Anita Keeney, left, Ginnie Dailey, center, and Jason Dailey are the core of the Little Crane Cafe in Vader. Ginnie Dailey founded the cafe 29 years ago but now Keeney, her sister, and Jason handle most of the day-to-day operations.
The walls of the Little Crane Cafe are packed with historical photos of Vader, many of which showcase trains.
The Little Crane Cafe as seen from the exterior on Thursday afternoon. Heavy snow didn't stop a handful of customers from showing up for a late lunch.
Jason Dailey whips up a burger with pineapple at the Little Crane Cafe in Vader on Thursday.
One of the most important aspects in shaping Lewis County has been the railroads, which brought jobs, exposure and people as they changed the landscape and altered the direction of commerce.
By all accounts, the tracks have been equally as important for the Little Crane Cafe, located not more than 100 feet away from them in Vader.
Ginnie Dailey opened the cafe nearly 29 years ago when her husband worked in the logging industry. As train after train rolled by on Thursday afternoon, she pointed out the walls, which are covered in historic pictures, many of them featuring locomotives.
“Railroad kind of saved my bacon,” she said.
The cafe, which sits right off Seventh Street on the west side of town, was humming along as her son, Jason, cooked up burgers and other food while snow piled up outside on Thursday.
Ginnie Dailey said she’s semi-retired now. Jason and Ginnie’s sister, Anita Keeney, run the cafe.
Some favorite menu items include their hot sandwiches, such as reubens and French dips made with home-roasted turkey and beef, as well as prime rib, which is served Friday and Saturday evenings after 4 p.m.
“It’s the best, but I try not to blow my own horn,” Jason Dailey said of the ribs.
The cafe also serves breakfast all day and provides for carry out orders.
Jason Dailey said customers come from all over the region, but regulars come from Ryderwood, Winlock and Toledo. Since the internet has made looking up their cafe that much easier, they’ve been seeing more customers from Interstate 5 and as far away as Portland.
“Now sometimes we’re too busy, which is a good thing,” he said. “We have a wide array of customers.”
Both he and Keeney said they had worked at the cafe when they were younger, but ended up back there in recent years.
Jason Dailey, who also serves on the city council, said he worked at Little Crane as a teenager before going to college and living in Portland. He moved back and started working at the cafe 13 years ago.
Keeney keeps the books for the cafe and a grocery store, along with a self-storage business the family runs on the same property.
Ginnie Dailey said for her, it’s the customers and interacting with them that motivated her to keep the cafe open.
“We’ve had lot of fun. It’s been a lot of work, but it’s been a lot of fun,” she said.
While the trains stop less frequently in Vader, Ginnie Dailey said some of those customers are still railroad workers.
As she walked through the cafe, pointing out individual historic pictures, she remembered a distinctly Lewis County story.
One day a man who operated a train stopped for lunch, but after he’d eaten he realized he’d left his wallet on the train. He didn’t have time to fetch it before they had to pull out, so he told her he’d square up the next week when they passed through.
Ginnie Dailey said she got a phone call before the train came through from the man saying he wouldn’t be able to stop, but to watch for “the bottle.”
As the train rolled by, she said he threw a plastic soda bottle out of the window. When she picked it up, she saw it was full of money to settle his debt.
