In the next couple of weeks, he vows, he’s going to get around to finishing the porch that lines the L-shaped front of his store and cafe.
When that’s done, he’ll finally put up a sign informing folks that behind these wood-sided walls sits the Hall Store and Cafe.
For the past 20 months you’ve just had to know it was there, this breakfast-lunch-coffee magnet to area ranch families and, every Tuesday at noon, Democrats.
It’s a half-block off State Highway 1 at the main intersection - OK, the only intersection - in this Flint Creek Valley town. A pink and blue electric light that says “OPEN” is the only hint of a business enterprise. Bruce says his wife, Debbie, wonders if you can even call it that.
His cafe menu features heaping helpings of dollar pancakes (the price not the size), made-to-order omelettes, “girly burgers” and “manly burgers” and not your garden variety of garden salads - all at retro prices.
What you smell first when you walk in the door, though, is the coffee - Rusty’s famous nickel cup, with free refills.
“We’re not getting rich,” says Bruce. “My wife tells me I have a $5-an-hour mentality in a $20-an-hour world.”
His response?
“You know what? I hate being a tourist and being gouged, and we’re going to keep things this way until we can’t do it any more.”
Still, he’s realistic. When it came time to name the place, friends insisted he call it the Nickel Cup.
“I told them, 'Yeah, but what happens if the price of coffee goes up somewhere down the road? That’s going to be a stupid name,’ ” Bruce says.
So he’ll stick with “Hall Store and Cafe,” which says it all, doesn’t it?
And he’ll stick with the nickel cup of coffee as long as he can.
Bruce used to keep a pot brewing at the tiny store he bought on this site a few years ago. When he tore the 1910-era store down to build the much larger store/cafe complex, “we decided we really didn’t want to give free coffee away at the cafe because then people wouldn’t appreciate it,” he says.
Instead they opted for the nickel price. That way, “these rancher guys that are in their 30s and 40s now can come in and have a nickel cup of coffee, and then when their kids or grandkids come in they can go, 'Well, I can remember when I was ranching, I used to go in and get a cup of coffee for a nickel,’ ” says Bruce. “That was the whole reason behind it.”
Jay Hendrix, a longtime area rancher, sidled into the place at noon last Tuesday, just as he does most noons - and a lot of mornings, for that matter.
“It was a great addition to our community,” he said. “There’s always somebody in here, usually five or 10 people. You kind of meet here and plan the day.”
Or solve the problems of the world.
At a nearby table, the Ladies’ Tuesday Lunch Bunch had gathered and ordered. There were eight of them this day, ranchers, educators, a state senator from Anaconda and Bruce’s mother, Bernadean.
They discussed the health clinic issue on the Granite County ballot in November, and who around town wasn’t doing so well these days.
They compared notes with the ranch couple from Helmville at a nearby table who’d had the good luck and foresight to sell their cattle in May, before the stock market crash.
“The rest of us haven’t sold and we’re really hurting,” said Nel Buck.
The economy, of course, was on everyone’s mind. So was the weather, which was proving to be sunny and nice leading up to the coming Sunday’s opening of the general hunting season. Last year there were 18 inches of snow in Philipsburg to usher in the big-game season.
Then there were the politics.
Buck volunteers her time on the Granite County Democratic central committee, and her Lunch Bunch tends to lean toward that persuasion - with notable exceptions. Julia Enman, who helped establish the Lunch Bunch with Buck, is on the opposite end of the political spectrum than her good friend.
Esther McDonald, a lifelong Republican, came down from Philipsburg to join in, and she handed out campaign material for the Republican candidate for Clerk of Court.
She made sure Bea McCarthy, the former Democratic state senator from Anaconda and a first-time visitor, got the flier.
“There are a lot of politics discussed here,” asserts Bruce, himself a dyed-in-the-wool Republican. “So far we haven’t had any fistfights.”
Buck and Enman, the retired county superintendent of schools, started these Tuesday gatherings not long after Bruce opened the cafe in February 2007. The two friends were used to driving the eight miles to Drummond once a month for lunch at the Wagon Wheel Cafe.
“Julia and I did not get to talk enough there, so we said let’s meet here next Tuesday,” Buck said.
One Tuesday lunch led to another, others joined the circle and, a year and a half later the Lunch Bunch is an institution as enduring the Tuesday pea soup.
Enman lives just out of town. She rarely misses breakfast at Rusty’s, and often comes back to lunch.
“Why not? Otherwise I’d have to cook and do my own dirty dishes,” she said. “It’s hard to cook for one.”
Besides, she added, pointing to the Styrofoam container on the table in front of her, “I’m taking half my lunch home.”
What did they do before Bruce opened his cafe?
“Stayed home or went to Drummond. Or didn’t eat,” said Chris Johnson, who has turned the ranch just out of town that she and her late husband, Ford, ran for years over to her son.
Bruce, his manager Melanie Kiewatt and Mindy Packer open the cafe six days a week. The store stays open until 6 p.m. Cafe hours are 7 a.m. to 2 p.m.
After hours, Bruce said, his place is fair game for just about anyone who asks.
“We built this building with the intentions of putting in a cafe and basically using it for a community center, because we don’t have one in Hall,” he said. “Our philosophy is if you need a meeting place, this is available free of charge and we’ll provide coffee. All you have to do is let us know what you need it for and when.”
So folks in the valley book baby showers, bridal showers, after-hours dinners, Christmas parties, wedding rehearsal dinners, Kiwanis Club meetings …
“If you want a catered dinner we’ll do that, as long as you give us enough notice and tell us what you want,” said Bruce.
He’ll also whip up a sack lunch - massive sandwich, chips and a drink - for $5 so people can take it to the corrals or hunting camps.
Ninety-nine percent of Bruce’s clientele is local, from Philipsburg to Drummond.
“And it’s probably, I’d say, 75 percent ranch owners and ranch hands,” he said. “We don’t draw a whole lot from town.”
The valley, Bruce said, is filling up with houses.
“In another 10 years we’re going to start looking like the Bitterroot did 10 years ago. That’s one of the reasons we built the new building. We think eventually this area is going to populate with people on their little five-acre ranchettes, just like the Bitterroot, and then there’ll be a better call for more business.”
In the meantime, feel free to pull up a chair, sip a cup of nickel coffee and talk wolves, Sarah Palin, cattle prices or the weather.
“It’s a little noisy on Tuesdays,” said Hendrix, a smile cracking his weathered face. “But this is a wonderful place. It’s a real hometown atmosphere.”
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