The Albert Lea Tribune from Albert Lea, Minnesota • 81

I The A Ibert Lea 'I A tfr A eyenaj Tribune A A a) a ox 7 22nd Annual Edition SWZ Xg'Z Entertainment Albert Lea Minnesota riday March 25 1 988 Name has changed but service still the same at Cafe Don! By MARLENE BEHLE Tribune Lifestyles Editor ALBERT LEA The name may have changed to Cafe but to many customers it is still their favorite place to eat the former Skyline Mall Cafeteria Don and Eleanor Sorensen have been owners of the cafeteria for 18 years now and after remodeling the main part and adding on a beautiful dining area in the back area where Haas ilmshops was formerly located they decided to change the name With a laugh Eleanor said 18 years we decided we were probably going to stay and named it Cafe Don The Soren sens will celebrate their 19th year at the cafeteria on April 15 You could say the Sorensens are self taught restaurant owners Don has always farmed since the time he was a junior at Albert Lea High School until just five years ago when he decided to rent out the farm land on their farm just north 6f Armstrong They still live on the farm place however Eleanor (Thompson) was raised on a farm north of Hayward and also at tended Albert Lea High School graduating with Don in 1956 The Sorensens have two children Brett 28 lives in Baltimore and Bren da 26 resides in Minneapolis Brett and Brenda were very young when their parents bought the cafeteria and were taught to help in little ways Eleanor said our children were about in second and third grade a realtor came in to the restaurant where I had been working a few months and 'said would you like to own a and two weeks later we were It as though they decided in stantly to buy it because they knew they have the money but somehow Don and Eleanor decided it was the right thing to do borrowed against our souls to buy said Don The Sorensens purchased the business from Irvin and Maureen Breamer Since the Breamers were leaving right away Don and Eleanor had to learn about restaurant business without benefit of instruction Eleanor said the original menu con sisted of mostly short orders and hot beef sandwiches enlarged the menu to include dinners and have ex panded our she said we really serve a lot of breakfasts Sun day is a big Hours at Cafe are 9 am to 5 pm on Sundays 8 a to 9 pm Mon day through riday and 8 a until 5 pm on Saturday The number of employees has in creased from six originally to the present 18 The Sorensens said they feel their employees are like family Eleanor ex plained that they try to arrange it so that the women can get off to go to school conferences or whatever trust our employees very she said when been gone customers say they see a difference in the service With the help of their employees the Sorensens keep track of how many people are served during certain hours do an hourly ring out on the cash register to check on how many people have gone through the said Eleanor way we have some idea of how many employees we need at given Since the majl has many activities going on the secretary sends out a (Continued on page 6) RESTAURANT OWNERS TAKE A BREATHER Don and Eleanor Sorensen take a break from their busy life as owners of Cafe a cafeteria at the Skyline Shopping Center They will be celebrating their 19th year as owners of the restaurant in April (Tribune Photo) ill I vMKnftlUM lit Jim i 1 I On the Inside Theatre in BBS! Page 5 Edgewater's greens to cater to members only cuisine RETURN JO JHE PAST New owners of the Stables Supper Club in Albert Lea Robert and Sandra Landoas of Kiester would like to eventually restore the restaurant to its former beauty The couple took over ownership of the Stables in November 1988 (Tribune Photo) 1 for 23 years REELING IT IN Northbridge Mall 3 Theatre manager EC Smith makes sure the feature is correctly loaded onto the platter before the show begins Three projectors share the large projection booth which serves the three auditoriums (Tribune Photo) By JUDY JUENGER Tribune Staff Writer ALBERT LEA New and old com bine at the Stables Supper Club in Albert Lea with owners Robert and Sandra Landaas of Kiester hoping to restore the restaurantbar to its for mer beauty as a dining establishment The Landaases took over the business Nov 2 1988 but had trained under the previous owners Tom and Karen Hov de for three weeks prior to that Although they lack experience in restaurant work they make up for it with enthusiasm something we had talked about for said Robert we just pursued They became the fourth set of owners of the building since it became a restaurant in 1959 The Stables was originally developed in 1938 39 as a horse stable bv Carl Jacobson owner of the Hotel Albert in Albert Lea He had hoped to construct a expand its roughly 200 member base have to stick to the core but our objective is to build a bigger The club also has a private swim ming ppol with memberships available The clubhouse is also home to at Edgewater a restaurant which overlooks the golf course and features By Tribune Staff ALBERT LEA After a year of ex perimentation with opening the golf course to the public the managers of the Edgewater Country Club say they hope to pick up many new memtiers as Jhe golf course prepares to open 1988 with the course open to members only fine American and Mexican is open to the public and can be booked for weddings anniversaries and other soecial events been doing a lot of special said assistant manager Kay Hay She said the restaurant's (Continued on page 3) By PAULA JOHNSON Tribune Staff Writer ALBERT LEA The dimming of the lights on the marquee and the showing of the final feature at the Broadway Twin movie theatre in downtown Albert Lea in January heralded the coming of a new age in movie going in Albert Lea Now open is the Northbridge Mall 3 Theatre a triplex theatre complex owned by Carisch Theatres Inc of Wayzata Minn The new theatre facility ofiers movie buffs a wide array of advances in theatre technology and in viewer comfort According to theatre manager Smith the quality of sound and pic ture at the new facility is greatly im proved over the old theatre Smith was named manager of the Mall 3 Theatre after the retirement of long time Broadway Twin manager Ken Keesling whose leaving coincided with the closing of the Broadway Twin Keesling had worked for 34 years for Cansch Theatres Smith began his career in theatre work as a ramp boy at the old Starlight Drive In in Albert Lea He spent 10 years as a union projec tionist in Visalia Calif and Oklahoma City Okla before retur ning to Albert Lea where he opened his own bait and tackle shop In August 1987 he joined the staff at the Broadway Twin as an assistant manager and after retirement applied for and received the job as manager at the new theatre Along with Smith there are 12 employees at the theatre in cluding assistant manager Marie Schreiber consider myself extremely lucky to get the said Smith is something I've always wanted and I have every intention of staying here until I The new theatre which held a grand opening celebration on Thur sday Jan 21 with films showing beginning the following evening features three theatres ranging in size from approximately 160 to 200 seats The largest of these auditoriums is equiped with a state of the art Dolby Sound system The other two auditoriums have new technically sophisticated sound systems as well To make sitting during a movie more comfortable there are new seats in all the auditoriums which come complete with cup holders for soft drinks There are also a couple of extra inches of leg space as the seats are placed two inches farther apart than at the Broadway Twin Theatre While the changes in the seating and viewing quality are on the in terior of the theatre the changes begin before you walk in the door Instead of waiting in line outside on cold winter days and rainy sum mer nights movie goers can wait in the comfort of the mall food court area The mall also provides con venient parking Along with the east (Continued on page 6) just wanted to open it up to ex pose people to said manager Bill Hay had people out here that had lived in Albert Lea all their lives and had not played it That was a This is the third year of operation for the nine hole course and Hay said one of the goals this year will be to Spotlight now on Mall 3 Northbridge Mall Corral elbow room show ring on the north east side of the property for the horses the Landaases said In 1959 Bob Blowers and Ron Siblerud bought the property and sub divided the adjacent land They along with Bob Hoverson and Warren Lenz remodeled the building into a supper club Chef Darwin VanRiper who has been with the restaurant since its opening on Dec 1 1959 said there were still a few hay bales left upstairs when the restaurant opened for business The opened as a private bottle club Dec 31 1959 with a mem bership of more than 1600 families Paul Lubke and Don Vandersnick bought The Stables in 1961 and operated it until June 1974 when the Hovdes pur chased it The was opened to the general public with the addition of a liquor license in 1979 In March 1980 (Continued on page 5) the Donut Kettle Elks have more room to strut around Business booming at Video Update Part timer becomes owner at Jake's Pizza Page New owners hope to bring back former ambiance of Stables Move gives GaMen' rWifi UU ter sat A JI Pan? 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