I
just saw a post from last September over at Robert Harrington's Controlled
Chaos blog. There's a coffee shop in Cadillac, Michigan named after the
venerable Shay locomotive.The Shay Station Coffee Co. menu includes "special beverages from cream fruit drinks to double chocolate mochas." A fajita chicken wrap and spicy bacon turkey salads are waiting to be discovered by 1920s-style soda fountain and eatery. The ciabatta bread paninis sounds good!
Cadillac is a former logging town up on the Michigan peninsula. Logging in the region began with the opening of the Pioneer Mill in 1871, with the Grand Rapids and Indiana Railroad reaching Cadillac in 1872.
The Michigan Iron Works Company of Cadillac manufactured the Shay locomotive for a short time before designer Ephraim Shay licensed the Lima Locomotive Works in Lima, Ohio to manufacture the geared locomotive from 1880. Production continued until 1945.
A Placerville Shay Station?
We could franchise the Shay Station Coffee Shop out Placerville way. After all, we have plenty of coffee lovers in El Dorado County. And we have the most important accoutrement -- a 99-1/2-year old Shay locomotive.
It would be much more romantic than walking into a Starbucks each day!
What more can you ask for? A Shay geared loco and good coffee. And it might be a good way to raise cash for the old No. 4!
Steven Karoly
- Location:Diamond Springs, California, United States
For 35 years I've had two culinary careers -- one that paid the bills and the other imagined. Growing up in Fresno in the 1960s, I attended Camp San Joaquin in Sequoia National Forest. To me the cook and his assistant had the best job. Where else could I pursuit my passion for cooking and my love of the mountains at the same time, I reasoned? With retirement nearing, ambition may soon turn to gold, Lord willing.
El Dorado Western Railway Foundation