Wright diner owner responds with determination to fire setback

The café in Wright had survived several rounds of ownership, most recently as Minetties Diner. It remained for years the only restaurant in Wright, a gathering place for weekly coffee groups, thousands of games of cribbage, snowmobilers, summer visitors, and folks who'd prefer to not cook dinner. Last week, it burned to the ground. Delivering our latest issue of Pine Knot News to Minetties on Thursday, Jan. 31, driver Joe Waldorf was astonished and sent a phone photo to the editor.

It happened in the wee hours of the morning on Wednesday, Jan. 30. It was likely an electrical problem. Arthur Juhl, owner and head cook Minette Juhl's son, had just swept up and taken out the garbage. Not 10 minutes later, in his home next door, Arthur's power went out. From the window, he saw the flames. He tried to put out the fire with snow and his fire extinguisher. Without his cell phone, he flagged cars on the road - the fourth one stopped and called area fire departments. By 6 a.m., crews and four fire trucks from Cromwell-Wright, Barnum, Kettle River and Mahtowa were putting out the fire. Minette ran to the Cromwell Self Serve to get coffee for freezing firefighters. There was no charge for the coffee and doughnuts, and customer Roger Manninen supplied a cooler full of sandwiches.

I interviewed Minette this past Sunday morning in her other enterprise, the Village Pump Saloon in Tamarack. As I madly took notes, Minette was mindfully ducking into the kitchen to finish eggs and hash browns for customers sitting at the bar.

Before 2015, Minette had been working in a pontoon factory in Wyoming, coming home to Lawler, south of Wright, every weekend.

"I had this dream of running a restaurant," she said.

When the Wright Café came up for sale that year, Members Cooperative Credit Union lent her the money to buy it. In August of 2015, they signed the papers.

"We started Minetties with nothing," she recalled. "My food distributors gave me a seven-day lag on payment, and that helped us stock the kitchen. We cleaned and painted the café and were ready to go in a week!"

Minette loved running her cafè.

"Every morning I get up and can't wait to go, to see who's there, and what kind of soup I can make!" she said.

She kept Minnetties as cozy and comfy as possible, with a mellow, friendly staff, adding that they hosted an early morning coffee crew immediately.

Her four children gave her lots of time and support, as did many others who also call her "Ma." Most of her waitstaff worked for tips for the first year or so, as every penny they made went back into the business. Over the years, they put on a new roof, a new floor for the walk-in cooler, and began a siding project.

The insurance was minimal, but Minette is determined to rebuild.

"I started with nothing and we'll start with nothing again!" she said.

Friends are pitching in. Cal Jacobson from Groth Lumber company in Wright has all the product they'll need. Others are helping to raise funds and find expertise.

Some things are not replaceable: her son's mushroom collection; Jennie Hanson's collection of Wrong Days in Wright buttons and historical photos.

Meanwhile, Minetties leases space from the Village Pump Saloon to offer a full menu breakfast. Bar food is available after 11 a.m. She has loyal patrons, noting that "the cribbage crew were here on Wednesday morning before I even got here!"

Despite the challenges of financing, design, permits and building, Minette hopes to have the new café open by May of this year. Though she lost all her accounting books and receipts in the fire, she had daily totals from email reporting. She's already done her W-2s.

Minette Juhl's story, her setback, and her aspirations remind me of that 1930s swing tune, made famous by Nat King Cole and Frank Sinatra, whose refrain is, "... pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and start all over again"!