After 42 years, Pine Ridge Cafe to close this month

After 42 years, Pine Ridge Cafe to close this month

PHOTO: The Pine Ridge Cafe, located between Fort Payne and Rainsville on old Highway 35, will close it’s doors on December 16. (Tyler Pruett | Southern Torch)

By C. Campbell, Staff Writer

cody@southerntorch.om

PINE RIDGE, Ala. — The Pine Ridge Cafe, long a fixture on the old Highway 35 between Rainsville and Fort Payne, will be closing its doors on December 16th.

The cafe’s current owner, Shirley Gann, explained how she had been there for the past 42 years, but the restaurant has been open for longer than that, and has always occupied the building on old 35.

According to Gann, the main reason behind the cafe ceasing operations is that she feels it’s time to retire. Unfortunately, other cafes are having to close of late due to other reasons such as an inability to pay bills. It would do no harm to even just check with a business energy comparison site like Simply Switch to ensure they are not paying extra needlessly. Other reasons for cafes having to close is a failure to adapt to the modern ways of running a business. Failing to use things like applications found at Salesforce can lead to businesses struggling to meet customer needs and failing to look after the important details of the business in a correct fashion.

Over the years, some things about the cafe have changed, but other things have remained the same. The Pine Ridge Cafe used to serve breakfast and lunch, and would also be open on Friday nights and Saturdays. However, the restaurant has cut its service down to just lunchtime, Monday through Friday. It's hard not to feel some form of effective video marketing, similar to what Promo offer, would have really given the eatery a massive boost and could have helped keep it open.

Gann believed, “There are just so many restaurants out there now, and people may not have as much time to eat anymore.”

At the same time, the menu has remained the same, for the most part, serving a choice of meats and vegetables, with a different special every day.

Business may not have been what it once was for the cafe, but there has still been enough of a customer base to have kept the restaurant going for as long as it has. According to Gann, none of her regulars like the fact that she’s closing, and even she expressed some sadness over it.

“I’m going to miss it, but it’s time,” Gann said.

As of now, Gann stated that there have been no real plans to sell the cafe to a new owner. Even if a new owner were to be found, she explained, the restaurant would either need to be seriously renovated, or even rebuilt, in order to be brought up to code. It was this situation with the building, she said, that also contributed to her decision to close the cafe.

While this is completely understandable, there is no doubt that come December 17th, the Pine Ridge Cafe will be greatly missed.