Hope Happenings

By Bianca Durrant
Turnagain Times
Hope Correspondent

Are you watching this? These bands of green dancing in the night sky while the cold air burns your lungs? Yes, we are watching too. This planet, with its magical occurrences happening alongside devastating ones (Japan), never fails to amaze. Sometimes the human creations stupefy as well. For instance, why does Alaska participate in Daylight Savings Time? Hope Happenings supposes it makes a lot more sense when autumn rolls around.

Discovery Café Ushers In a New Era with a New Owner

Tito Kagimoto first opened the doors to the Discovery Café in 1979 to the delight of many locals who craved a community café. He purchased the property from homesteader Carl Clark. Tito went on to become as well known for his kindness and gentle nature as for the comfort food that rolled out of the Discovery kitchen.

When Kagimoto passed away in December 2009, the café passed on to his business partner and brother-in-law, Hank Mori. Hank, who is in his eighties, has always been tireless in keeping the restaurant functioning on the most basic level but with Tito’s passing, he sensed that it was time for the café to move into new hands.

Mori decided to put the restaurant up for sale last fall. He enlisted the help of an Anchorage based realtor. There were at least a couple of serious inquiries into the purchase before Mori’s niece, Gina Motoyama, had a serendipitous moment one afternoon.

“I kept driving past the café with that “for sale” sign and it didn’t feel right,” Gina said. “Finally, there was the day that I realized I had enough faith in myself to be able to take over the purchase and management of the property. More importantly, I realized that I wanted to.”

With her uncle pleased to keep the restaurant in the family and offering to start Gina out with owner financing, the transition was underway to purchase the café and the 3-acre lot it’s on, located on the Hope Highway just before of Main Street and downtown Hope.

“I was 15 when I first started working there,” Motoyama recollected. “Over the years I have always been involved. It’s a nice story.”

While Gina is eager to put her spin on the café, she is also very mindful of its role in the community. The name will stay the same as will its family friendly atmosphere. Ideally, she will be able to strike a balance of mindful change while ushering in a new era. She will be slowly making changes starting this season with a menu that focuses on reducing energy consumption at the restaurant. In fact, reducing waste and energy use will be a primary center of her attention this kickoff season.

She would like to start with unplugging at least one of her freezers.

“Even though I want to give options to my customers, it is not energy efficient or cost effective to offer and stock 5 types of bread for toast and sandwiches,” Gina said. “I’m looking to pare down the menu with a focus on fresh availability of seafood and produce.”

Gina will be looking for food that is from, or as close to Alaska as possible. Scaling down the menu will have other benefits: it will be easier to facilitate consistency of entrée preparation and help her control her inventory.

Gina pointed out that shrinking the menu size will allow for growth in the creativity of the dishes. She is also planning on having rotating dinner specials to keep things fresh.

The café was closed for the winter, and Gina expects to reopen it April 29 and is considering keeping it open year-round, but she’s sticking with a wait and see approach to that decision. She said she will gauge business flow and make her decision in August.

For now and into the foreseeable future, Gina has her hands full, and for a woman who until now, has exclusively and successfully supported herself as a massage therapist, running a café’ serving breakfast, lunch and dinner will be a large task even for a seasoned restaurateur. But Gina is eager to meet that challenge and continue serving the community while keeping the historical café in the family.

Manitoba Mountain Ski Area Presentation and Discussion

Dave Scanlan will be presenting the Manitoba Mountain Ski Area Restoration Project at the Hope Social Hall on Wednesday March 23 at 7 p.m. Following the presentation will be a question, answer and feedback forum. Participants will see displays including detailed topographic maps of the area with proposed lift alignments and trail design. They will also be encouraged to contribute ideas and suggestions that will help this project become something that will be beneficial to our community. Questions should be emailed to: dscanlan@mountainridersalliance.com.

Chamber Meeting

The Hope Chamber of Commerce will be conducting its spring meeting March 19 at 3 p.m. at the Hope Library. Volunteers and members are encouraged to attend.

Fire Department Fundraiser

Earlier this spring, the Hope Volunteer Fire Department sent out mailers requesting donations from community members. They would like to give a big thanks to everyone as the fundraiser generated over eight thousand dollars from over 70 households. Nice work everyone.

Contact Hope Happenings at: hopehappenings@live.com.