Waitsburg To Get ‘50s Diner

WAITSBURG - Give Bart Baxter and Tiffany Laposi a few months to work on the Whetstone Pub building and you'll be able to dine with James Dean.

By summer, he may well be giving you his cool gaze from the wall of the couple's planned new 1950s style restaurant that will be called "Betty's Diner."

Baxter, a local contractor and soccer coach, and Laposi, a real estate appraiser for Walla Walla County, signed a three-year lease this weekend for the building on Preston Avenue that has been quiet since the pub closed last year.

The new diner means downtown Waitsburg will have a third restaurant and another building filled. With the opening this summer of the Anchor tavern in the American Legion building, the coffee shop next door to the Times, plus the wellestablished Whoop Em Up Hollow Cafe, jimgermanbar, Tacqueria, Laht Neppur Brewery and White Stallion, the town is well on its way to becoming a wining and dining destination.

Baxter and Laposi, who decided to pursue the lease with building owner Travis Larsen after they returned from the state basketball playoffs in Spokane to watch his son, Cardinal Tyler Baxter, said their concept will be a welcome addition.

"Main Street has been missing a breakfast joint forever," said Baxter, who recently made an unsuccessful bid for mayor and now has his hands full with the venture he'll manage.

Laposi said her youth inspired her to do a diner.

" I've always been interested in the restaurant business, and a diner means good memories to me," said Laposi, whose mother, Betty Stanfeld, worked at the White Stallion for about a decade when her daughter was a youngster.

Baxter and Laposi decided to name the diner after Stanfeld, who now works at Ski Bluewood.

The diner, promised to be affordable, will serve traditional, hearty, homestyle American breakfast and lunch items, such as variations of eggs, toast and browns, hamburgers and shakes, sandwiches, soups, tuna melts, mac and cheese, and so on.

"It will be kid and familyfriendly food," Baxter said.

The decor, expected to include a black-and-white checkered floor, corrugated walls, vinyl booths, a juke box, a soda fountain and 1950s art, will transport patrons to a different era, Laposi predicted.

"If you grew up in the '50s, it would be nice if you walked in and felt like a child again," she said.

The couple agreed to lease the bulk of the 8,000-squarefoot building, move into the large upstairs apartment and retain the right of first refusal on the use of the Whetstone Pub itself. They plan to open the diner in the 720-squarefoot space on the east side of the building. The store front in the middle will become a consignment shop for locally made arts and crafts run by Baxter's mom, Bitzi Baxter.

That shop will be called "Baby Girl" consignment store, reflecting Laposi's endearment term for her sevenyear old daughter Alex.

The restaurant, which will employ three to five parttime workers, is expected to be open Thursdays through Mondays, but on one of the nights it's closed Baxter wants to organize dinner and activities for youths 6-9 p.m.

"Eventually, we'll have a kids' night with arcade games and other activities," he said.

Baxter said he hasn't decided if and how to use the pub space, but he doesn't want to be a "beer seller," particularly with the anticipated opening of the Anchor tavern in Charles Smith's American Legion building.

"It may be another type of food and beverage establishment down the road," he said.

Downtown, the diner and planned coffee shop are expected to complement each other as breakfast and lunch establishments.

The coffee shop at 137 Main between Palouse Fitness and the Times will serve a variety of American and European-style espresso beverages, pastries, ice cream cones, light gourmet lunch items, such as soups and sandwiches, and possibly smoothies.

If a beer and wine license can be obtained for the building, the coffee shop will also host live music on some weekend nights.