by Scott DCamp
Reporter
One of Thief River Falls’ most popular eating and drinking establishments will soon be removed from the city’s landscape. Last week, work began to remove sheet metal from the building that was once home to the Lantern and Kife’s Cafe.
The business that would one day be known as the Lantern got its start in 1950 when Clifford “Kife” and Helen Olson built Kife’s Cafe. The original building was a 24-foot by 72-foot quonset.
The building more than doubled in size in the 1960s, with the series of additions. The first was an 18-by-24-foot addition in 1966, followed by 20-by-22-, 28-by-38-, and 20-by-24-foot additions in 1968.
Kife Olson died in 1979 and Helen sold the business to Donald Omdahl and Dean Lawrenz in August 1982.
Omdahl and Lawrenz changed the business’ name to “The Lantern Restaurant and Lounge.” They operated The Lantern for 23 years and further expanded the business with a new entrance at the front of the building, and a fireside room on the southeast side of the building.
The partnership of Omdahl and Lawrenz sold the restaurant to the partnership of Keith Schmalz and Randolph Wright in June 2005.
Schmalz sold his share of the business to Randy Wright in March 2008. Brenda Wright took ownership of the business in May 2009 and in May 2013, she sold the property to Pennington Square Inc.
The Lantern Restaurant and Lounge closed its doors for the first time on Wednesday, May 29, 2013. It reopened under a new name, the Lantern Bistro and Pub, under the ownership of Derek and Shari Olson. The Olsons leased the space from Pennington Square Inc. The business was ultimately unsuccessful and it closed its doors for good earlier this year.
Mike Barry, Pennington Square owner, said he has some ideas for the Lantern space, but at this point they are just ideas and nothing is set in stone.
Kife’s Cafe
Gwen Slovik, daughter of Clifford “Kife” Olson, literally grew up at Kife’s Cafe.
“My dad built it in 1950,” she said. “Our house was part of the cafe. We were on the south part of the cafe.”
Slovik is the middle child – three years younger than Clifford and a year-and-a-half older than Tim. Growing up at a restaurant meant that the Olson children had an active role in running the restaurant – especially as they got older.
“We had it pretty nice,” Slovik said. “Mom and Dad had lots of help … lots of people they knew who could help them out. As we got older, we had to help peel potatoes and wash dishes.”
Kife’s Cafe had an alcohol setup license, but it didn’t start serving the hard stuff until the 1970s. Slovik said the typical hours of operation at Kife’s were to open at 5 p.m. and close at 3 a.m.
“When bars used to let out at midnight, we got the complete rush,” Slovik said, noting that Kife’s Cafe was the only restaurant still open. She said Kife’s didn’t have a big parking lot and, at the time, there was only one driveway. A packed house and packed parking lot was the norm.
Outside of business hours, Kife’s was typically protected by guard dogs. Patrons may recall one guard dog, in particular, named Stormy, a 250-pound St. Bernard. Stormy was well-mannered as long as no one tried to get into the building outside of business hours.
On Aug. 18, 1982, Helen Olson sold the restaurant she had been a part of for 32 years.
“My dad died. It was just my mom and myself that were running it,” Slovik said. “It got to be a bit too much to handle.”
Lantern Restaurant
and Lounge
Dean Lawrenz and Donald Omdahl purchased Kife’s Cafe as a partnership. Both Lawrenz and Omdahl were Arctic Cat employees who lost their jobs earlier that summer, when the snowmobile manufacturer declared bankruptcy.
“We didn’t want to leave town,” Omdahl said. “We made calls at some places and saw in the paper that Kife’s was for sale.”
Omdahl and Lawrenz made an offer and it was accepted. They originally planned to keep the restaurant for a few years, but a few years turned into 23 years. Omdahl and Lawrenz’s wife, Janice, handled the day-to-day operation of the business.
The restaurant’s name was changed to The Lantern following the ownership change.
“I’d lived in Colorado for three years before moving to Thief River Falls,” Omdahl said. “There was a favorite pub out there called The Lantern. I suggested it and they all went for it.”
Omdahl said what he misses most are the restaurant’s loyal customers. “A lot of our original customers are long gone,” he said.
Some of the most loyal customers were members of the Eagles Club. Omdahl said the Eagles used to have a band perform every Saturday night. A lot of Eagles members would come out to have supper at the Lantern. Then, around midnight or 12:30 a.m., they’d come back for breakfast.
“We’d go through 300 cups of coffee and 30 dozen eggs,” Omdahl said.
A few of those recipes that originated with Kife’s were carried on at The Lantern. Broasted chicken called Chicken in the Rough remained on the menu; the barbecued ribs recipe was Kife’s recipe; and a lot of the soup recipes were from Kife’s.
Also like Kife’s, The Lantern’s intended customer base was the working man and his family.
“We didn’t want a fancy menu with high priced items,” Omdahl said. “We wanted people to come after work and feel comfortable, whether it was with a suit and tie, or jeans.”