is a line spilling out the door at the Pizza Pie Café. Music blares whenever the door is opened, and lasers can be seen flashing around the walls inside.

 It’s karaoke night at the Pizza Pie Café.

 Students flock here by the hundreds, bringing along dates, family or their roommates to indulge in all-you-can-eat pizza and the spectacle of seeing their classmates in the limelight—if only for a few minutes.

 However, this will be students’ last chance to sing before fall—the karaoke nights won’t be featured over the summer.

 “We are closing down for the summer,” said DJ Brady McDonald. “We will be coming back in the fall, but we are expecting most the kids won’t be here during the summer.”

 The night was spearheaded by McDonald, who started karaoke nights at the Pizza Pie Café in his hometown of Provo.

 “We started down in Provo, and they wanted it up here because it’s a college town too,” McDonald said. “We average about 300 kids down there. Because of the size of this location, we average about 400 kids here.”

 For the last three months, McDonald has watched the night become a local phenomenon. As the owner of Rock the Mic Entertainment, McDonald has a lot of experience hosting karaoke nights around Provo and Salt Lake City.

 But few places have taken off like the karaoke nights in Logan.

 “We do karaoke all over the state,” McDonald said. “This one is by far one of the most successful ones, and the five dollar buffet really helps too.”

 Students spread the word quickly, often bringing along friends who have never been. Katelyn Wallace, a student at Utah State University, brought several friends for their first karaoke experience.

 “I’ve only been once before. It is fun and they’ve never been,” Wallace said. “I don’t sing though—I just don’t.”

 Prizes are offered for those brave enough to pick up the microphone. They include gift cards, free products and a free helicopter ride.

 Despite the allure of prizes, Tony Brown, a student at USU, knows the moment has to be just right before he will sing in front of the sizable crowd gathered inside the restaurant.

 “I might go up and sing,” Brown said. “Inspiration will come, and that’s when I’ll sing.”

Small businesses are a personal touch in Logan

  In 2009, Texas Roadhouse came to Logan, joining Olive Garden and Chili’s as the premier chain restaurants in the valley.

 As a college town, there is no shortage of eateries in Logan. Fast food chains such as Burger King and Wendy’s dot Main Street. Chains such as Ihop and Café Rio catch the eye as hungry students look for recognizable signs of their favorite restaurants.

 Among the all the neon open signs and 30-foot high signs bearing familiar logos, however, are restaurants with a more personal touch. Restaurants founded in—and exclusive to—Logan.

. “We have something different for Logan; things that other cities don’t have,” said Ciara Connors, head manager for Le Nonne. “We have something unique they’ve never tried.”

 Le Nonne is one of the best known Italian restaurants to locals in the valley, and has won several awards for its authentic Italian cuisine.

 Angie’s is another well-known restaurant in Logan. So much so that it bear’s the slogan, “Where the locals eat.”

 Angie’s was founded by Saboor Sahely, who immigrated to America from Afghanistan in the ‘70s. Sahely came to America for an education little more than the clothes on his back.

 “I have to be always working hard to compete with the chain restaurants with huge capital,” Sahely said. “I don’t have the backing of a major corporation with a lot of money. I have to take every dime and a quarter and make it work.”

 Heather Senti established her own successful restaurant in Salt Lake City before being recruited to manage Herm’s Inn here in Logan.  Senti believes that these home-grown restaurants are vital to a city’s character.

  “Small businesses are what make the larger ones all run here in any city,” Senti said. “The more local people can go out and support the local businesses the better off the cities are.”

 Senti also said that money spent at a local business stays in the community and supports the local economy. Larger chains just don’t have the same effect and often put these smaller stores out of business, Senti noted.

 The Indian Oven down the road is run by an Indian immigrant who developed his talent for cooking while working on a freight ship.

 Jack’s Woodfired Pizza on Main Street was founded by a husband and wife, and their son works for them as a cashier.

 The Pauni family founded their own catering and entertainment business, with the children growing up performing traditional island dances for their clients.

 Joe Pauni learned from his father the importance of what they were doing: sharing their unique food and culture for everybody to enjoy.

 “That’s the main reason why my dad got into it,” Pauni said. “He could see how much people appreciated experiencing and learning about different cultures, especially our culture. It was important to him and now it’s important to us.”

 For Connors, owning a small business is far more challenging and personal than a corporate owned restaurant.

 “The people that own their own restaurant care so much because it is their livelihood and how they support their family,” Connors said. “So they put a lot more thought into it—they try to be the best that they can.”

The Ice Cream of the Crop

 Summer is approaching. The days are getting longer and hotter, barbeque grills are being dusted off after several months of neglect and ice cream trucks are cruising through neighborhoods across the country, drawing children after them like suburban pied pipers.

 In Logan however there is a special brand of ice cream that doesn’t need an ice cream truck to draw customers. On the contrary, people around the state make pilgrimages to Cache Valley for Aggie Ice Cream.

 “In circles outside of Logan, Aggie Ice Cream is considered the Mecca of Ice-Creamery,” said Zach Stickney, a resident of Layton. “I am always sure to make the trip at least once annually.”

 The ice cream, which is made from cows raised on the university dairy farm, is produced on campus by staff and students. Randall Bagley manages the production of ice cream and knows why Aggie Ice Cream is different from other ice creams.

 “We try to use the best flavorings we can find. Instead of using artificial vanilla we’ll use a real two-bourbon vanilla,” Bagley said. “We tried to find a good peppermint flavor and we went through 10 before we found one we liked.”

 In addition to flavoring, the ice cream on campus has a secret that distinguishes it from lesser ice creams.

 “It has a high butter fat that makes it creamier and richer,” Bagley said. “To legally call it ice cream you have to have 10 percent butter fat, and we have 12 percent.”

 Another factor that contributes to the ice cream’s richness is a lower amount of air put into the ice cream, making it denser and richer.

 “They have really good food and their ice cream is awesome,” said Katelyn McDonald, a student at Utah State University. “It just tastes better.”

 The creamery has had a long time to perfect its ice cream recipe. Aggie Ice Cream started shortly after the college was founded in 1888.

 “We’ve been open over 100 years,” Bagley said. “We are one of the oldest creameries and dairies in the state.”

 McDonald and her friend Millie Struve will often stop by Aggie Ice Cream for a cone after class. Struve likes how affordable the food is and how nice the employees are.

 But in the end it’s all about the ice cream.

 “I like it because it’s on campus, they have a wide selection and it’s delicious,” said USU student Richard Jemenez.

The Wedding Planners

 It’s the end of the school year. As students and professors anticipate the warm freedom of summer, restaurants around the valley prepare themselves for a change of season as well.
 For the restaurants though, it isn’t summer they anticipate – it is wedding season.

 “Summer is huge,” said Jamie Humphreys, an event coordinator for the Riverwoods Conference Center.  “In June we are catering 20 plus weddings – almost a wedding every day. On June 23 I have three weddings.”

  Summer isn’t the only time local restaurants will scramble to cater weddings. According to Dustin McKay, head chef of Elements restaurant, the number of weddings surge whenever students leave school.

 “Right after school gets out, the first two or three weeks are the wedding season,” McKay said. “We typically get a peak in December after finals week when everyone is out of school. When spring break hits it will get busy too because they have a week off and can have their honeymoons.”

 In a college town, catering weddings is big business. Engagement ring jewelers, tuxedo shops and dress stores line Main Street in Logan. Many of the well-known restaurants in Cache Valley offer wedding catering services.

 Gia’s, Le Nonne, the Coppermill, Elements, Beehive Grill, the Bluebird and even chains like Café Rio all have business in catering weddings. For the Bluebird however, the weddings don’t fluctuate with the seasons.

 “We have about three or four a week,” said Bluebird manager Gui Xu. “It generally stays the same year round.”

 The competition is stiff, however. A few buildings down is the Coppermill, which is owned and operated by the same people as Elements. Down the street are Gia’s and the Beehive Grill, which also have wedding catering services.

 “It’s hard,” Xu said. “There are a few restaurants out there trying to do the same business as us.”

 Catering weddings is no easy business either. According to McKay, what makes a good wedding can change with time—and the bride.

 Chocolate fountains used to be a must at weddings. Now, cupcake trays and cheesecake buffets are the fashion. For some, crepes are the ideal dessert rather than a cake.

 Some brides prefer crepes as the dessert over a traditional cake.

 One couple hired McKay to cook carnival-themed wedding with funnel cakes and corn dogs as the main fare.

 “There are always trends that evolve that we try to meet,” McKay said. “We try and do all that we can to satisfy the needs of the clients.”

 For Humphreys, planning a wedding can be a strenuous and stressful affair.

  “There’s constant contact with the couple and their family,” Humphreys said.  “Then there’s what room they would like to be in, the setup of the room and the décor. It’s a lot of hard work and dedication that goes into it.”

 Humphreys also noted that despite the long hours of planning, cooking and consulting that go into catering a wedding, there is a silver lining to the job as well.

 “I enjoy making these families happy,” Humphreys said. “That is what I love the most: making their dream happen.”

Gossner Foods makes plant additions

 Tyler Udy grew up around cheese.

 As Edward Gossner’s great-grandson, the Gossner Foods factory has always been a part of Udy’s life.

 “I’ve been in and out of here all my life,” Udy said. “I always would work summer jobs here growing up, and now I’m an owner.”

 And he finds himself engrossed in one of the largest expansions the factory has had since its founding.

 “We’ve grown enough and our customers are taking enough that we needed to expand the store. We are way excited about it,” Udy said. “We’ve built two new additions this year: one for the cheese plant and one for the milk plant. One of them is actually an airplane hangar.”

 For nearly 46 years, Gossner Foods has been a household name in northern Utah. Since its founding, Gossner’s has been family owned.

 The company was founded in 1966 by a Swiss immigrant named Edward Gossner, a cheese maker who left his homeland to seek success in America.

 He first joined his brother, a successful cheese maker, in Wisconsin producing Swiss cheese. His brother left Switzerland seven years earlier and had created his own cheese plant. Gossner later inherited this plant from his brother.

 On a family trip Gossner drove through Cache Valley and was reminded of home. The climate of the valley was similar to Switzerland, where he had first learned to make his specialty Swiss cheese.

 Not long after that, Gossner founded a Swiss cheese plant outside of Logan – the largest in the world at the time.

 However, Gossner Foods wasn’t the only cheese venture of Edward Gossner.

 “Cache Valley Cheese was actually started by Edward Gossner,” Udy said. “We actually do a little bit with that brand, but that’s not us anymore.”

 A couple years after founding Cache Valley Cheese, Gossner split with his partners and started again – this time forming Gossner Foods.

 Cache Valley Cheese is now located in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

 Kelly Luthi has worked in the Gossner Foods plant for 27 years. He remembers the when Gossner Foods developed a unique way to package milk, which would later become their biggest industry.

 “We’re the oldest company in the United State doing shelf-stable milk,” Luthi said. “It is fluid dairy milk that’s packaged in such a way that it doesn’t require refrigeration until it’s opened.”

 The milk, which comes in 8 ounce and quart size cartons, stays fresh without refrigeration until it is opened and is preservative free. The milk is distinctive, but commonplace in the pantries of Cache Valley locals.

 The milk is not only consumed by locals – it is produced by them too.

 “All of our cheese is made from milk coming out of local farms and dairies,” Udy said. “I don’t think a day goes by that we aren’t reminded by our boss that without the farmers, we’re nothing.”

 With the new additions more milk can be stored, more cheese can be produced, and that means more business for local farmers.

 “We are a fourth generation family company,” Udy said. “And we support local farmers and local families.”

Angie's: an American success story

 May 11 marks 34 years since Saboor Sahey left his homeland of Afghanistan for America. The country was in turmoil and soon would be invaded by Soviet troops, beginning a communist regime.

 With $300 dollars hidden in a tube of toothpaste, he passed by dozens of armed troops that filled the airport. Scraping through security with his hidden life-savings intact, Sahey escaped the war and headed to the US with the few possessions he had left.

 His destination: Logan, Utah.

 A high school friend of Sahey’s suggested he come to Utah State University, sending him an application in the mail. Sahey was accepted, but had no money for tuition.

 Over the next three years, Sahey would wash dishes all night until classes started in the morning. He would work two jobs in the summer to save for the next semester of school at Utah State.

 “I would have to work 40-50 a week just to pay for my food and my room and my board and everything else,” Sahey said. “I never received a dime from my parents. The war had cut off all communications with Afghanistan and they couldn’t send a thing.”

 By the time he would graduate, he had risen through the ranks to be the store manager of Sambo’s restaurant – three years after arriving off a plane with all his savings hidden in a tube of toothpaste.

 He was promoted. He moved to Oregon as a district manager over several west coast Sambo’s restaurants. While there he would meet his wife and they would have their first child, a girl named Angie.

 Sambo’s went out of business, and Sahey returned to Cache Valley to start his own restaurant – right back where he had taken his first job in Logan.

 “We came back to Logan, got a small loan, talked to the landlord and opened Angie’s in the old Sambo’s location,” Sahey said. “So I came back to the same restaurant where I started as a dishwasher.”

 In the beginning, Sahey and his wife worked 19 hour days to keep the restaurant open. He cooked the meals. She was the waitress. He did all the bookkeeping. She baked all the desserts and rolls.

 “We started with 15 employees,” Sahey said. “For the first year, I opened the restaurant and I closed the restaurant. I’d be there at five in the morning and close it at midnight.”

 Today, the restaurant has 75 employees and a clientele that is true to the logo on the sign out front: “Where the locals eat.”

 “I come about twice a week. From the first time I came, I’ve always been treated like family,” said customer Anita Kambestad. “They know my name. They talk to me about things that are going on, about housework, about how my kids are doing.”

 Dan Dee visits Angie’s every Monday for coffee – and meets his friends there most nights of the week too.

 “I love the people and the coffee,” Dee said.

 Despite the countless hours of work he has put into the restaurant, Sahey credits his customers for the restaurant’s success.

 “Everything I have I owe to this country and this community. This community supported us through thick and thin, up to where we are today,” said Sahey. “Wherever we can, we try to give something back to the community to show our appreciation.”

 From local blood drives to free meals on Thanksgiving, Angie’s is constant and consistent in its charity. The feeling of family among staff and customer is what makes the restaurant a household name in Cache Valley.

 Whether it’s a group of students finishing off a tin full of ice cream known as “the Sink”, or a few old friends getting together to talk about days past, this is a restaurant ingrained in its community.

 “The food is really good, I enjoy the atmosphere and I enjoy the people,” Kambestad said. “That’s why I come here.”

Local family bring the islands to Cache Valley

 Friday marks the annual luau hosted by the Polynesian Student Union at Utah State University. The luau offers a variety of traditional Polynesian dances and food. For the students of USU, it is an opportunity to experience a new culture and a night of traditional entertainment.

 For the Pauni family, it is business as usual.

 Hailing from Tonga, the Pauni’s are a staple of USU’s annual luau – and are likely to be found at any other island-themed party in the valley. A family of nine, they comprise Pauni Island Catering and Entertainment.

 The Pauni’s moved to Cache Valley from Tonga in 1990. Seneti Pauni, or “Janet” as she likes to be called, began a small catering business while her husband worked his own landscaping business. Pauni knew some traditional Polynesian dances, and began teaching her children to dance so they could entertain her clients as they ate.

 “When you’re a kid, you just start doing something and it becomes normal,” said son Joe Pauni. “To us, it was just normal to learn how to dance and cook.”

 Soon the children knew traditional dances from Tonga, New Zealand, Fiji, Samoa, Tahiti and Hawaii. As the children grew, they helped their mother in more aspects of the business. Now as the children begin families of their own, their children join perform in the luaus as well – some began at the age of five and six.

 “The kids all join in,” said daughter Ati Velasquez. “They do the haka, they do the hula from Hawaii, and they do the Fijian dance from Fiji.”

 As the family grew, so did their business. The Pauni family isn’t an exclusively Cache Valley institution anymore.

 “This week we have the Kite Festival in St. George and the Earth Festival in Ogden,” Janet Pauni said. “We go from St. George to Idaho. Throughout the year we go to about 18 festivals.”

 However, the family didn’t come to the United States with a vision of owning a successful catering business. For Janet and her husband, they left home and family to give their children a better education – and a brighter future.

“On the island, you finish high school and that’s it,” the mother said. “We wanted our kids to go to a university and to have better lives with their future families.”

 After Janet Pauni’s husband passed away in 2004, she was left both to run her late husband’s business and provide for their nine kids. Struggling to maintain her catering business while finishing landscaping jobs, Pauni started finishing fewer jobs on time – and had to pay back the money loaned as a penalty.

 To survive, she started pulling her children out of school to help her finish the jobs. The dream of her children going to college started to fade. Beneath the weight of two businesses and a mortgage, the family struggled to live day to day.

 Then Janet Pauni applied to the television show Extreme Home Makeover.

  “I watched the show and it said that anybody can apply for it,” Pauni said. “So I turned in an application.”

  She wrote how they had left Tonga for their children’s schooling. She described her husband’s passing, and her being forced to be the mom and the dad. She also wrote of her business, and her dream of having her own commercial kitchen for catering. If she couldn’t pay her mortgage, all they had worked for would have been for nothing. She pleaded for them to help make their dreams come true.

 In 2006 Extreme Home Makeover came to Logan, Utah. The Pauni’s received a spacious new home on the quiet street where they resided, which was provided entirely by the show. Janet Pauni finally got the catering kitchen she had been dreaming of. All their problems weren’t solved, but now the dream seemed within reach.

 “Life is easier now,” Pauni said. “Not easy, but easier.”

 The family knows the success of their business – and overcoming their trials – has all stemmed from the strength of the family.

 “Even my siblings that are all married try and help out my mom whenever they can,” Joe Pauni said. “They are willing to drop whatever they are doing and just come help. We are all there for each other.”

Spicing things up at the Indian Oven

 India is a country with an array of holidays, traditions and people. This week marks the New Year in India – but not for all of the population. Celebrations often vary due to beliefs and geography.

 Hindus are celebrating Rongali Bihu on April 15, which marks the first day of the solar calendar.

 Certain provinces of India are celebrating New Year’s Day, called Ugadi, which begins with the coming of spring.

 Puthandu is the New Year for yet another province of India on the April 14.

 There may not be Ugadi or Puthandu celebrations happening on the streets of Cache Valley this week, but there is still a sense of the Indian culture here on Main Street in Logan at the Indian Oven.

 Founded nearly five years ago, the restaurant was founded by a native of India – a professional chef with no formal cooking education.

 Ash Oberoi left his home in India at the age of nineteen. He had managed to get a job about a freight ship, so he left his home and family behind for the prospect of work. While aboard the ship he would travel the world.

 “I left my country, I travelled to 47 different countries,” Oberoi said. “There was no way I could afford to travel to those countries, but because it was my job I could.”

 Growing up, cooking had been Oberoi’s passion. He was often at his mother’s side learning to cook meals, often at the request of family and friends.

 “Cooking has always been my passion. Back home, I was thirteen or fourteen and cooking for my parents,” Oberoi said. “I was always in the kitchen trying to lend a hand. My uncle used to own a catering business and I would help him too.”

 At the age of 19 Oberoi got a job on a freight ship, which would take him from India to countries all around the world. As he circled the globe visiting foreign ports, Oberoi would learn the local cuisine and add it to his cooking repertoire.

 He claims to have mastered Indian, American, Greek, Italian and Chinese cuisine.

 “He knows cooking from one end of the world to the other,” said Oberoi’s wife Jenise Oberoi. “We walk into any restaurant somewhere else and if we really like something he can just go home and make it.”

 Oberoi’s first restaurant featured mostly American food, but once the lease was up he decided to open a new restaurant closer to his roots – Indian food. After Oberoi purchased the former premises of the Italian restaurant Le Nonne, the Indian Oven opened for business on Main Street.

 Outside of the restaurant business, the Oberoi’s teach classes for anyone to learn how they can cook their own Indian food at home.

“I teach classes how to teach Indian food, and the classes always sell out,” Oberoi said. “Indian food is not that prevalent in Cache Valley.”

 Between constantly publishing coupons, catering to local Diwali festivals at Utah State University and teaching classes on cooking, Oberoi makes it a point to give back to the community when he can. The Indian Oven has won several local awards at a cooking competition called Spice on Ice.

 For Oberoi, it isn’t about the money or the awards – it is about the food.

 “I don’t say that I’m a rich man,” Oberoi said. “But I do know I eat the best every day.”

Logan's little Italy

 With City Weekly’s “Best of Utah” awards handed out just days ago, the limelight often is turned toward Logan eateries. Le Nonne, a small restaurant in downtown Logan, was named by City Weekly to have the best Italian food in northern Utah.

  The restaurant was founded twelve years ago on Main Street in Logan. In a city that did not yet feature larger chains such as the Olive Garden, it was a prime location for an authentic Italian restaurant. Over time it has grown from a small eatery to a successful restaurant that offers traditional Italian cuisine and local music.

 La Nonne, which is Italian for “grandmothers”, was founded by native Italian PierAntonio Micheli. Raised on a coastal town in Tuscany, Micheli learned to cook traditional Italian food from his grandmother and mother.

 Though he later went to culinary school, Micheli credits most of his cooking education to his family. Micheli was raised in the restaurant business.

 “I did internships with my family, and they owned their own restaurant,” Micheli said. “We had it for over fifty years.”

 Micheli left Italy at 19 to pursue a career in America.

 “He worked as a head chef in Los Angeles first, then in Hawaii and then he opened his own restaurant in Salt Lake City,” said Ciara Connors, general manager of Le Nonne and Micheli‘s sister-in-law. “My dad told him to come to Logan. He said it was a better idea.”

  When his first restaurant failed in Salt Lake City, Micheli heeded the advice of his father-in-law and decided to start over in Logan. The restaurant started in a small location nestled between shops on Main Street.

 “It only had twelve tables total. It was really small,” Connors said. “But it was always really busy, so they decided to expand and move the restaurant over here. Now we have fifteen tables and a big patio in the summer.”

 The restaurant is located in a period-style house in downtown Logan and is a couple blocks from it’s origins on Main Street.  Though the restaurant has received critical acclaim, the sign out front is small and advertising for the restaurant is largely word of mouth.

 “We have clientele that come in regularly,” Connors said. “New people come in once in a while, but it is hard to get the word out.”

  The restaurant was recently noted in the Utah Business Magazine as one of the five best restaurants in Utah for business dining, according to Connors. Despite this, Micheli noted that the restaurant is fine dining for everyone to enjoy – not just the wealthy and successful.

 “It’s a boutique restaurant, not a major upscale restaurant,” Micheli said. “It’s not exclusive to clientele; it’s exclusive to normal people.”

 The restaurant strives to keep its business family oriented – because that is where it started for Micheli.

 “It’s a family thing. He learned everything from family, and everyone who works here becomes like family,” Connors said. “It’s not the corporate thing, it is a little bit better.”

 For more information on Le Nonne, visit it’s website at www.lenonne.com.

A taste of history at Herm's Inn

Cache Valley can sometimes seem to be a trip through to the past. With structures like the Latter-day Saint tabernacle across the street from historic restaurants like the Bluebird, Main Street is home to many buildings that have resided in Logan for decades.

 Off of Main Street, near the mouth of Logan Canyon in a neighborhood known as “the island,” resides Herm’s Inn. For years it was a dilapidated building, a reminder of days gone by and a landmark to those in the neighborhood. A few weeks ago, after over 60 years of neglect, a remodeled and renovated Herm’s Inn opened for business.

 A private donor who grew up seeing the remains of the old restaurant funded the restoration of the building.

 “We’ve been open about seven weeks,” said Ryan Bird, co-owner and manager of Herm’s Inn. “[The donor’s] parents would always talk about Herm’s Inn and kind of reminisce what it was. So this building sat here forever, he always wanted to see it become something.”

 Herman Johnson founded Herm’s Inn in the depression era, offering “last chance lunches” for travelers heading up the road through Logan Canyon. To those returning through the canyon, the other side of the building welcomed them with “first chance lunches” before returning to town.

 Honoring its roots and its founder, the original signs still hang on the wall in the new Herm’s diner emphasizing the feel of a bygone era.

 “We want to have an accurate portrayal of what went on,” said co-owner and manager Heather Senti. “We still have customers who can remember as they walk in the door having the nickelodeon on and dancing down the aisles here in the nighttime.”

 Punctuating the colorful history of Herm’s Inn are his famous slabs of steak, fresh vegetables from the garden out back and even stories of a secret bootlegging operation in the basement.

 “They bootlegged the whiskey downstairs to get through the depression,” said Jeanie Johnson, a great granddaughter of Herman Johnson. “The people could pull up to the gas pump, buy a gallon of gas and then buy a gallon of whiskey. They both came in glass jugs and they looked identical.”

 “This place on the surface was a nice restaurant that sold dollar steaks and twenty-five cent pie,” Senti said. “Below us was a whiskey operation in the prohibition days.”

 Although the stories are legend among those who work at Herm’s Inn, for now they remain just that – stories.

 “You hear so many different stories,” Johnson said. “I really don’t know a lot about it, in actual facts.”

 Building on this history, and Herman Johnson’s reputation for a delicious meal worth leaving town for, has been the focus of the new restaurant. Bird emphasized their commitment to making much of their food fresh in-house, including their gravy, biscuits and hamburger buns.

 “Our approach is more about being fresh,” Bird said. “We don’t use our freezer; almost everything comes in and within a day is on the table.”

 For Senti it isn’t the food or geography that distinguishes the restaurant – it’s the community.

 “It’s a unique place because we are lying right in the middle of the community,” Senti said. “I mean, how many places do you know like that in Logan?”

“We are kind of a little hidden gem that no one has discovered yet,” Senti said.

A Tale of Two Cafés

 Outside the window the morning sun rose slowly up the parapets of Old Main. Customers in the new Café on the Quad sipped coffee as students meandered past the quiet Agriculture building. The atmosphere was warm and calm in the Café as a couple professors finalized their purchases and selected an empty table to occupy.

 Three hundred yards away, students retreating from a morning class file into the Quadside Café. The atmosphere is a cacophony of conversation; students entrenched in their studies don headphones as the din grows louder. The crowd, converging toward the register for a morning snack, is less a line than it is a mob. The air is thick with sound and the smell of brewing coffee.

 With the completion of a new agriculture building at Utah State University, students have new labs, high-tech classrooms and a new café bordering the quad.

 “We’ve been open almost three weeks,” said Café on the Quad operations manager Karli Salisbury. “Business has been fantastic; we have regulars now.”

 The café looks west from the east end of the quad. Framed by large windows, customers have a spacious view of the campus from the bar – which features outlets for students to plug in their electronics.

 “I like the outlets. Everywhere you go there is no place to plug your laptop in,” said student Chaleesa Warren. “My battery dies really fast, so that’s nice.”

 Across the sidewalk from the Café on the Quad is the campus library, which has long housed the Quadside Café. For years, the Quadside Café has catered to the campus’ need for donuts, sandwiches and hot drinks.

 “We’ve worked really closely together to make sure our menus don’t duplicate too much,” said Amber Schoenfeld, the operations manager of the Quadside Café. “We both have hot sandwiches, but they are so completely different that people will enjoy going to both places to try them.”

 Both cafés strive to provide unique experiences to the clientele – catering to different tastes.

 The Quadside Café is convenient to students taking a break from studying in the library, Schoenfeld said.

 Café on the Quad is a quick stop for any students entering and exiting class from the agriculture building, according to Warren.

 The Quadside Café has a lot more places to sit and a beautiful view of the sunrise over the mountains, said student Zac Williams.

 Café on the Quad offers unique food, including an ice cream flavor made solely for the café – it isn’t even offered in the Aggie Ice Cream store on campus, according to Salisbury.

 “There is kind of a sense of competition; we are all naturally competitive,” Salisbury said. “But we try to work together.”

 According to Schoenfeld, the competition has been good for business.

 “The first week they opened we were a little bit slower, but our sales have come back,” Schoenfeld said. “It feels like they have taken the edge off of our huge rushes, but more people are coming in throughout the day because people feel with the lines not so long they can be served quicker.”

 Whether students prefer to purvey mountains or campus architecture, sip triple-certified coffee or a cup of hot chocolate, or sit down and enjoy a bagel sandwich or a triple decker club, the Quadside Café and the Café on the Quad are –both—open for business.

Texas Roadhouse shows a little Southern hospitality

With over 360 restaurants spanning 47 states, the Texas Roadhouse is a restaurant that can be found illuminating roadsides across the country. Featuring a rustic atmosphere, line-dancing servers and authentic American cuisine, it is ranked the second best restaurant chain in the nation by Forbes magazine.

 However in Logan, Utah, the local Texas Roadhouse does more than serve food. It serves the community of Cache Valley hosting fundraisers and donating to local charities.

 Over nearly three years, the restaurant has raised thousands for the community through these fundraisers and events.

  In 2010, the restaurant teamed with the Logan Regional Hospital Foundation to raise money for their cancer treatment center. For one night, Texas Roadhouse donated 10 percent of all proceeds to help cancer patients receive treatment.

 “We got about $650,” said Christina Roberts, a representative for the Logan Regional Hospital Foundation. “It went to cancer services with minimal work on our end. It was great.”

 In addition, Roberts noted Texas Roadhouse also co-sponsors Tough Enough to Wear Pink, a local rodeo dedicated to raise breast cancer awareness.

 “It’s about getting out in the community, showing them we’re here,” said Scott Brown, an assistant kitchen manager at the Logan restaurant. “We try to help out with as many fundraising opportunities as we can because this store was built on charity.”

 It was late 2009 when construction finished on the Texas Roadhouse located on the corner of Main Street and 1400 North. What set this restaurant apart wasn’t the building design or location – but how it was built. It was funded entirely by the restaurant’s fundraising program called Andy’s Outreach.

 Andy’s Outreach is a charity started by chain founder Kent Taylor, and is exclusively for Texas Roadhouse employees.

 “We encourage everyone who works here to take out 50 cents to a dollar for Andy’s Outreach,” Brown said. “That money goes to the sick, or for somebody who gets hurt, or any other emergencies that might pop up.”

 The money raised goes towards family or friends of employees who are in need, paying for medical bills and time off that may be needed in an emergency. Donations are made solely by employees for employees.

 Each Texas Roadhouse built by Andy’s Outreach is dedicated specifically to benefitting the community.

 Every Monday night is kid’s night at Texas Roadhouse, which features classes, games and treats for kids, and is hosted by various fundraising groups in the valley. They frequently host tours for elementary students, showing them how to make their own rolls and even do the trademark line dance.

 According to Brown, the restaurant’s mission is to give back to the community that supports them.

 “This store is the first that we’ve built with that donation money,” Brown said. “We are trying to give back to what we’ve been given.”

Week 10 Article: Quiznos Comeback

 At the age of 23, Erik Stromness bought his first Quiznos franchise. He managed to fix up the struggling restaurant and sell it off in better shape than when he had found it.

 “The first one I bought was a really tiny location and it wasn’t run really well,” Stromness said. “So I got it going better, sold that one and bought the one I have in Salt Lake.”

 Six years later, after closing several hundred stores due to a struggling economy and a market saturated with competition, the Quiznos chain is fighting to make comeback much like the one Stromness accomplished six years ago.

 This Sunday and Monday will be the annual Quiznos convention held in Las Vegas, Nevada. Franchise owners from around the country will convene to see the new products and policies being unveiled by the company.

 “They are doing a brand relaunch in April and they are changing the menu,” said Jeremy Whitehouse, a Quiznos franchisee who owns locations in Logan and Salt Lake. “They’ve tested these ideas across the nation. It should bring new life back into the brand.”

 Among the changes to the Quiznos brand include several new sandwiches, a larger budget for marketing and a shift in advertising to a more local level.

 Utahns, however, have had a sneak preview of the new menu being released in May. Many locations, including the local Logan Quiznos, have been selected to market the changes in the menu.

 More important than the change in the menu though, according to Whitehouse, is a change in attitude to focus more on the local communities they serve.

 “You can only do so much with TV and radio advertising,” Whitehouse said. “You got to do local marketing, go out and let the people know you are there.”

 The lack of franchise owner connection to the store, according to Stromness, is what has caused the mass of closed Quiznos locations around the world.

 “The issue with restaurants is that if you aren’t willing to be a part of the restaurant, to work in the restaurant and help it in some way, then it doesn’t matter what kind of location you have for the restaurant—it will die,” Stromness said. “That’s the reason why these stores close.”

 “The problem has been absentee owners who don’t really care; people who own a store just so they can own it,” Whitehouse said. “I’ll spend four or five hours a week in a store, just marketing to people in a local area.”

 Over the past several years, the company has struggled from lawsuits filed by many of their own franchise owners, as well as accumulating a debt of over 800 million dollars.

 With the announced changes the company was able to cut its debt nearly in half, according to Stromness.

 With the upcoming changes to the Quiznos franchise, Whitehouse is optimistic that the company will make a comeback. Ultimately, he hopes that it will become a regular stop for the locals in Logan as well as sandwich-lovers around the world.

 “They’ve tested ideas across the nation, found out what the public wants and now they will put it into implementation,” Whitehouse said. “We’re going to see a lot more media attention and a lot more marketing at a local level in the store. There will be a lot of changes that will be positive in the community.”

Week 9 Article

 In 2007, for the first time in a decade, the minimum wage in America was raised. Previously $5.15 an hour, it leaped to $7.25 an hour. For millions of people this meant more money, more food and more security.

 For Cindy Soutter, however, this change did not apply. For over 36 years, she has made under $3.00 an hour working full time.

 Her job is active, requiring her to move on her feet for several hours at a time.

 Social skills are a must as she caters to all kinds of people.

 She often stays well after closing time to clean.

 Above all else, her job requires service with a smile – no matter what.

 Cindy Soutter is a waitress at a local Italian restaurant, and has been for the majority of her life.

 According to minimum-wage.org, $2.13 is the federal minimum wage for an employee who can make more than $30 a day in tips. This often applies to tip-reliant jobs such as bartending, servers and valets. As a waitress, Soutter has struggled for years with the sub-standard wage.

 “It’s frustrating because we work hard for our tips and some people don’t leave tips at all,” Soutter said. “If it’s really slow one night we may come into work and not even make minimum wage.”

 The law states that if the employee makes less in tips than minimum wage on any shift, the employer must reimburse the employee.

 For Phillip Love, a waiter at a popular restaurant chain, that isn’t always the case.

 “There are days where you are making 30 dollars for five hours, and that’s certainly nowhere close to working minimum wage,” Love said. “It’s kind of difficult that people will come in and tip you two or three dollars for a 30 dollar meal and I’ll be like, ‘Well thanks, you’re my only source of money.’”

 While $2.13 is the federal standard for tipped employees, many states have their own wages. 

 According to dol.gov, California pays its tipped employees an average of $8.00. New York varies its wage from $2.13 to $6.15 depending on the employee’s job. Oregon pays its tipped employees an average of $9.04.

  

 Fourteen states pay the federal minimum of $2.13, including Utah.

  For Soutter, the wage doesn’t match the long and strenuous hours she puts in nightly.

   

 “I feel like I work really hard for my money and I work really hard for the restaurant,” Soutter said. “Sometimes the hourly wage they pay us doesn’t feel like they compensate us for the time we put into the restaurant, the people we bring into the restaurant and the money we make them by doing an extra hard job.”

  

 “I think the waitress is why people come back or don’t come back,” Soutter said. “If you give good service you should be paid according to that.”

  Both Soutter and Love note that customers are always shocked to learn how much they make per hour.

 “Some customers say, ‘That’s your job: you’re a server, you get paid to do that and you don’t get a tip,’” Soutter said. “They don’t understand how much we’re paid. A lot of them are shocked when they find out how much we make.”

 “I understand the type of business I’m in, I understand the money we make is off our tips,” Love said. “However, I also feel that we should get more of an hourly wage for what we do. Half of the people that walk into our restaurant don’t understand that we’re getting paid so little.”

Welcome to the Logan Lunchroom, a journalistic blog all about the restaurants, eateries, and luncheonettes in Cache Valley. Good food has power to boost a town's economy, bring people together, and establish a city as a must-stop on family road trips. Every good restaurant has a story to tell, or a story to hide. The purpose of this site is to find, and tell, these stories.